Power walking the Sierra Vista Fitness Trail

The Fitness Trail is a five-mile circular route that starts and ends at the city mall. It uses a paved multi-path the entire time. It's not marked as a "Fitness Trail," but it's an easy route city planners have decided to designate as a fitness trail. On my way to the schools I see people of all ages and abilities run, jog and cycle this loop. The only negative about this trail is that it's along the busiest roads in town and can get loud. At night the cars' headlights are blinding. I've walked it a few times myself, but always wanted to start organizing a power walk once a week.

So on Monday night I decided to host this walk for Wednesday at 5pm, risking rainy weather. By start time there were five people plus Zeke on a short leash. Not bad for just a day's notice. One of them, Jay, had just gotten here a week prior from Virginia and is looking for athletic groups to join.

All five people who signed up showed up on time: Jay, Bill K, Rick and Claire. Jay and I were quickly in the lead, but then Bill decided to jump from Baby Hares to the Hares and we averaged 15:40 minutes that first mile. Huh? I'd been trying to get below 17 minutes by myself since June but couldn't do it. Perhaps it was the group dynamics that made me go faster than I have in a while. The milder-than-expected weather also helped (rain was initially forecasted for tonight) and the pretty sunset at 5:32pm also was encouraging. Jay, Bill and I chatted the entire time. Claire and Rick were in the back and were slipping behind slowly, but I tried to keep a visual of them.

We walked the five-mile course in 1:18 hours. That's a record for me by 14 minutes! We never needed to turn on our headlights. I said good-bye to Bill and Rick and then walked back to make sure Rick and Claire were OK, adding another .6 mile to my total distance.

I was also proud of Zeke who kept up with the pace. I didn't give him any water until we were back home. The work-out energized me. This is what I need to do more often: seriously push myself to excel! It's so much easier and more fun when it's with a group.

I now have another walk scheduled for the following Wednesday at 5:15pm. I hope this becomes a regular walking group so that newcomers can join whatever group they can hang with: the Hares, the Hares Not and the Baby Hares.