Walking A Marathon A Week

I’ve set myself the challenge of walking a marathon a week. It’s not as difficult as it sounds, in fact walking is becoming easier the more I do it.

When we were in the Aran Islands I noticed that I was getting out of breath a little too easily. I do have asthma, but this breathlessness was more due to lack of exercise than anything else. I’ve been hiding at home for far too long; working long hours in front of the computer and kitchen stove, and not getting enough exercise in exchange for these long hours.

There’s also the issue of blood pressure and resting pulse, which has been borderline for a while and I knew that if I started to exercise more that these would return to normal. I just didn’t have the guts to take the first step.

Until now.

Four weeks into this new routine, my resting pulse is now a full ten points lower than it was when I started. I’ve not had a cause to have my blood pressure checked (long may that continue) but I’m hoping that it has also lowered to a more normal range.

Last night instead of sitting down to watch some tv with the kids after dinner we went out with a football with the boys. Then something happened that I can’t ever remember being able to do.

I ran the whole length of a football pitch. I mean ran, not jogged or fast-walked; I RAN. When I got to the end I wasn’t badly out of breath and after a quick pause, I ran back in the other direction.

I felt free, exhilarated and alive.

I know it’s only been 4 weeks and that I have buckets more work to do. I’ll be the one out walking again tomorrow. 36km down this week, 6km to go. Who knows? I may even hit the 50km mark by Sunday. I may even run some of it.

photo credit: kaneda99 via photopin cc