It was 34 degrees and drizzling about 8 this morning when I arrived at Sharon Woods park to walk 8 miles. Because of my son’s wrestling schedule, I was unable to walk with the Buckeye Striders yesterday and ended up walking the 8 miles alone. It’s funny how you can really get used to walking your long distances with people. It does make it a little harder to walk alone.

The light rain stopped shortly after I started walking, thank goodness! (I hate rain in February.) It took about one lap until I was totally warmed up — after that, I was way too warm. I ended up opening the vents in my jacket to cool down.

The trail was mostly clear except for right by the sledding hill (you can’t have sleds hit dry asphalt), and a few small patches of ice. It was very easy to navigate around the ice. But it was a little surprising how difficult it was to reach a decent pace. My legs felt heavy and I had a hard time even going 15 minutes per mile.

Later today when talking to walking friends, one pointed out that riding my exercise bike hard could be affecting my walking speed. My legs are working pretty hard and may not be resting enough to walk fast. My theory is that I’ve been sitting on high school bleachers a lot because of my son’s sports, and my legs and rear end have atrophy!

So, though it was a slow 8 miles, it felt great. It had warmed up to about 37 degrees by the time I had finished. I just wish I had had the opportunity to walk in the beautiful winter sun yesterday.

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