year of fun

Recently I’ve been posting about how crazy things have been at work. Well because I have been working a lot, I was able to take today off. I treated myself to a new phone case from Anthropologie and a first trip to Lululemon. Really, my first time in their store. I’ve only heard about their amazing fabrics and cute styles. Today I decided that I needed a new pair of athletic capris/pants for the Arthritis Walk TOMORROW. (Woo hoo!)

At first, I was a little intimidated. Everyone in the store-both working and shopping-obviously either runs or does yoga, or maybe both, every day. There are a lot of different styles and fabrics and the sizing is a little different. The first two pairs of capris I tried on made me feel lumpy and out of shape. But then two employees approached me to help. They were so nice and really interested in the walk. They assured me that I was choosing the right size and pointed me toward some more relaxed fabrics better suited to an activity like walking. After that, I started to fall in love. Everything in the store is soft and cute and comes in fun colors.

By the time I left, I had told both employees all about the arthritis walk and restrained myself from spending too much money. They wished me luck on my way out, and I never felt better about buying expensive athletic gear. Yes gear, because I got pants and a super cute tank.

Thursdays are my write-from-home day for work. I love writing from home because I actually find it less distracting than the office. I can also take a break for an Elphie training walk. I’m so proud of my progress: since last week I’ve taken almost two minutes off of my average minute per mile pace. It is down from 17:51 to 16. I went 2.2 miles in 35 minutes, 8 seconds. Ready to take on the arthritis walk in 2 weeks!

Elphie and I walked alone today and went 2.31 miles! It took us 41 minutes, 19 seconds with a minutes per mile average of 17 minutes, 51 seconds. Again, I know all of this because of Map My Walk, which I mentioned last week in my first post about walk training.

MMW uses GPS to track my walk as I go and saves all of my data from every walk I’ve recorded. I can look back through the history to see if I’m improving my mile time, if I’m habitually taking the same route, or if I am actually walking as much as I think I am. I can even specify between dog walk (at times more erratic with pauses) and regular walk (better pace control, no pauses). MMW keeps me honest and motivates me to do better.

I was pretty proud of the 2.31 miles today. My knees aren’t to keen on it now but that is something I’m continuing to work on. I just love the feeling of getting stronger for the Arthritis Walk!

As always, if you want to join my team or donate, click here