15 km Training Walk

One of our club members put out an email inviting walkers to meet at 8:30 am today for a 2 hour walk followed by a stop at a cafe. That suited me perfectly so three of us headed out with that in mind. I was still pretty stiff from my efforts yesterday so was actually finding it quite difficult to keep up with the other two. It was good to have other people to keep me going otherwise I may have been tempted to resort to ordinary walking before the end. I did try to concentrate on maintaining a good technique. It was lovely weather and I enjoyed the views of the Kaikora mountains in the distance during our coastal walk. Our average pace was 7:34 /km and my average HR was 120 bpm.

The other four walkers choose a shorter route with a hill and were waiting for us when we got back to the cafe.

15 km Training Walk

Saturday 5 November - 12 km (including 3 km track race)

I needed to walk 12 km today to complete my programme for the week. There was a 3 km track race at 1:50 that was part of the club's summer walking competition. I planned to do 1.5 - 2 km as a warm up then complete the 12 km at the end of the race. I had a hard singles in tennis in the morning so did not want to walk too hard and risk being disqualified during the race. I decided a time of 19:30 or better would be okay. I

My lap times were: 1:11, 2:28, 2:29, 4:59 (2 laps), 2:30, 2:31, 2:35. I was not shown any warnings during the race but I was given a card for lifting in the last 50 m - I was concentrating on my knees and hadn't expected this. I actually did get one caution and one penalty for knees, both from the same judge but it was pleasing that the other 5 judges thought my knees were okay. My total time was 18:37:41 with average heart rate 157 bpm. I was the second walker from the club to finish so that gives me 18 points towards the all-rounder competition.

3 km Track Race

Race Results

I did a 1.5 km warm up so had 7.5 km to do after the race. Philip and I walked together down to Island Bay and back. I walked 1 km further since it is too steep to race walk all the way back. We stopped at a cafe at around the 6.5 km mark to have a drink and a very late lunch and resumed race walker for another 1 km after a longish break. The average pace was 8:00 /km and average HR 118 bpm.

7.5 km Training Walk / Warm Down