Today's training was a 13 mile walk starting at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas. I was particularly worried about my calf as it has been giving me a lot of trouble over the last few days. I spent a good 15 minutes stretching before the walk. The weather was pretty reasonable when we started at 7am but turned nasty, muggy and hot before we finished. It was mighty uncomfortable for the last half of the walk. The calf ended up being fine but I got a few good warning signs to consider.
1) The last 1/2 mile or so, I got a "hot spot" on the ball of my left foot. I'm pretty sure I would have gotten a bad blister if I had continued much further. One of the mentors told me last week that she applies Vaseline to her feet before big walks. Umm, no thanks. My walking partner, Christine promised to unveil the secret of how to avoid blisters next week. The secret supposedly involves some strange teflon-based foot powder for your socks. Beats rubbing Vaseline between your toes.
2) I got a decent sunburn even though I was wearing a baseball cap and it was overcast during the entire walk. Felt flushed and stingy the rest of the weekend. I'm definitely going to start wearing sunscreen during the walks.
Feels good to have worked my way up to a 1/2 marathon distance. I felt very strong at the end of the walk and felt that I could have gone at least another 5 miles if it wasn't for the budding blister problem.
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