Epic St. Paul Walk

Today I walked more than I ever have at one time. My right eye has been twitching since the last 30 min of the walk as well. I thought I'd just pop over to the Highland Park library to pick up another Bryson book, then hit the gym for a card swipe, then walk home along the Mississippi River Road. Well, I hit the Moose Country bar at about :35 in. I got over the Mississippi and up past Missy's work around 1 hour. I stopped at a gas station to get water and a banana and made it to the library and then the gym at 2 hours. If you are familiar with the area you might wonder why it took me an hour to get to the Highland Park Lifetime from just south of West 7th. Well, there is a big hill in there. I was going pretty slow due to my current back issues, and my heart rate was still 172! The banana and water at the top of said hill gave me a bit of a second wind.

So after the gym I decided to take the River Road back. I filled up my water bottle along the way and had a nice little walk. At about 2:45 my hips and glutes were aching. At 3:30 my knees and ankles were starting to ache. Around 3:40 I realized that my arms and the back of my neck were going to be nice and sunburned by the time I got home. My initial plan was to stop at Subway for lunch on the way back. I quickly came to the realization that if I stopped, I'd never be able to start again. So I pushed on. By about 3:50 I was just passing the Moose again and my body was in a full out revolt. I thought about calling a cab. I thought about having a bunch of beers and watching the Vikings and then calling a cab, but the game didn't start for another three hours. I thought about maybe just hitchhiking. Or possibly just laying face down in the grass and giving up. But there were jumpy bugs. So I kept going.

Again, if you are unfamiliar with the area, the section between the Moose and my house is pretty much all up hill. I remember how I walked cockily down it at the beginning of that jaunt and wished that I could summon that person, but she was no where to be found. My entire body ached and my iPod arm band was starting to chafe the flabby bits of my underarm. I was becoming delirious as I slowly put one foot in front of the other, time and again. I looked down at my heart rate monitor and my HR was still safely in the 150-160 range. I felt like I was going so slow - how could my HR be so high?? When I hit a curb I made sure to walk through the cut out so as to avoid raising my legs any more than I had to.

Finally I got to the top of the incline. It was downhill from here and it was all I could do to keep lifting up my feet. I started swaying a little and tried to snap myself out of it so people didn't think I was drunk. At 4:26 there were two blocks left. All of my muscles were yelling at me and seizing up.

I spent a good amount of time stretching after I got home. Then I stretched some more and had some more water and a Shot Blok. I went on to Google pedometer and found out that I had walked 14 miles! I thought it would be close to 10, but 14 really shocked me. Then it was time to check out the sunburn damage. The tank top tan I tried so hard to get rid of this summer is now back in full force. My upper arms/shoulders/back are crispy. But the best is the tan on my left arm where my iPod arm band was. That is quite attractive! *sigh*

I took a shower, lubed up with aloe, and drove myself to Chipotle. I'm going to go ahead and say it was the best burrito I've ever eaten. And now...Vikings football...and perhaps a little more water and stretching...

Final time: 4:29:21.
Final calorie count: 2644.
Fat burn percentage: 40%
Average HR: 152