I was planning to do about 3.6 miles at Antrim Park today — three laps around the lake. As I was heading to the car, my husband came home and asked if he could join me. Of course I said yes! While he changed his shoes, I made the decision to do just two easy laps instead.

As we got near the end of the first lap, he admitted he had a stitch in his side and wanted to take a break. I took the opportunity to do my second lap fast. Using my heart rate monitor as a guide, I decided to try doing the entire lap with my heart rate between 140 and 150. About halfway through I realized my HR was down to 138, so I picked up my pace.

I finished the 1.2 mile lap in 16:20 — about 13:37 per mile! It felt great, did not feel as if I was pushing “too” hard and though I could not have done another entire lap at that pace, I could have maintained it for maybe another 8 min or so. I think this may be one of the fastest non-race miles I’ve walked!

Throughout the fast lap, I also tried to focus on form. I could feel my arms pushing back hard, and I tried very hard to land on my heels and keep my knees straight. My husband said I looked fast and my form looked good! (Yeah!)

We did the third lap together and had a really nice chat about how much fun Easter was.

It was a good walk!

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