The Rock, WRL, WR...oh, I am so cool

The Rock, WRL, WR...all names for White Rock Lake. I, my friends, walked around THE ENTIRE WHITE ROCK LAKE LOOP. All 9.3 miles, that is, if we took the correct route. We finished it in about 3 hours 7 minutes. I was a bit discouraged about the time, as I would like to have my time a little faster, but I knew without a doubt I needed to take it easy to complete this far distance. I can work on time later.

I absolutely think God truly put my training partner, Brandie, in my life for a reason for this training. We help encourage each and push each other. We allow grace and truth in a healthy balance in each other's training. I only walked 1 mile on Tuesday, and the thunderstorms won on Thursday. So, it was good to get back walking today. She also helped remind me to slow down when I'd want to overdo it. I would tend to get too charged, but I needed to pace it to finish it.

I just can't believe I finished the entire loop. And I ran into my neighbor, a new Hills & Heels friend saw me, and we saw a lady in H&H shirt that I cheered to. And just saying that we walked that whole way...wow.

And while I was a tiny bit discouraged about my time, I did find that my averages are consistently improving.

My Half marathon estimate time has consistently decreased:
4.84
4.55
4.47
4.31
4.23
4.18
4.16
4.12
4.11
4.11

Those are all number of the week's ongoing average since May 24th in terms of decimals not minutes. So 4.25 would translate to 4 hours and 15 minutes. My main goal is to finish in less than 4 hours. It would appear that this goal is totally achievable, but I have to remember that my first and primary goal is to COMPLETE the Half.

Here are my ongoing averages for miles per hour:
2.74
2.93
2.97
3.08
3.13
3.17
3.19
3.22
3.23
3.23

And again, there is consistent improvement. And all these rates include even my super long walks and my super slow walks.

And these rates are my minutes per mile rates:
22.17
20.83
20.49
19.74
19.38
19.14
19.05
18.86
18.81
18.81

So, I want to celebrate that I have made very consistent improvement. I can't imagine what this will look like when the weather gets better.

New milestone today... WHITE ROCK LAKE!!!

Lesson for the day: Mile 2 still just sucks, walking that freaking far is much shorter I am quite convinced with a training partner and great conversation, it is hard to finish when we can't see the finish line, praise God the rain waited another 15 minutes, and add small poncho to the fanny pack list (yes, I got a fanny pack...things that were once very dorky are becoming very practical), JUST SHOW UP!!!!

Temp: 78 degrees, covered skies
Distance: 9.3 miles
Time: 187 minutes = 3 hours, 7 minutes
Pace: 20:07/m
MPH: 2.98
15K estimate: 3 hours, 7 minutes
Half estimate: 4h 23.4m