How long is my walk?

Carrie turned me on to the Google Pedometer during training last year and it's a tool I've incorporated into my life: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ I love using this site as I tend to walk a different pace each day so just using time out on the road isn't really an accurate representation of the miles I train. I recognize that this can't be exact but it sure seems darn close (side note, I don't use the calorie counter because I think it's based on running not walking).

A lot of times I use this site to map out a walk as having the birds eye view of a map helps me to figure out how to avoid deadend streets (I train almost exclusively at the beach and there's quite a few streets that I think will be through routes and end up being dead ends).

Enjoy!

Sidelined, but not out of the game...

For the past month or so I've had terrible pain on the side of my calves every time I take a brisk walk. Last week it was getting progressively worse and I couldn't walk a block at a brisk pace without having a terrible strain/pain in my legs. In the past I've had this pain but as long as I stretched for a good 15 minutes (yes, 15 minutes...feels like an hour) before my walks and then stretch for another 5 minutes about 5 to 10 minutes into my walk. These techniques weren't working this go around. I googled all kinds of things to see if I could figure it out but wasn't all that lucky...because I was ruling out that I was having shin splints (as it was the sides of my legs that hurt not the front). I went to the doctor on Friday and guess I should have read about shin splints because in fact I have anterior shin splints in both legs. There is a band that runs between our tibula and fibula and I've strained that band (it always feels like there's a rubber band in my leg that's pulled as tight as can be and it's ready to snap at anytime). The doctor's term for it was Anterior Shin Splints.

The good doctor gave me a prescription for an anti-inflammatory that I take twice a day for 30 days and advice to give the walking a rest until Wednesday (along with lots of stretching). I didn't listen to the not walking part...I walked Saturday and yesterday (just under 3 miles) and it felt pretty good. The gym classes don't seem to bother it so I'm hoping I'll be 100% back to normal very soon.

Back out there "pounding the pavement"...which is SO much easier on the knees then concrete sidewalks.