Walking this Weekend

Yesterday the Buckeye Striders were scheduled to do 8 miles. When I went to bed Friday night, it was raining. I made the instant decision not to do the group walk and walk today instead.

Today I had planned to get up at 7, leave the house at 7:30 and start walking by 8 at Sharon Woods. (A great place to do 8 miles.) I don't know how, but I turned off the alarm and didn't wake until 8:30! Argh! I wasn't able to start walking until 9:30. Oh well.

Lately, I've had a little trouble with the first 2 miles of each long-distance training walk. They are the hardest miles of the walk! I'm tired, it is hard to pick up the pace and I just want to quit. Once I get past the 2-mile mark, I've been fine. By mile 6 I'm warmed up and can hardly walk slow. I'm usually ready to go go go.

Today I did the 8 miles alone. The first 2 miles were hard like usual. Then mile 3 was still hard and mile 4 was still difficult! Suddenly after mile 4 I had more energy, had no trouble picking up the pace and felt great! I finished very strong.

Throughout the walk, the sky alternated between bright sun and heavy dark clouds ready to pour on me. I was a little worried about getting soaked. At about mile 7 a very light sprinkle started, but stopped pretty quickly. I picked up the pace and got to the car in time. About 5 minutes after getting in the car the sky opened and it started pouring pretty hard! Lucky me! Even after oversleeping, I was still able to finish walking before the rain!

So, it ended up being a good walk despite feeling tired through half of it. Feeling tired through so much of the walk also had me wondering why. I had plenty of sleep last night, so it wasn't staying out too late.

So what could be happening? I know I'm not training too hard and I'm getting plenty of rest days. I'm now so used to walking with people that it is a little harder to walk alone. But I wonder, am I eating too little food? Could I be anemic? Is it a phase? Could there be something else going on that could be easy to solve?

I have already promised myself that I would schedule a physical soon, I should just do it and get it over with.