No, I haven't quit already...

It's been a while since I followed up on the walking thing.  I have been keeping it up, though.  :-)

Since I last wrote, we did another mall walk.  We went quite a bit later, and all the stores were closed.  There were still people there - there always are.  Between security and cleaning staff, there are still people from the hotal, various restaurants, etc.  Still, it was much better than before.  We were able to maintain a continuous pace the entire route.  This time I made a point of timing the walk.  At the half way mark, we were at 9 minutes, and the whole thing took 19 minutes in total.

There's no way I'm doing 3 km at that speed.  It's must be more like 2 km. 

I completely forgot to take painkillers before I left, but that seemed to be okay.  I did remember to eat some protein and grabbed a couple of high protein food bars too, just in case.  My calves started to give me problems at first, though not as badly as before.  I did have to stop for a bit at the half way mark to let them relax a bit.  The second half, though I had to walk slower, was much more comfortable.

The next day was our library day, so that was our walk.  Factoring out waiting for lights to change and the like, it's about 10 minutes of walking one way.  Which means a round trip is about the same as our mall walk route (this doesn't count any extra walking we do while in the area).  This was my first test of doing the walk two days in a row. 

Our route to the library gives us the option of cutting through a building.  It doesn't make the walk any shorter, but it does give us the option to stop and sit, if needed, or get out of inclement weather. For the first half block of the walk, the sidewalks were not entirely clear of snow.  Even though I wear sturdy hiking shoes, I could feel the bones in my feet moving around in ways they shouldn't while navigating the rough surface. This adds extra strain to my calves, so I found myself needing to stop and sit for a bit when we reach the building we cut through.  With clear sidewalks, I don't always need to stop.  It depends on how bad my legs happen to be that day. The walk back is never as challenging as the walk out, and I was able to maintain a fairly brisk pace.

The next day was an off day, and I found I had no real issues with my legs at all after two days in a row.  There didn't seem to be any extra pain, creaking or bone dancing.  I was really quite pleased.

We were supposed to do another mall walk the following evening, but I was feeling extremely tired - I hadn't slept well at all the night before - and didn't feel I was safe to drive to the mall.  Since some holds at the library came in during that time, Eldest and I just shifted it over a day and did the library walk again yesterday, as well as some extra wandering around downtown.  In all, the total brisk walking time was probably increased from about 20 minutes to about half an hour.

Once again, everything seems to be working out well.  I'm not getting those shooting pains that I used to.  Time to increase the route.  I'm not sure we'll be able to do the walk tomorrow evening, as I'm getting together with some friends that night.  By the time we'll be done, the mall we do our walk in will be closed, so it'll be perfect for the walk, but it might just be a bit too late in the day.  We shall see.  I'd rather not shift days again.