Training Progress: Oh My Aching Back

I had ups and downs training this weekend.

The big up was I had brunch with Trina, a long-time, wonderful friend from church. She did the 3-Day Walk in Atlanta back in 2008 and was so excited to hear I'm doing it that she wanted to meet with me to talk about it.

She calmed ALL my fears about it and gave me some really great advice. She said you can walk a lot slower than they make it sound like. Woohoo! That they all got a lot slower every day. Can't imagine why. She told me if I wear acrylic socks I won't get blisters and gave me the name of a nearby shoe-fitting store. She told me what local walking excursions to avoid using for training and which ones to train on religiously.

She had some great photos of t-shirts walkers wore. They had some hysterical names and some hilarious slogans on t-shirts! So quite possibly her best advice was to make sure I take pictures of all the t-shirts and team names.

I was so pepped up from our meeting, I was ready to do the walk tomorrow. Mentally anyway.

But then, yesterday, my mom and I got overly giddy from the sunshine and warm temps and decided throw a lap on a hill in to our walk. I was hearing the angels yelling for me to come on in when I finally at long last topped that hill. Huffing and puffing and dodging my heart leaping out my chest, I was freaking a bit that I'll have that much trouble on hills. Somehow, back on flat ground, I did finish an entire three miles though.

Then I went home and took the cats strolling. I tried to take the kittens for the first time, but Little Grey quite vocally informed me strolling is not her cup of McAlister's tea. Once the others heard her hollering, they hid. At least until it got dark. Then Omega decided to sleep in the stroller.

Today...my back hurts, my legs hurt, my arms and shoulders hurt (I also lifted weights on Saturday) and oh heck...EVERYTHING hurts. I've been seriously doubting I can walk at all today.

But then I saw the awesome fun stuff my teammate Laura is collecting for us to wear, http://lauratreks.blogspot.com/2010/02/up-to-something.html, and I got all excited again. Now I think maybe I can survive walking a mile or two at lunch.