A great 20km .....finally!!

Today was one of those....I want to stay in bed days!! I knew that I had to do 20km today and my body just didn't want to. With the NZ Long Distance Champs only 4 weeks away I really needed to know now if I could do 20km and what sort of time I could be aiming to achieve. I have not walked 20km since April this year....in fact I have not walked much further than 10km. So with only 4 weeks to go I needed to know for my own sake of mind that I could at least make the distance.

It was a gorgeous day, actually perfect for training. Its our spring, so it is not too cold and can drizzle at times during the day too. It was 10deg c when I started out at 9.50am and it was sunny, so I wore my shorts :0) My aim was to head out to Richmond and back as I had guessed it would give me 20km BUT when I made it out to richmond it was only 8km so I turned and made a few detours on the way home to make up some of the extra km's needed. At 10km it started to rain a little which was great as I was just starting to get hot...lol.. I made it to 10km in 63 mins so was feeling pretty good pace wise. I was not pushing too hard today...I really just wanted to find a pace I was happy with and get the distance done. I passed through 15km in 1:35 and was thinking...hey its going to be an ok time!! then I realized I had to go back up the hill to home .. hmmm that slowed things up a little. The next 3 km slowed up pace wise as it was uphill and I was getting really tired. My legs were feeling very heavy and my shoulder was starting to ache. I was actually surprised that I didn't hurt anywhere else. My hips felt great, my knees felt great and best of all my calf didnt hurt at all.

As I walked along the track above my house the distance was 18.5km and it was so hard to push past the path down....but I convinced my self that I had to know my 20km time. By now my shoulder was really sore??? I am not sure why this is but it was hurting ALOT.......I knew it was not injury pain...just muscles not used to such work but only on one side was driving me nuts. I was so pleased to hear my watch beep at the 20km marker and even more pleased when I looked down and saw my time of 2:07:28 I chuckled to myself and thought "well I still qualified for the NZ team" hehe

I rang my coach and told him the task had been completed and when I told him my time he was just thrilled as he had me down for 2:15 or longer, I am so glad I can still throw him a curve ball from time to time.

Here is my garmin details for anyone interested.
20km Walk to richmond by kyisis at Garmin Connect - Details