Training today is 3 miles easy...Woke this morning and it's smokey again, but not too bad. Decided to do my walk this evening, when the smoke seems to disapate in the evenings more. Went to Yoga class this morning. Then off to the FOCUS meeting in Sarasota. WHAT A GREAT MEETING!! I met lots of great people there...and I found out that there's a group of women that do their long walks just minutes from my house...and they start at 7:30am, instead of 7am! I am excited about this. This means that I don't have to get up so bloody early to drive 30-45 minutes to be somewhere by 7am...I can get up later to drive about 5-7 minutes to be somewhere by 7:30am...this is a MUCH better situation. I'll be joining them tomorrow instead of driving all the way down to Sarasota. I have to let Margo know, though...so she's not expecting me in the morning. Plus, it's a much shorter drive back, saves gas...blah, blah, blah. Yes, very good.



Plus, the lady I met that lives at the same address as me, but NW instead of W (she gets my mail a lot) was there...it's great...she's like 6 blocks from me. I think she'll turn into a good walking buddy...at the very least a car pool buddy. (If her pace is different than mine).



So, when hubby goes to the track tonight, I'm going to walk over to the park and walk around and walk back. It should be fun. The day has been extremely overcast...from smoke, not clouds. The smell isn't too bad today, and it's not "Hazy"...seems to be higher up than it was yesterday. My head aches, though. Of course, I did realize that I didn't eat anything today...I realized that at 4pm. I'd had a non-fat latte from Starbucks on the way down to the meeting at 12pm. I wasn't hungry, though, until I got home...then I was just hungry, not starving. So, I said...Hubby? can we eat now or do we have to wait? He said he was hungry enough to eat, too, so we ate at 5pm...about 20 minutes after I got home.



I was happy because the meeting was at the library, which is next to Whole Foods...and, of course, I can't go to Sarasota, let alone the LIBRARY in Sarasota, without going to Whole Foods...so I got Whole Foods for dinner...a little Eggless egg salad, a little greek salad and 2 (meatless) grain "meatballs" -which are SUPERBLY good, by the way...if you see them there, get them!! Considering I hadn't eaten all day, I didn't eat much!! LOL



So, in about 30 minutes, I'll "suit up" for my walk in the park (supposed to be 3 miles...I think it's about that far to the park and back, so I may get a little farther than 3 miles in tonight). Got yoga in this morning...Going to walk at 7:30am in the morning tomorrow...then church. Don't think there's much else going on tomorrow...Hmmmmm.



Ahhhhhhh...I like that route. I actually had to adjust my route, because to the park and back, without actually meandering around inside it, is 4.5 miles. So, I cut down a road before I got to the park, over to 59th, which is the street the park comes out on the other side and back...cutting back to 51st (the street I start out on) a little early (8th Street instead of Manatee), which gave me an extra block, which put me at a little over 3 miles...which gave me a cool down. I like when that happens. I started out easy...my first mile was probably about a 3.5 mph pace (I really have no idea, though) and then I decided to pick it up...and I ended up going probably a 4 mph pace. I did 3 miles in 47 minutes. Which means I did better than a 16 minute mile, not quite a 15 minute mile. If my first mile WAS a 3.5 mph pace, then that would be 17 minutes...2 minutes over a 15 min pace...which would make the other 2 miles 4 mph pace miles. I'm writing this to convince myself that I CAN walk fast...the lady at the Monday night walks must be walking almost 5MPH!!! She blew me away and I was killing myself! After tonight, when I was walking fast and NOT killing myself...Yeah...Ok, now I don't feel so stupidly slow. Some people CAN walk exceptionally fast...I just need to tell myself that. Don't mind me. Maybe if I keep this up, I will be able to walk that fast, too. Not that I'll want to.



Today at the meeting, they mentioned that the route is avg 15-23 miles each day. And that some people will be out on the route up to 8-10 1/2 hours. Now...obviously, you won't be walking the entire time...You'll take time for lunch and pit stops and stuff...pee breaks, stretch breaks...but, still...8 hours...for 23 miles. That's less than 3 mph. I truly think that if I train HARD and plan on walking easy...this won't be so difficult. Except maybe making myself slow down...and not walking fast. I want to take my time...the thrill is in the route, not back at camp. Camp is actually boring. There's not much to do there...except sleep and eat. And you can eat out on the route...and you can get away with being goofy out on the route. Once you get back to camp, ya kinda gotta stop being goofy for the night...calm down a little. Nope. I plan on being out on the route as long as I can force myself to be...enjoy the people out there. Get some stories...Hear what people have to say. I'm going to take a couple journals and write down as much as I can, that's the only reason I'd come back into camp early...if my head is full of stories and I want to get them written down. I'm going to try to take a journal on the route with me, though...to take notes. Gotta find a small enough one that will fit into my waist pack. I like the waist pack I have, but I'd like to find one that holds 2 water bottles...one for water and one for GatorAde.



Ok...I think I've cooled down enough to hop in the shower now. Later! Oh...the smoke wasn't too bad...I coughed a little, cleared my throat a little...but nothing more than if I were having the reminents of a cold or something.