Friday, March 09, 2012

An Unexpected Change

I have always enjoyed walking but have never really taken the time to do it regularly. Well, all that has changed since I retired from teaching. I have daylight time to walk either before or after work and for the first time am taking advantage of it. A few years ago I got semi-serious about this because I wanted to do a half marathon and believed the years were zipping by and I had better do it before I couldn't. Well, here I am almost 3 years later and in my opinion am already in better shape than I was before I did that half marathon. I am a regular walker of the Stanford Dish, have sort of conquered Windy Hill and have created a "training" schedule. I am walking 3 miles 3 days a week and putting in an additional walk on the weekend. Before I knew it I found myself at Road Runner buying a real pair of shoes and socks and have added to my athletic wear wardrobe.

Well a funny thing happened a week or so ago. I suddenly started mixing in some jogging with the walking. This was nothing I planned but once it started my obsessiveness kicked in and I couldn't let it go. So now I find myself trying to move into the jogging world and have very little idea of how to go about it. I have registered for several 5ks and 10ks - one a month from now through October and am very anxious to see where this is all headed. I, for one, have no idea but it is exciting to be challenging myself in a very different way.