8 km

I had mistakenly thought I was going to do 12 km today so I rushed off to get an early train and forgot to pick up half my training gear. Fortunately Philip was coming into town today and was able to drop it off for me.

I have noticed that my heart rate is very high for the first 500 - 1000 m so I try to walk a km or so before starting my watch. That didn't seem to make any difference and I was still very slow over the first km whilst I tried hard to get my technique right. I did manage to get some speed up and felt my core was staying pretty tight without me thinking about it all the time. When I remembered to lean forward from my feet I started to feel I was walking quite well. I originally planned 7:30 / km but revised that to 7:15 then 7:00 as I realised I was going faster than expected. I pushed the last km along and managed to get the average rate down to 7:01.

My posture is at the root of my problems and I have been trying hard to stand upright and tuck things in at all times. I am even sitting more upright at work but I was starting to get a sore back by the end of the day.

8 km training walk