Training, shoes, and hydration

At this point (the middle of June) my teammates and I were walking 2x/ week together, one week night and one weekend morning.  On weeknights we walked mostly the same 5 mile route, and on the weekends we were up to walking about 8-9 miles.  5 miles was relatively easy for us, though increasing it was getting a little harder.  I affectionately named the 8 mile walk "the Ocho."  I am not sure why it felt so much different,  but it was the point for me where things started hurting, when they didn't even bother me before.  I was really nervous about this, because if my body was starting to hurt at 8 miles, how was it going to be walking 50 more?!?!  So I did 2 things about this:

I decided it was time to get myself that new pair of kicks.  The tennis shoes I had been walking in at this point were a decent pair of addidas running shoes, but they were about 4 yrs old.  Yikes!  For a few weeks I had been trying on some different brands of shoes, and seeing what I liked in my price range.  But it was time to get serious!  I probably annoyed a bunch of sales people by trying on every brand of shoe they had then leaving without buying any...  and then I found them.  I fell in love with a pink pair of Saucony shoes.  They weren't outrageously expensive, and immediately comfortable as soon as I put them on.  They were "the ones."  For anyone who needs to buy shoes for beginning to walk or run, my suggestion is to do what I did, and try on a million different pairs till you find "the ones" for you, and they should be immediately comfortable.  Don't buy ones that you think will feel better after you break them in, since running shoes can be fairly pricey and they may NOT feel better later...

I did get a blister from walking that first time breaking my new kicks in, but in general I felt a few of my aches and pains from increasing my mileage disappear.  So I was glad I put in all that effort in finding shoes I would be happy in!  Happy feet = happy me!

The 2nd thing I did was ask my doc about the recurrent pain I was getting in my groin area and into my hamstrings every time I walked.  The nice thing is, since I work at a hospital I run into my doc from time to time, and I can ask him a simple question like this without making an appointment!  So I explained what I was doing and where my pain was, and he told me I was getting a build up of lactic acid in my muscles and wasn't drinking enough to flush it out. "So bring a water bottle" he said.  I told him, I do.  "Bring 2 then."  I told him, I do.  ( My hippack from Walmart that I really like has 2 pretty large sized water bottles on it.)  Then he just looked at me and said' "So drink them then!"  LOL!

Well I took his advice, and wouldn't you know it he was right.  I started trying to drink more when I walked, even when I wasn't remotely thirsty, and the pain disappeared.  All those messages and recommendations on the 3 day site about hydrating while you walked, you'd think I'd have gotten the point before this!  I kept thinking I was drinking enough and that, well, I was only WALKING, not running a marathon.  But I believed now!  From that day on I drank a lot more than I had thought I needed to, and if the pain even started in my hips and groin I drank even more.  But my days of dealing with at least THAT pain were over...  Only now there was a new problem...  I have to pee a lot more...