Hey, it’s national “Start Walking Day!”. The American Heart Association has a program called “Start Walking Now” and today is the day it begins for this year.

If you’re American, you can download it here: National Start Walking Day You can’t download it if you’re not American (at least, I couldn’t – if you figure it out, let me know!)

If you’re not American, you can download my freebie on the right and get started with that.

Or, keep it simple, and just head out the door. Hey, it feels like Spring in Calgary (finally!!) That, in itself is worth getting outside and taking a walk for! Can’t waste the beautiful weather – never know when the next snow dump will arrive!

Have a great day walking!!

Darlene

Be A Star! Post your comments below and join in the conversation (or get it started!) and then share this post with your friends using the different share buttons on the blog. I'd sure appreciate it! Thanks!

Who is Darlene Hull? Click here: www.darlenehull.com to find out!

So, as promised, here are the pictures from the race last weekend.  Takes a while to coordinate my husband’s camera with my computer, so things are a little late.

Here are the official standings:

The one beef I’m going to have with this is that walk/runners classify themselves as walkers.  There was no one ahead of me walking at the beginning of the race – they were all running! -  so you have to take that in stride as a walker.  My competitive nature means that irks me no end, but I’m still happy with my times.

I only have pics from the finish line, I’m afraid.  I actually wasn’t expecting any pics because my family was all pretty busy that day, but my beloved husband was there to meet me at the finish line with his camera (bless him!  He’s SO good to me!) so here you go:

On the final stretch with a “new friend” I met about 1 km from the end of the race.

Saying “hi” to my sweet man!

Approaching that finish line!  You can see the times in the background.

At the final crossing!!!  We’re done!

Be A Star! Post your comments below and join in the conversation (or get it started!) and then share this post with your friends using the different share buttons on the blog. I'd sure appreciate it! Thanks!

Who is Darlene Hull? Click here: www.darlenehull.com to find out!

I completed level 2 in my training on Saturday by participating in a 10k race for a local church here. Even without the 1˚C (33.8˚F) temperature and brisk winter wind, it was an interesting experience.

I warmed up well, started out by climbing up a reasonably steep but short hill, and proceeded through what was a beautiful, not-terribly-strenuous walk to complete the first 5k loop. I found that although I wasn’t breathing hard or feeling like I was exerting myself beyond my comfort zone (keeping up with about a 7 on the RPE in my estimation), I was pushing myself beyond my ideal heart rate, and my muscles got very tired, very quickly – which is unusual, as I walk a 10k or more almost every week with no issues whatsoever.

I have been training using the Maffetone method which I love, but I’ve not been using it long enough to get a good speed result from a 10k race, so I decided to ignore all his good advice about keeping within your (much lower than conventional) ideal training heart rate level, and just walk as quickly as I could without getting winded. By the end of the first 5k my feet were numb from the cold and felt like bricks, I was demotivated, tired, frustrated, and feeling generally like quitting. I couldn’t believe it. I warm up with a 5k. This was ridiculous.

The second half was better because I hooked up with the woman who owns Distinctive Catering and we got into a great discussion about my funky shoes (they were quite the hit at this walk) and walking in general and I slowed my pace a little to keep together with her and engage in conversation. This moved me back into a better pace within my ideal heart rate. My pace had moved to about a 5.5-6 on the RPE, and with my feet now having some warm blood circulating through them, engaging myself in interesting conversation, and staying within my hear rate, I felt much better on the second lap – but was still feeling quite tired. Much more tired than my long walks (i.e. 21k) feel. This was odd.

The race ended in the middle of a pretty good downfall of snow, so I didn’t want to hang around much outside when it was over (though I did snag a bagel and had a brief chat with some walkers around the coffee urn…) Because of this I didn’t really stretch properly (what is WRONG with me?) and so for the rest of the day I was tired, achy, and quite uncomfortable.

So, lesson learned. I will take longer to prepare for my 21k so that my aerobic level is at place where I can complete it within my proper heart rate level at an 8 minute/kilometer speed (2.8hr finish time – I’m not too far off). And I will take the time to stretch properly when I’m done.

Live and learn….

Happy walking!

Darlene

(PS – sorry I don’t have any pics. My hubby had a meeting on in the morning and couldn’t be there to take pictures of my crossing the finish line in the snow… Too bad)

I’ve been participating regularly in the “10,000 Steps” community over the past couple of months. They have some fun and motivating ways to keep you walking, one if which is the “Million Steps Challenge”. Every Time you log 1,000,000 steps they send you a certificate. I got mine on the 16th. My next one is due in December.

It’s kind of fun! Check them out :”10,000 Steps“

Darlene

I just got back from a 7-day cruise to Alaska with my parents and siblings.  My folks are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this year, and this was part of that celebration.

