5.3 miles and rolling!

It is Saturday Feb 7th. I woke up at 9am today- exhausted from a 3.5 hour band practice the night before. I was worried that my voice might be a little fried and concerned that we have a show tonight at 9pm! Just 12 hours! Even though I really just wanted to roll over and go back to sleep, I knew that there were two things I had to do today: go to the pet food & grocery store and get in my 5 miles. The fact that it was raining buckets when I awoke, made me wonder how I would get them both done.

I decided to just get up and do the cat food thing (it did help motivate me to have my cross eyed white cat, Jerry, knead my chest and bemoan the fact that he did not have any wet food). So Arleigh and I got in the car and did the 99 cent store, PetSmart and Albertsons in the rain. On the drive home from Alhambra, we noticed the sky was beginning to clear up.

I figured it might be my only chance to get outside today, so I started to suit up. I was excited to try out my new knee brace (with velcro & boning~ oo-la-la!) and knew I had to take a route that would actually net me 5 miles. I asked Arleigh if he wanted to go and was surprised to find out HE DID!

So I threw on a fleece, with my cell phone in left pocket, keys in the inside pocket and iPod with my Nike+ in the left pocket and we walked. It was definitely more of a walk than a run today. We may've jogged a total of 7 minutes out of the whole 1hr and 36 minutes. But that was fine with me. I was tired, I was sore and I was definitely feeling the hills in my neighborhood.

So here was the route- We left our house and went up and over the left side of Pyrites (little hill) behind Huntington Elementary School. Then down Huntington Drive North- past the intersection with Monterey Rd. and up to Collis (slightly larger hill). We went right on Collis and walked it all the way down to Hill/Avenue 60 (1.2 miles and small incline). The we walked down Ave 60 to Monterey and headed left towards the hill I have always thought about tackling. It looks like it is an art deco valley and it literally carves into the side of a mountain. The street runs between two 20 ft retaining walls and it has on coming traffic in both directions. I have driven this hill thousands of times in the 8 years I have lived here- but never once tackled it on foot. I have always wanted to and I did it today!

As we walk, I really noticed how beautiful the sky had become. So clear and bright. The sun was shining down. Barely a cloud in the sky! It was perfect timing for this walk.

We continued down Monterey Rd after cresting the art deco mountain, and turned right on McKenzie to cut away from the traffic. We kept going down the hill and rounded back around Monterey and arrived at the intersection with Huntington. We walked up the back of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and back to Pyrites and home.

When we got home, the iPod said we had actually gone 5.3 miles and burned 990 calories!! Better than even that, when I ended the workout, I out one of my ear plugs in Arleigh's ear so he could hear it to, Lance Armstrong congratulating us on the farthest workout yet! And to keep it up.

Even though I am sore, my feet hurt all over, I did it! I iced my knee and took some Advil. Drank some milk (and water) had a banana and a sandwich. Oh and also had some Ben and Jerry's... gotta love the calories being burnt!

My friend Hirono is doing her "5" mile workout on Sunday at a 10K (which I have learned is 6.2 miles) around Dodger Stadium. I can't wait to hear how that goes for her!

This week I did 17 miles total! Amazing!