I'm going to do a marathon!

My friend, Sarah, called me a few weeks ago and told me that she was going to do all the Disney races in 2018. ALL OF THEM! The 5Ks, the half marathons, the full marathons, and which one was I going to do with her. I said, the Princess because it was the first one I could think of and didn't put much more thought into it... Then I got a text from Sarah on Monday reminding me to start training.

So I am now training for a marathon. My goal is to walk the marathon. I have tried interval training and after about 2 weeks my knees were constantly hurting. I have also lost about 30 lbs this year while walking, so if it's good enough for weight loss, it's good enough for a race.

I currently walk at a rate of about 3 mph, which isn't bad, but not good enough to keep pace time at a Disney race. If I walk that at the race, I will get picked up by the bus pretty early on. That would solve the problem of how on earth I am going to complete a marathon, but somehow solving the problem by not finishing sounds like cheating.

Pace time for a race is about 3.75 mph or a 16 minute mile. So, I need to pick up my pace. My goal is to increase my pace to 4 mph. That way if I lag a little during the race or stop to take pictures, I won't fall behind too much.

My training plan for this week, is just to start walking more. Like I said, I lost about 30 lbs by walking and eating right, but I kind of took the summer off. I don't do hot weather well and it's been busy. I have maintained the weight loss, but I definitely have not been hitting the 10,000 steps daily that I was. So, I started walking to work again this week, which is about 1.66 miles. And, I am trying to add a walk in at lunch time too (about another 1.5 miles).

Just making a mindful effort to walk faster, I have picked my pace time up to about 3.25 mph. I think as I lose some more weight, picking up my pace will be even easier. At the beginning of the year, I was about 120 lbs over the high-end of my BMI. So, I still have some excess weight I can shed. That starts to solve the pace problem. Now, I just have to figure out how I can maintain that pace for a crazy long amount of time.

I can do this. It'll be fun. If I am walking 4 mph, I can finish a Marathon in... 6.55 hours. Huh.

Time to do some more thinking on this. And more walking.

I have walked to work for the last 2 days after not walking to work all summer and I am feeling a bit tired today.

Today's inspiration:

Or in my case, walking. :)