Walking Fast

In one of my first posts, I mentioned I thought a sign I'm getting strong would be when I can walk four miles in an hour.  Well, I tried it today.  That's really fast!  I made 3.8 miles, walking as fast as I can.  My route was a little hilly - that area is called the Renton Highlands for a reason - but since I started and ended at the same place, I must have had as many downhills as uphills, right?

Here are my stats from Runtastic:

Have you tried Runtastic?  My friend Charla introduced me to it and it's a fun, free, way to time your walks.  It tells how far, how fast, or not, and the elevation.  If you buy the Pro version it does a lot more, but I'm happy with this.

I don't know why I thought four miles an hour would be a good speed.  Now I know it's much too fast to actually enjoy the walk.  My usual speed is about 3.4 miles per hour and that feels very comfortable.  As I was going out the door, Stan said he thought 4 miles per hour is the regulation marching speed for an army.  Wow - I had to do some checking on that when I got home.

I ran into this interesting article from BBC Today, from 2008, about British postmen and women complaining about being required to walk faster:

The British Army standard quick march is 120 paces a minute. The pace is 30 inches and this gives a normal Quick March of 3.4 mph. The Light Infantry pace is 140 paces a minute, which is very fast and requires special training to maintain, gives 3.97 mph, or just under the 4 mph required of a Postie.

The same reader who supplied the information above also had a good suggestion for the "Posties":

I would suggest their bosses come out and demonstrate how they envisage the "Standard" postman or woman (standard Army pace of 27 inches, or 10% smaller) should achieve their targets!

I also found this quote in Wikipedia, from Vegetius, the author of the only surviving treatise about the Roman Empire's military:

They should march with the common military step twenty miles in five summer-hours, and with the full step, which is quicker, twenty-four miles in the same number of hours.

 Wow - those Romans were awesome!  And apparently so are the Posties!  As for me, I'm going to stick with normal Quick March of 3.4 mph.  I know I can do that for a long time and enjoy the walk.  I may try this again later in the year - it would be nice just to do it once.  I'll go earlier in the morning next time, as the sun was pretty warm today between 10:30 and 11:30 AM.

I had a shower and this lovely snack when I got home:  Twinings green tea with lemon and a slice of gluten-free toast with Adams peanut butter.

Stan noticed an ad for a gluten-free bakery when we were in Victoria last week and we checked it out.  Origin Bakery is amazing!  I wish I had thought to take a photo of all the beautiful breads and pastries they had.  We brought this loaf home, and I should have asked for an ingredient list, as well.  I see there is a GF bakery in Bellevue called Wildflour, and we'll check it out, remembering of course, that both Drs. Wahls and Rosedale recommend avoiding any grains, not just gluten, so this is a very occasional treat.  I earned it today!