Warming up is Important

I got a lesson in the importance of warming up. One of the guys at work is training to run the marathon and he is in a slower pace group than the racewalkers' pace so I decided to show off. I challenged him to walk with me at work. I found a nice open walk way, about 100 meters long and bolted off at a very fast pace without warming up first. It was all in good fun but a little later my knees started hurting. Uh oh.

I'm not hurting all that much this morning, but I'm planning to do a 20 mile walk with the Marathon Walkers group on Saturday so I took it really easy--kept my heart rate between 145 and 155 bpm which makes this an "easy" workout.

Mile 1 - 12:50
Mile 2 - 13:20
Mile 3 - 13:27
Mile 4 - 13:16
Mile 5 - 13:08
Mile 6 - 12:38
Average Pace - 13:07 minutes per mile
Total Workout - 1:18:42

According to Lindsey Goldbloom of the Marathon Walkers group:

"As far as pace an average of 12:40- 12:45 a mile. We start off slow closer to 13."

That should work for me--we'll see on Saturday.