What great fun!  Lots of laughs, beautiful scenery, fabulous ship (Holland America’s “Volendam”) and wonderful service.  A great way to travel, to be sure.  Another cruise is definitely in my future somewhere, this time with my hubby and kids.  My parents actually won a 7-day cruise on this cruise, so they’re all geared up to go again as well.  Cool anniversary present!

I was terrified to go on the cruise because I kept hearing about all the food, and I have worked so hard to lose weight that I didn’t want to gain it all back in a 7-day cruise.  Neither did I want to go on a cruise with all that food and eat only lettuce.

I decided to compromise: I’d keep up with my walking, never take the elevator (as we were on the 2nd deck and the food and many activities were usually on the 8th deck, that meant a regular scaling of 120 stairs one direction, several times a day – I was usually over 20,000 steps on my pedometer each day of the cruise), eat only fruit for breakfast, salad for lunch, and then simply enjoy my dinner – all four courses.

I even did a 5k walk for breast cancer while I was on the cruise!  I walked 12 laps of the ship with 65 other people, and finished two laps ahead of the crowd.  We celebrated with glasses of chilled pink lemonade, and were part of Holland America’s raising of over $1,000,000 for the cause.  Pretty cool!

The result?  I still gained 4 pounds.  But ONLY 4 pounds.  I’m quite happy with that.  I also attended a very interesting workshop on weight loss and heard things I’d never heard before that will make future weight loss not only much easier to succeed at, but also even easier to maintain.  I’m doing further research on that to make sure I have the facts straight before I share the info.  Watch for that here.

It’s great to be back, but I sure loved the time away.  I am back refreshed and full of new ideas!  Can’t wait to share them with you!  There will be some exciting things happening here over the next couple of months, so keep your eyes peeled!

Have a great day, and happy walking!

Darlene

Yesterday I did a 5k walking race for “Pace Kids” at South Glenmore Park in Calgary. The day was perfect – we’d had a couple of good storms the day before, and so it was cool, fresh, and a little damp, but sunny. The course itself was through the woods so it was absolutely lovely.

Now I can do a 5k without breaking a sweat, any time of the week. However, I took this race quite seriously and worked to set a personal best goal for speed. I’ve been working hard on my form and wanted to see if it paid off.

The first thing that happened is that my iPod fritzed and so it took almost a kilometer for it to start working properly (I ended up laying hands on it and telling it to work in Jesus’ name, and it hopped right to it! LOL! Gotta love the power of God in desperate situations!) I had set up a trio of tracks at different speeds – 167 beats per minute, 171 bpm, and 173 bpm (the actual track starts about 3 min. into that recording, if you want to see how fast I walk). I’ve NEVER consistently walked that fast before. I managed to complete most of the race at the 173 level. Pretty proud of myself.

I also very quickly passed all the walkers and a large part of the joggers. That was pretty encouraging!

Tom and Tina, who were faithfully waiting for me at the finish line, said I was the first walker through, which was pretty cool. Unfortunately, this particular race doesn’t track walkers and runner separately, so that wasn’t noted anywhere. I had fun though, and felt great that I could keep up that pace for almost 45 minutes.

My goal was to beat my personal best, which, according to my Nike+ iPod system is 35’11″, but I quickly found out that my iPod is almost 20% inaccurate when it comes to logging my pace. Sigh. What my iPod tracked as a 7’03″ minute kilometer, the race tracked as more like 8’30″ or something (still waiting to get the final results). That was disheartening, as I know I walked this 5k faster than I’ve ever walked one before. The 35’11″ pace obviously isn’t even close to being accurate. However, I am pleased with my efforts and now have a clearer idea of where to head in my future training (10Km training starts tomorrow for a race in October). And at the end Lance Armstrong announced (though the Nike program on my iPod) that I’d set a new personal best for the mile. That was encouraging.

The most amazing event was the family 1km which I walked with Tina afterward. We were in a crowd of kids that were pretty challenged as far as being able to do something as “simple” as walking. They were amazing. Sporting prostheses, braces, using walkers, crutches, and some just limping along, we all crossed the finish line together, and I was moved to thank God that not only did I have two strong, undamaged legs, but so did my kids and my husband. The kids and their parents in that race all deserved a medal, that’s for sure! Very impressive!

There’s still time to send in a donation if you like. These are worthy kids, struggling pretty hard to do stuff that we take for granted each and every day. Pretty cool watching them tackle that race with all the focus and energy it took me to walk the 5k. Click the button below to send a donation:

So, onward and upward, taking my iPod results with a HUGE grain of salt! LOL!

Darlene