Welcome yulilin3! I'll be at the 5K as well, rumor has it that its a Rapunzel theme and I'm SOOO hoping it is! You'll be in great shape for the ToT. I'm still trying to decide if I would prefer to do the ToT or the W&D (and then, I need to convince my budget that I can make another trip happen).
To the questions about training plans, I am SO far from an expert but will chime in with my experience... I've never gone past 11 miles on my training walks. I know some plans have you go farther, which, like you said Alice, would then help you be stronger in those last miles of the race... since your body would have already done those miles. But I just have this mental block regarding this concept... to me, I want to accomplishment of actually finishing those 13.1 miles, of pushing further than I've pushed in a while... and I also have no interest in walking 13 or more miles unless there is a medal involved. LOL So I think you just need to go with what works best for you... some folks like to know that they can actually do the 13 or more miles ahead of time, some folks like to do the extra miles so they can improve times. My theory on the Galloway plans is that he pushes those long runs further than most plans since his other two training days are so light. Most plans you see would have you gradually increasing the number of miles you run during the week too, not just on the long run... So anyways, in my experience, there's a ton of variation in training plans, but I think as long as you get at least a couple of 10 or more mile walks in, you'll be totally ready. That's my completely unprofessional opinion.
So, I'm happy to report that the 8 miles I planned for today were AWESOME! Our YMCA now offers access to an indoor track, and it was so much more pleasant to do the miles there instead of on the treadmill. And also, I found a great calculator that let me compute the exact mileage of the outer lane the walkers are supposed to use (I knew the inner lane was 200 meters, ~8 laps per mile)... turns out, that I only needed 7 laps in the outer lane to get a mile, so that mentally helped me... anything helps when you are looking at such a large number of laps.
I tested out my clothes for the race, all was comfy and worked well. Now I'm off to find a rhinestone iron-on transfer to hopefully "princesss" it up a bit!
Walk on, my friends!
To the questions about training plans, I am SO far from an expert but will chime in with my experience... I've never gone past 11 miles on my training walks. I know some plans have you go farther, which, like you said Alice, would then help you be stronger in those last miles of the race... since your body would have already done those miles. But I just have this mental block regarding this concept... to me, I want to accomplishment of actually finishing those 13.1 miles, of pushing further than I've pushed in a while... and I also have no interest in walking 13 or more miles unless there is a medal involved. LOL So I think you just need to go with what works best for you... some folks like to know that they can actually do the 13 or more miles ahead of time, some folks like to do the extra miles so they can improve times. My theory on the Galloway plans is that he pushes those long runs further than most plans since his other two training days are so light. Most plans you see would have you gradually increasing the number of miles you run during the week too, not just on the long run... So anyways, in my experience, there's a ton of variation in training plans, but I think as long as you get at least a couple of 10 or more mile walks in, you'll be totally ready. That's my completely unprofessional opinion.
So, I'm happy to report that the 8 miles I planned for today were AWESOME! Our YMCA now offers access to an indoor track, and it was so much more pleasant to do the miles there instead of on the treadmill. And also, I found a great calculator that let me compute the exact mileage of the outer lane the walkers are supposed to use (I knew the inner lane was 200 meters, ~8 laps per mile)... turns out, that I only needed 7 laps in the outer lane to get a mile, so that mentally helped me... anything helps when you are looking at such a large number of laps.
I tested out my clothes for the race, all was comfy and worked well. Now I'm off to find a rhinestone iron-on transfer to hopefully "princesss" it up a bit!
Walk on, my friends!
Does anyone know how much the tickets are for the family and friends to join you after the 10 mile run? I will be there with DD and her BFF and there is no way they will run with me, but they would love to come hang out later.
)
