Dave McGovern Comes to Columbus

Dave McGovern, racewalking coach extraordinaire, will be in Columbus this weekend for a walking clinic! I've never been to one of Dave's clinics -- I have been to Jonathon Matthews and Bonnie Stein.

I'm very excited. I can't wait to be a real racewalker!

Teleseminar Sidelines Walk

I had a ton of mail to get out tonight, and got most of it to the PO. Great!

Then I called into a teleseminar about how to get on national TV. The seminar started out OK, but covered a lot of stuff I know about why PR is useful, etc. I was a PR major at OU for goodness sake! I just don't know how to get on TV.

So he goes through the benefits of PR, talks about a couple of mistakes people make (good info), gives advice for contacting producers (again good stuf) then he spends 15 min telling the callers why we should sign up for a big conference in NYC in October where you get to meet 100 professionals who book people on TV shows and national magazine editors looking for story ideas.

That's great. It sounds interesting. I've received about 30 e-mails about this opportunity. I really don't want to hear him tell me about it again. If only I had an extra $5,000 I don't need. (And that doesn't include airfare, food and hotel in NYC. I doubt if my daughter's friend who goes to NYU will let me stay on her dorm room floor.)

The point of this story is to tell you why I didn't walk tonight. I was on a teleseminar to learn how to get on Oprah, but ended up hanging up halfway through.

So, if any of you have any pull with Oprah, you would save me a lot of time and $5,000 if you would talk to her about getting me on her show.

I'm a Twitterer

Most of Twitter still seems vague to me. I'm not quite sure how to navigate, how to respond, how to get people to be followers and followees!

Unlike this blog and my website, the Twitter address doesn't seem to show when I'm on my page. From my best guess, I think this is the address: https://twitter.com/WALK_Magazine.

OK, I've been through my e-mail list and invited tons of people. If I didn't invite you and you want to participate, I'm not sure how you do that, but maybe you can figure out how to invite me.

I'm not sure what we will talk about all day, but we'll probably find something.

Hey Larry, I have an idea. Set up a Twitter account and you can have your support people post about your success during the Columbus Marathon this October!

45 min Easy

For my 45 min tonight, my daughter and I went to Antrim Park and walked twice around the lake. I parked in the upper parking lot to give us a little more opportunity to warm up, but because we walked somewhat casually, it probably wasn't necessary.

I don't get much time alone with my daughter now that she is in college. It was nice!

Today's Speed Workout

We did 8 X 400 at our 5K pace today. [8 laps of 400 meters (1/4 mile)with a 2-min rest between]
Lap 1 3:33
Lap 2 3:34
Lap 3 3:33
Lap 4 3:23
Lap 5 3:35
Lap 6 3:33
Lap 7 3:29
Lap 8 3:21

At our fastest, we were on pace for a 13:24 mile! Now if only we could go that fast for more than a 1/4 mile...

Too Many Shoes?

I think I may officially own too many pairs of shoes. Part of the problem is, I don't like to throw the worn pairs away. I keep thinking that if I have to paint or mow the lawn, I need to keep a trashed pair around. That's fine, but do I really need to keep EVERY pair?

Here is the problem. I was convinced I need a new heavier shoe for the half marathons I have scheduled this fall. I've been wearing my really light NB 902s for short fast days, but I like to wear something heavier for distances beyond 6-8 miles.

Earlier this week I went out to Road Runner and bought a pair of Nikes. Today I was trying to figure out if the last pair of ugly teal shoes I returned were the same ugly teal pair I tried on this week. I checked this blog and realized I just bought Nikes is April! Why did I not remember this pair? I like the shoes, and they would be good for a half marathon distance, they were just too light for Big Sur (21 miles).

Granted, I would need new shoes before the first half marathon rolls around anyway. The good news is, I have plenty of time to break them in and make sure they are right for me. And now I have another pair of long-distance shoes to trade off with.

BTW: After 6 miles, so far I like the Nike Vomero3.

Photo of old Nikes on left and new Nikes on right.

Early Saturday -- Great Walk!

The Buckeye Striders had a great turnout at 7:30 a.m. today for our weekly walk! We usually meet to walk at 8, but because several of us are training for the New Albany Half, we needed to get in 6 miles today (at a "not so easy" pace) and met early to get it in.

