Working at the car wash, yeah.

Saturday is the big day for our training. Today's course was at Lake Murray and I walked 12 miles which caused a bit of commotion. Let me explain. One of the first weekend session involved walking a timed mile. We were placed in one of three categories depending on our time. There are three groups, A, B, C. The A group are the fast, skilled walkers who have usually competed in previous events. Group B are good walkers but not as fast as the A's. Group C walkers are generally inexperienced walkers. Group A, B, C...kind of sounds like Orwell's 1984. B's are the best because A's have to work too hard, etc.

I timed in at a very solid B. I was about 30 seconds away from being in the A group. The training requirements of each group is slightly different, with A's walking longer mileage earlier than the other groups. To make a long story short, as a "B" I was scheduled to walk 11 miles. Well, walking along with my fellow B, Christine, I was feeling pretty good and decided to do the extra mile. She was cool with it so we did. Apparently this was a major gaff, resulting in one of the coaches, who was ahead of us, actually coming back to walk with us to make sure I wouldn't collapse into a heap of rubble or something. When we got back to home base, we were double-teamed by another two coaches and given a stern talking to. The concern is that we not push too hard too fast. The season is long and we risk an injury by not following the program to the letter. Lesson learned. One other bummer is that since we did big mileage on Saturday, I was strongly discouraged from taking my weekly Sunday afternoon hike which is one of the highlights to my week. Gotta give the legs a rest, you know. Hmmm.

After the workout I immediately took off to participate in a car wash fundraiser. Six of us on the Team and a few volunteers washed cars from Noon to 4pm. It was a lot of fun, but boy was I wiped out afterwards. 12 miles, then an additional 4 hours on my feet in the blazing sun scrubbing down cars. Hardest $55 I've earned in a long while. I'm going to have to think of a fundraiser with a little more bucks for my bang.

Afterwards, came home, showered and took a short nap, followed by a pasta dinner at Demillo's with my Mom. First pasta dinner I've had in 16 months. Felt I earned it, though.

Sunday is a rest day. Grrr.