First Sub 13min/mile Pace

After taking a day off yesterday (from walking, work went on and on) I made some big changes in my morning routine.

1. Get rid of the iPod/Nike. The calibration went way off after the stride adjustment I made in Dave McGovern's clinic and I'm just not comfortable walking around with wires hanging out of my ears. Besides, I find that music is more of a distraction than a help. I gave the iPod/Nike to Rosie and she is very happy with her new toy.

2. Do some warm up strength exercises and dynamic stretching before the walk. A little warm up before the walk allows me to start at full speed instead of using the beginning of the walk as the warm up phase. It also gets me feeling good and relaxed going into it.

3. Check the split times at the known mile markers. The miles don't move when I adjust my stride!

4. End with a cool down walk then more strength and stretching drills to keep muscles from tightening up.

With the exercises that I've added to the walking I've also had to start the workout earlier. The alarm is now set for 6:00AM and I've been getting out the door by about 6:20.

So, what are the results?

Mile 1 - 12:45
Mile 2 - 12:55
Mile 3 - 12:50
Average: 12:50 min/mile

The total workout was 38:31 and even though I have done some faster workouts, this one seemed more consistant. I'll have to start adding some speed work during the week to get the times down, but the main thing to watch right now is keeping proper form. We'll see how it goes this weekend on the 6 mile walk and in a couple of weeks on the 18 mile long walk.