Door to door 5K

No, not a run...I'm in pre-taper, remember? So yesterday afternoon, in keeping with my promise to myself, I did not go to the Y to punish my legs with more elliptical. But the afternoon was unexpectedly pleasant and sunny and warm, so I decided to take a little walk after work to shake out my legs and get some air and avoid the pre-dinner kitchen snackies.

At first I was going to just go a couple of miles. Then I thought that three miles sounded like a good round number. I quickly revised that to 5K...which would also allow me to recreate the 5K loop around my neighborhood which I had inadvertently run a couple of months before. I was pretty sure I knew which route to take, but this would be an opportunity to firm it up. It never hurts to be able to walk out the door and run (or walk) an instant 5K!

I put on my Garmin to make sure I got a good measurement. Then I flipped on the iPod and off I went!

I do love walking. It's easy to forget that when I am so used to running. And it does take some mental adjustment, because it takes so much longer to cover mileage. I am a pretty quick walker naturally, and I can power walk when I want to, but I stuck to an easy pace this time.

I noted landmarks in my 5K path. Half a mile to my first turn. Another half mile to the next turn. Just under a mile back to another right turn. I turned again at QFC and headed for home. Voila! Garmin hit 3.1 just at the end of the block past my house. Not quite door to door, but close enough. 5K time 55:23.

I had already decided to round up to 60 minutes, so I walked on for a couple of minutes then turned back home. Sixty minutes and 3.5 miles were looking awfully close, but alas I had been too poky to finish 3.5 in an hour (usually I am much faster than that), so I kept going for a couple minutes more until Garmin read 3.5 miles exactly. Then I stopped.

I was back to running this morning, 8.11 miles at an average pace of 10:05 per mile. Let's call it a recovery run, shall we?

Later this week I shall share my ambitious plans for my 20-miler on Saturday!