For awhile now, I've been working on my cardiovascular fitness. Mostly that means I walk...a lot. I haven't exactly become what one could call buff, and I won't be running marathons anytime soon, but I'm here to tell you that those fitness experts who say walking isn't real exercise are wrong. True, nobody ever got fit walking a quarter mile a day at a pace of 2 miles per hour, but if you really get your buns moving, walking can provide a great workout. A leisurely stroll won't cut it, but fast walking that gets the heart rate up has been for me the perfect conditioning exercise, a great stepping stone to running. I spent all summer walking...four and five and six miles a day at a pace of say twelve to fourteen minutes per mile...with the hope of someday working up to running. My goal was to be able to run a mile nonstop before the summer's end, and my bigger goal is to someday run a whole 5K. I started by jogging a quarter mile here and there during my walks. I'd run awhile, walk awhile. And the running wasn't all that hard. I walk so fast and furiously that it was almost a relief to break into a run at times! The mile milestone came and went. I kept at it. After awhile I could run 1.5 miles, and I thought that was about my limit. Not bad, I thought.
So today I hit that mile-and-a-half mark and decided to just keep going. I finally had to quit when a thunderstorm and an uphill grade arrived at the same time. When I looked at my pedometer, I discovered that I'd gone 2.5 miles!! That's farther than I've run for YEARS. And I owe it all to walking. My bad feet would have given out long ago if they hadn't gradually gained strength from walking. Now they rarely bother me. I'm beginning to think that the 5K goal isn't as far-fetched as I thought it was!!
Sing with me now--put one foot in front of the other...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment