WALKING v. RUNNING--Early Morning Walk/Run.

To avoid the dog and pony show and 3-ring circus of one of our presidential "hopefuls" holding a rally that is taking place on the plaza next door to where I work today, I headed to the gym early--5:45 a.m.--to get around the blocked off streets and be sure I got into my parking lot. Before I go on about my day, let me rant first about the necessity of this politician to hold a rally in an open public location--for the masses--so that first, the crowds look huge and second, that it disrupts the whole downtown/financial/business district of this town. People will come after work too so why at 9 am?? Its hard enough getting around all the construction zones in our town from April until November without this added hassle.

Now, to get on with my thoughts on recovery from the half marathon and trying to get my back issue cleared up. And a note on that also: this was a chronic problem from years ago, and I only have occasional (maybe twice a year) flareups. I pretty much felt it coming on with my big numbers month in August and didn't really give myself a chance to recover fully in September, and then with letting the shoes get a little too far gone, I was asking for trouble. I know what I have to do, and it doesn't usually last too long, and its not necessarily a running "injury," just a little overuse.

I got to thinking with Jan being able to walk/run the half marathon and coming out pretty good, why not do a week or two of recovery by walking and running? Yesterday I put that plan to work with very little to no stress on my back, and today was a follow-up.

I had to start very early when it was very dark today, but already due to the rally, the downtown was bustling as early as 6:15 am. Yesterday, I realized while walking I felt more vulnerable in the dark than I do running, and today it was even worse. It was darker longer because I started earlier and there were people everywhere I don't usually see. But I kept to the lighted areas and just had to circle around to get in some mileage. Both days now I have done 3 miles right around 40 minutes, with 8 minutes of walking and 2 of running, and by the time I got to the running, the legs felt good. By the time I got to the 3rd set, the legs felt real good. I was also much colder wearing the same thing as if I were just running.

My only complaint? Waling takes longer than running. Now I know why I started running.