Not quite a walk in the park

I've started training for the 3-Day walk. I have until November 18th to get my body ready to walk 60 miles in 3 days. That is roughly 19 weeks from now.

I'll admit that I was putting off the training.  Considering all the running and other exercise that I've been doing, I was thinking that I could delay it. Now that the 10k is behind me, I printed out the 24 week suggested training program on the 3-Day website.  It starts pretty easy-just walking 3 miles at a time. They schedule 4 walks a week, with two of them being back to back.  That is, walking 2 days in a row with longer mileage. It gets your body ready for walking 3 long days in a row.  Now we are in week 19, so the walks are a little longer-3, 5 and 6 miles.  The program works you up to doing back to back walks of 18 and 15 miles by the end.

Anyway, I was taking it in stride. I was thinking, heck, I can run a 10k.  I can do Jillian's advanced circuit training. I've been walking all my life. I don't want to scale back the activity and slow down to just....walk.

But last week reality hit.  Mom and I did a 6.6 mile walk last Friday. No biggie, we thought. We had done a 10k on Monday. This would be the same. If I could do it running, walking it would be a snap. We took a route that I had run a few times in training for the 10k. Easy breezy, right?

NOT!

It definitely was a wake up for us both. Mom has been walking faithfully for several years, but only 3-4 miles at a time. For me, it was a lot harder than I had anticipated. It took us 2 hours and we were ready to finish by the time we got done.  So this is definitely going to require sticking to the training program as much as possible. It also is going to require some creative child care on my part.  Right now, I can leave the kids at home. The older 2 can watch Jean-Marc.  Eric is at home in case they have any trouble. They actually are making quite a bit of money doing that for me this summer!  But if 6.6 miles took us 2 hours, when we get to 10, 11, 12 miles at a time it is going to take all morning. Yikes.

I am a little disappointed that in the 2 hours we walked, my Garmin said I only burned 291 calories. Not a lot of bang for the buck.  I like to try and burn 500 calories a day through exercise.  I guess I should enjoy these "easy" days because I'll be burning plenty when I'm walking half the day!

I did a little 3.45 mile easy walk today in my neighborhood.  It didn't really feel like a workout, though. (Confession: I came home and did Jillian's "No More Trouble Zones" DVD)  As I walked, I realized something.  Walking 20 miles 3 days in a row is nearly doing 3 marathons back to back.  Not quite, but almost.  Not quite a walk in the park!

If you would like to support the Pink and Plaid Warriors with a donation, you can click here to see my page at the 3 Day site. I realize some people have issues with Komen. I definitely am going to stay out of the debates for now.  I signed up for the walk as a way to challenge myself physically. It was a goal I set while going through treatment last year, and I'm going to see it through. I'll give folks with Komen issues a chance to support the American Cancer Society later on this year when I participate in the "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" walk in October.  Stay tuned!