It was a little bit chilly when we first head out to Franklin Park, but it was comfortable by 7:30. What I like about this park is the loop is about 1.2 miles, so it is easy for anyone who arrives late to go the opposite direction and catch up with us pretty quickly.

Unfortunately, we didn't know there was major construction at the park, and the loop was cut short. Part of the path/road we walk on had huge pot holes and a small section was muddy. (We walked single file through the one dry spot.) So instead of measuring out 5 loops at 6 miles, we walked for 1:30 min. I think we were faster than a 15-min mile, but I'm not confident it was "not so easy." I'll say we walked 6 miles in my training log.

Still it was really nice! I don't see most of these people often enough, and I really like them. We went out to breakfast afterward, and it was a great start to a beautiful Saturday.

Tonight's Speed Workout

3 X 1 miles. I waited until nearly 9:20 to go out to walk. It wasn't an intentional delay, I ended up buying shoes, then eating dinner, checking e-mail... before I knew it, it was late! This is exactly why we are supposed to walk early.

Anyway, I thought the big block in our neighborhood was one mile around. In fact, I could have sworn the last time I walked it as my mile workout, it took 16 min to go around. OK, I'm faster, but I'm not that much faster! Today I walked one lap in 11:26, 11:09 and 11:04. I must have walked longer than one block the last time.

So, even though I need to measure a new route, I was fast!

New Shoes

I am trying out a new pair of "half marathon" shoes. As many of you may know, I tend to get too light of shoes for longer distances. This pair is a little bit heavy and very cushy. They feel great! I'll try them out and see if they work.

They are Nike Zoom Vomero3. Now, I don't think they would work for short fast distances, but I'm hoping they will be good for halves.

What's on Your MP3 Player?

I'm always curious about what people have on their MP3 players. I personally don't like listening to music when I'm walking -- I almost always have a good audio book on mine. (I know, I'm boring.)

So, what is on your MP3 player?
What are your favorite walking songs?
Do you listen to different artists depending on the speed you want to maintain?

Shoe Reviews Requested

Anyone want to review their shoes for the Fall issue of WALK! Magazine?

Due to popular demand, we have added a smaller shoe review section to our Fall issue. If anyone is interested in reviewing their shoes for this issue, please let me know!

30 Min Easy

Got in my easy 30 min tonight. I waited until nearly 9 to head out. It had really cooled off and the humidity had lessened.

Feels good!

This week's schedule for New Albany Walking Classic is:
Monday - 45 "tempo"
Tuesday - 30 min easy
Wednesday - 45 min easy
Thursday - 3 X 1 mile at half marathon pace
Friday - 30-45 min easy
Saturday - 6 miles not so easy

I Wish this City was Pedestrian Friendly

I Hate Road Construction

I hate the fact that the majority of places I want to go I need to drive. What makes this even more irritating is that in Central Ohio there are only a couple of months when road construction can be completed, so every single road I drive on is currently under construction. OK, that is an exaggeration -- only 75% of the roads are under construction.

For example -- at an office I work in, the actual street the building is on is fine. (It's pretty short, though.) But where main streets meet this road, you can't go in either direction. On one side, the road narrows to one lane and drivers must wait for flaggers to let several cars through at a time.

On the other side, the road narrows to one lane and oncoming traffic is completely blocked. Once you escape from the construction, you can't return. If you go up to the connecting street, there is even more construction!

These main roads lead to everything important: parks where I eat lunch and walk, the bank, restaurants, gas stations... In addition, everything of use is so far away, it is impossible to walk instead of drive.

Though I try to walk as often as possible, it is this time of year that makes me really wish I lived in a small, pedestrian-friendly town.

Tonight's Workout

Deb and I did our 45-min "tempo" walk tonight. Though hot and humid, it was actually cooler at 5 p.m. than it was earlier. There was a great breeze and the clouds helped keep it cooler. Before I got to our walking location, about 10 raindrops hit the windshield and there were dark clouds overhead. Lucky for us that was the extent of the rain.

