Stormy Walk

I met another race walker at the park this morning for a brisk 10K walk. Weather made it extra interesting. Stormy, on and off rain with wind gusts. First 2 miles was into the wind so it was like doing weight training bucking the wind. We got through it soaked but had a good time and a really good workout. Adverse conditions can make a training walk a memorable event.

I'm going to try to get outside more this year in the heat, rain, high winds and any other conditions that I would previously let keep me inside. I've done walks and runs in the cold, heat, rain and other such, but never regularly. Some of my most memorable walks and runs have been in weird conditions. Once when I was stationed in Las Vegas, I went for an afternoon run in the desert. About 5 miles into it a sand storm came up with gusts, I discovered later, of 80 mph. By the time I got back I was bright red from the sand abrasions on my skin.

In Okinawa I often ran when we had typhoons hitting the island. A typhoon in a Hurricane in the Pacific and a hurricane is a storm in the Atlantic. I remember being entertained with all the stuff flying around. Not the smartest thing I ever did since I could have been struck by something but very interesting running just the same.

The picture of me in the black and silver track suit was taken at the coldest race I ever did. It was a December Jingle Bell race, bells on our shoes. The temp was 17 below. I was wearing a long sleeve tech shirt and a thick wool sweater under the track jacket. That really wasn't bad since I was sweating during the race but after the race was over and I started cooling down, with my clothes wet with sweat, I started shivering pretty quickly. A trip to the car to sit with the heater on fixed the shivers and I came away with a great memory.

My favorite adverse condition it heat. I love a really hot humid race, I do well in those conditions so I look at that as my asset during a race. Since I have a health club with a pool, if I'm walking from there, I promise myself a dip in the pool if I do well and don't let the heat get to me. I have discovered that just being hot is not the same as being warmed up.

Thanks for reading

Walking Panda