Well-planned training walks

Don't you wish that when you did your training walks there were cheerleaders, animal crackers, water, gatorade, and port-a-potties every 3 miles?

Because I do not live anywhere near a 3-day city, most of my training is done alone or with my sister. While I am technically a 3-day training walk leader, I have yet to lead a walk with anyone else. This means that my head knows the rules, but my feet don't always cooperate.

I like to get things done. I like to multi-task, do things efficiently, and move on with life. Many people drive to their training walk locations. I don't do that because I like to be able to walk out my front door and go. This makes planning for water/pit stops a bit of a challenge. 

On the event it is very easy to make sure that you are eating, drinking, and using the restroom regularly. They provide all of those things for walkers every 3 miles (or so). However, in real life it is much more challenging...for me. I walk between 7-9 miles pretty regularly. Which means I should have a pit stop or two built in - and most of the time I do. For the past few weeks I have been walking 2.5 miles to work, working a few hours (filling up and using the restroom) and taking the long way home with an additional pit stop around mile 5 at the park to go to the bathroom. My schedule is changing this week and I've adopted a new walking pattern. This morning I decided to set out and do 9 miles.

At mile 5 I had to go to the bathroom REALLY bad. I was in a neighborhood and about 1.5 miles from my scheduled pit stop. By the time I got through the neighborhood and was near a gas station/coffee shop/restaurant I had to go SO bad that I was worried about looking like a fool in public... My pit stop was .5 miles away and was in a park - no walking through a crowd of people in a sweaty mess. I decided to push through.

That last .5 mile was absolutely incredible. I was in pain, feeling stupid, and probably looking like a fool. I'll spare you the details, but it was a disaster. I finally made it to the bathroom at the park but felt pretty awful for the rest of the day...not to mention silly!

Hopefully you plan your walks better than I do - lots of planned and unplanned stops for water and potties. If you don't, please learn from my mistakes!

• Make sure that you have pit-stop options available at least every 3 miles.
• Drink an extra 8 glasses of water in the 24 hours prior to exercise 
• Drink 2 glasses 2 hours prior to exercise 
• Drink 4-5 ounces of fluid per mile while walking, and continue after exercise. Remember that once you start exercising, you need to alternate between water and sports drink. 
• According to wikipedia, a healthy human bladder can hold 500mL of fluid. (That's about 16 fluid ounces) 

Of course everyone is different, but let's do the math here - if you're drinking the recommended 4-5 fluid ounces a mile, you'll max out your bladder at 3.5-4 miles. We all know how challenging it is to walk with a full bladder, so you should count on a stop around 3 miles.

Yes, this takes some planning. Yes, this might mean that I need to better plan and execute my walks. Yes, this will take more time, but in the long run I will be safer, happier, and healthier.

Have you ever had this problem? How do you best plan your training walks around pit stops?