The good news is, we walked more than 3 miles! The bad news is, I had a Chipotle burrito for lunch (yes, the entire thing!) so I barely made a dent in the calories I consumed today.

Twitter, Typos and Random Thoughts

Twitter
Do any of you use the social networking site Twitter? I've heard several people say it is great, but I just don't get it. Does anyone really want to know what I am doing and thinking throughout the day? I've looked at other people's entries and I think it is just another way to consume my time. (Like blogging for instance?)

A friend suggested it might be fun if I used it during a big race: "I'm at mile 10 and feeling strong!" OK, I can see that. I have friends I would check on during a race if they did it. But, do I think I would stop to text a message from my phone while I'm in an event? I'm not particularly fast but I am competitive. I don't stop for anything other than re-tying my shoes and Port-a-johns. Can I text and walk? I may have to try it just to see. Now if voice recognition were available...

Anyway, if you use Twitter, please let me know how and why. I'm very curious.

Typos
I hate typos. Even in blog entries and e-mails they drive me nuts! The funny thing is, before I used spell check (yes, I'm old enough to have been an editor before there was spell check), I rarely had typos.

When I find typos in this blog, I fix them -- especially after my editor buddies point them out. (Thanks, David!) But there is a glitch in this software I don't understand -- I've fixed typos that don't go away. Anyway, if (make that "when") you find typos, I'm not that bad of an editor -- really -- blame it on the glitch.

Random Thoughts
I have heard a little about del.icio.us, a social bookmarking website. Again, I'm not much into "social stuff" on the web, but I'm trying to learn. It's interesting, and could be useful, but I don't know why anyone would want to see my bookmarks. Regardless, I did a search and discovered that WALK! Magazine was bookmarked by three people! Woo hoo! I'm not sure why, but I'm psyched about it.

No one has bookmarked this blog yet, but I'm sure it will happen any day now.

OK, it is hot and muggy today. I am THRILLED I walked yesterday morning! Thank goodness I have friends who encourage me to get out when the weather is right. Now I can stay inside and blog, Twitter and check out del.icio.us bookmarks.

Change of Plans -- I Walked This Morning!!

What a day! I knew it would be hot, so I decided to walk with the Buckeye Striders this morning at 7:30. I just had a feeling that if I didn't, I wouldn't get my 6 miles in today.

We went to a park I have managed to miss every time our group has walked there -- Tuttle Park. This park is along the Olentangy River, south of other places we walk, and though you need to cut in a few neighborhoods along the way, most of them connect. What is really great about this park is shade (YES!), the trail seems wider than other sections, very little traffic noise and the wetlands are beautiful! I imagine if you are here at the wrong time of day, the mosquitoes would be horrible. It was a very nice morning walk.

Afterward, my friend Deb dropped me off at my son's baseball game about 9:30 and the game started at 10. Perfect timing!

The sun was hot, there was no breeze and very little cloud cover. What could have ended with one game if we had won, turned into a double header! Luckily, we handily won the second game and the Cubs are the NCS Pony League 2008 Champions. Needless to say, I am toasted! (What a terrible day to have forgotten sun screen.)

Now I get to top off this great day of walking and winning baseball by sitting in a laundromat. (My dryer is still not fixed.) I might go wild and even follow that up with a trip to the grocery store. Woo hoo! Life goes on.

Baseball and Good Intentions

Because someone decided to smash the windshield of one of our cars while it was parked in front of our house, we have been playing "musical cars" until it could be fixed. That led to my needing to get to my son's baseball game but not having a vehicle to drive. I needed to get in some walking tonight anyway (per our New Albany training program) so I wasn't worried.

I put on a pair of shorts and walking shoes and enthusiastically head off toward the baseball diamond. About 5 min from home, my daughter called to say she was off work and would I like a ride. I declined thinking traffic was way too bad -- I was confident I would get to the game before her.

About 20 min later I realized I was still more than 20 min from the diamond and the game would start in 10 min. ARGH!

I gave in. I called my daughter again and asked where she was -- 5 min from my location! She stopped to pick me up and we drove to the game. We arrived just in time to see my son at bat!

Our son's team won by one run, and he will be playing for the championship Saturday -- about the time the Buckeye Striders are scheduled to walk!

