My second 10-miler!

Team Bust Foot Forward disbanded for this weekend's training due to various scheduling conflicts and Saturday morning hangovers, so I slept in a bit on Saturday (but not due to a hangover) and decided to walk 10 miles on the Silver Comet Trail by myself. I know this sounds painfully long and boring (it is ... the scenery never changes on the SCT), but thanks to my trusty iPod, I was able to catch up on 3.5 hours' worth of podcasts. I geeked out listening to other geeks talk about the TV show Lost and the Slate Magazine experts gab about culture and politics. Check out the podcasts on iTunes ... I'll give you a dollar if you can't find something you like.

Much to my dismay, my snazzy new blue shoes were giving me "hotspots" (areas that, untended, will turn into blisters) on the sides of my feet. I left the New Balance store last weekend wearing those new shoes, and a shoebox with my old shoes in them. That box has been sitting on my bedroom floor for a week. I opened it yesterday looking for a receipt for my return, and found another brand new pair of shoes! Somehow I walked out of the store with the wrong box, and they restocked the shelves with my smelly, dirty old sneakers. Gross.

They still had my shoes when I went to the store today, and I got a different size in the snazzy blue ones. Hoping those ones aren't so "hot" ...

Product Placement

Most energy bars taste like Play-Doh or chalk, but if you are ever unsure of which one to buy ... the Zone Perfect Fudge Graham bar takes the cake.

Since I am now a wise, 3-Day veteran, and have learned the hard way the importance of keeping your body fed on long training walks, I ordered 3 boxes (36 bars) of Fudge Graham. Gotta love the Internet. :)

Fashion goes out the window

When I was training for the 2006 3-Day Walk, my teammate Randi and I did some long (10+ miles) walks down Peachtree Rd. and through other well-populated areas of Atlanta. Of course, we didn't want to look like clowns and become yet another city street character with our hideous walking gear, so we used "fashionable" fanny packs. Yes, I know that's an oxymoron. But I had a "waistpack" with a slim profile. It held one water bottle and had a couple small zippered pockets that would fit some money, keys and barely fit my cell phone. After a couple dehydrating walks in the blistering summer heat, and a few incredibly painful blisters later, I was willing to wear a potato sack around my waist to carry more water, Gatorade and bandaids. So, I invested in my rather large WAISTPACK, and now this thing is my best friend:

My first long walk!

For the first time this training season, I walked almost NINE miles yesterday! A couple teammates and I joined a large group training walk (25-30 people) yesterday at Piedmont Park. We took a very windy route through the Virginia Highlands and tackled some steep hills ... though SOME people may argue that Atlanta doesn't even have hills. My sore quads and calves are proof that Atlanta has some decent inclines.

Shame on me for not checking the forecast, since I didn't have my fashionable poncho to wear when the skies opened up and DRENCHED us on our walk. The silver lining is that the clouds kept the temperature down, so we didn't have to worry about miserable heat. Being soaked to the bone did make our pitstop in Publix excessively cold, though.

I've done the walk before, but I'm learning all over again the importance of hydrating and refueling your body when doing these long walks. And since I know which energy bar I like the best (The Zone Perfect, Fudge Graham flavor!), I ordered 36 bars online to save some money this time around. :)

After Saturday's training walk, I stopped by New Balance to get some new shoes. Both my pairs from my last 3-Day are pretty worn out, so it was time to upgrade. I so BADLY wanted the pink ones! But they didn't fit my feet as well as the blue ones, and I have to keep my feet happy.

We've got another 7-9 mile walk this week at Piedmont Park and I'll be doing another 5-miler one evening this week. I'm going to have some shapely calves come October!