I'm too tired to come up with a cute conclusion to this. Let's just say, as much as I enjoy baseball, I'm glad the season is nearly over. It is starting to interfere with my training schedule and my son's games do take priority most of the time. But if you are near the NCS baseball championship game Saturday morning -- come over and say Hi. I'll be the loudest mom cheering for the Cubs.

30 min Easy...

... Just as the training schedule said. I walked from my house to around the "big block" in our neighborhood, back home and then one more lap. It was actually about 16:25 per lap, but that was OK. The CD of the book I was listening to ended about 5 min from the finish.

I didn't get out until about 9:30 tonight. It was cooling off, but still a little humid. Regardless it felt great!

Training for New Albany Half

Deb and I continued our speed workouts today. We walked 4 X 1/2 @ 10K pace, but when I got home, I noticed we were really supposed to do 8 X 400 at 5K pace. Oh, well.

Neither of us slept well last night, and it was hot. By the end of the last lap I was feeling too hot and a little queasy. Deb wasn't feeling as well as she normally does after our sprints, either.

The good news is there was a water fountain nearby (I carried water), so we hydrated and cooled off before we went home.

I stopped to buy a bottle of low fat chocolate milk on the way home and felt much better.

Electronic Subscription Link Fixed

If you have ever made edits to a website or blog, you have probably encountered something like this. You create a link to another site or page, you test it, it works great, then days later someone tells you the link doesn't work. ARGH!

The link from our web page discussing the electronic version of the magazine <http://www.walk-magazine.com/Spring07.html> to our online store <store.walk-magazine.com/elve2ye.html> now works.

Thanks for pointing this out to me!

Speed Work Outs

I finished my speed work out about 10 tonight. Sometimes I prefer to walk at night -- it starts to cool down, it's usually a little less humid, the air smells different, there's less distraction, my neighbors don't look at me like I'm strange...

Walking at night also reminds me of my training for my first marathon 8 years ago. Though I got all of my mileage in, I wasn't very good at walking early and sometimes walked at night due to necessity. (Tonight it was by choice.) Tonight I felt a little nostaligic.

My friend Deb loves to walk early in the morning. She has even started getting me to like getting up early to walk. (Who knew?)

Though I'm really enjoying mornings, tonight was a really nice switch!

Racewalkers Don't Get Respect Deserved at Olympic Trials

Check this out: http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/trackandfield/columns/story?columnist=caple_jim&id=3474900.

It's the first story I've found about yesterday's racewalking event. At least the walkers got sympathy if not respect.

Last Speed Workout

I completely forgot to report about our speed workout this past week. We did eight 1/4 mile sprints. For some reason, I'm having diffculty deleting some of the saved workouts from my sport watch, so the memory keeps getting full. Consequently, I can't save complete current workouts. Following are the first five sprints:
3:29
3:30
3:29
3:24
3:23

Though in the 80s, it wasn't overly hot and we felt pretty good. We had not done sprints in a couple of weeks and it felt good.

Electronic Edition Now Available

WALK! Magazine is now offering subscriptions to an electronic edition of the magazine! Check out a sample: www.walk-magazine.com/Spring07.html.

What are the advantages to receiving your subscription electronically?
1) You will receive your copy faster! No more waiting for the Postal Service to deliver each issue via snail mail.
2) You will save trees.
3) International subscribers do not have to pay more to cover the extra postage.

As each issue is available, subscribers will receive an e-mail containing a password to access the magazine. You will have the choice to view the issue online or to print it yourself. Each issue will be available to subscribers for no less than 6 months.

Subscribe to the electronic edition, at our online store: store.walk-magazine.com/elve2ye.html.

Current subscribers can convert their subscription by sending an e-mail to me.

I hope you like this new option!

New Shirts are Here

The new shirts are FINALLY here!

I've had a few issues with vendors, but at least I finally got the shirts I wanted printed the way I wanted. Well, it was worth the wait - I'm very happy with the way the blue logo turned out on the sand-colored shirts. Of course, the back has my favorite quote: Why run slow when you can WALK really fast!

I'm in the process of filling back orders for all shirts, and the order information for these will be on our online store soon.