Monday, March 25, 2013

Bank and Back

Today's trip was downtown to the bank again - combining errand and exercise.  This time, I told myself I wouldn't try for a fast time, just to keep moving.  The weather was a little chilly, but pleasant enough. My time was almost the same (38:00) as when I was trying to be quick -- a fact with multiple competing potential explanations.

Friday, March 22, 2013

Two Trips to Dairy Rd.

... on Thursday (22:50) and Friday (22:25).  The latter time was due in part to the little icy pellets that began falling from the sky and slapping me in the face as I turned for the inbound leg.  It kind of made this old horse more anxious for the barn.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Wednesday Haul

... down to Dissmore's and back, as planned for one of my weekly "heavy days".  Unfortunately, the gray clouds to the west started dripping on me as I was only a couple of blocks from my turnaround point -- so I carried on.  17:45 outbound, 19:45 inbound, with the two minutes' discrepancy all on the steepest uphill, keeping my heartrate down to 120.

Overall, I believe I am seeing some benefits from the walking-workouts program.  I think I am actually building some strength in my legs, some aerobic capacity, and I might be sleeping better.

Progress!

So maybe it isn't Sunday. Or Monday. But I DID dance a lot last weekend, so that was good. And I cleaned quite a bit, which is by no means strenuous exercise but it does involve more moving around than doing homework or watching a movie.

I still walk every day to class also, which is about all the exercise I did Monday except for some that's a bit "unmentionable" for this blog. :P

The weather is still a bit too chilly for me to motivate to walk to work, since I'd be walking back after dark most days. But soon that will be easier and I'll be getting back on my bike too.

Not enough time for a food post. I'm supposed to be in bed already, but I wanted to do a quick update just to remind myself that I'm really doing this!

Monday, March 18, 2013

Downhill, Upwind, Uphill, Downwind

... a lucky chance.

Today's walk downtown took place in bright sun and a quite stiff (and chilly!) breeze.  Fortunately, the wind was from the West, so I had the downhill while walking upwind, and the wind at my back when walking uphill.  That slope by the Engineering Labs is still pretty challenging.

To the Pufferbelly Depot (1.1 miles) 16 minutes;  back up the hill, nineteen minutes.  I took it a little slow on behalf of my heartrate.

Friday, March 15, 2013

New Personal Best

Friday I had decided not to do an exercise walk.  I had a co-workers' lunch to attend, and I didn't want to spend extra time away from work in addition to that.  However, in the afternoon the office needed to get some paperwork walked over to French Ad, so I volunteered, and went by way of Dairy Road.  My outbound time was skewed by the stop-off at the Ad building, but my inbound time was 11:15 -- a new personal best.

There's something very satisfying about combining exercise and work that has to be done anyway.

Getting Back in the Swing

So to speak.

My presence has certainly been lacking on this blog. Although for some "good" reasons (midterms were last week and the week before) and some lazy ones, none are really acceptable for not posting anything. So I am back and renewing my determination to make this one of my weekday priorities. Actually I'm thinking Sunday-Thursday posts. (At least after today) The idea was to be motivated to "do" more so I would have something to write about, but without my own blog schedule to keep me accountable, well, we've seen how well that worked! :P

Anyway, this week is (was, it's nearly over, oh no!) my Spring break, so my friend Eve and I went to Portland last Friday, and didn't come back until Wednesday. There was a fair bit of walking around the city, although I didn't write it down. I didn't get any dancing in, but I did get to visit two of my oldest friends. Each is very different, and it was so nice to catch up with them. I came back feeling pretty refreshed. And I'm even more determined to be in good shape for more adventures, including camping and some hiking this summer.

The plan this weekend is dancing. Lots of dancing. There is a band playing at the Alley tonight, and I'll probably get some done there. Tomorrow night I'm having a little gathering at my mom's house, which has lots of room and some good speakers. Sunday I will be doing the clean-up at Mom's so that will round the weekend off nicely.

Today is the beginning of "spring cleaning" at my apartment. I still haven't successfully moved in to this place, and I would like to before the business of true spring hits and I will no longer be able to spend hours folding and sorting piles of clothes and figuring out creative ways to stack books so they can come out of their boxes and--Oy!! Haha. But then I usually end up dance-cleaning a little bit, so it becomes its own form of mild exercise.

I definitely need to join Eve at the gym at least once a week also. She knows how to get a good sweat going on, for sure.

Time for more cleaning, some lentil soup, and some work after that! Sunday I expect I will start adding some words about food, which is even more important than exercise for getting in shape.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Down to Dissmore's

Today I decided to combine another errand (a small groceries-for-the-office stop) with my exercise walk.  The nearest true grocery is Dissmore's IGA, about 1.2mi. by road or 1.1 mi. cutting across campus, according to Google.  If I read the topo right, it's about 240 feet down to Dissmore's, and coming back, just about the same distance up.

I did the walk in 17 minutes down and 18 minutes back, the latter including two brief rest stops to keep my heart rate down to 20 (that is 20/10 seconds or 120 per minute).  I feel pretty good about that.

This is my second "heavy day" this week -- I discovered an interesting "walking workout" schedule that suggests different types of walks for different days, and this is my first attempt to adopt some of that thinking.

I also figured out that I need some "products" -- for one, a better pair of walking shoes.  My current lace-ups have a cup heel that's too stiff for walking biomechanics, which involve a heel roll.  Also, I saw a guy in a neon-green nylon shell -- a great idea for visibility.

As the weather gets warmer and the walks turn into workouts, the issue of perspiration and appropriate clothing becomes a little more complex.  I hate to add the overhead of changing clothes, but I may have to.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Sweeten the Sweatin'

Today I had an errand to run at the bank downtown.  Normally I "don't have time" to walk downtown from campus, but when I realized that if I drove downtown, I "wouldn't have time" to do my exercise walk, I figured I would combine the errand and the exercise.

Google Maps says the distance is 1.1 miles one-way.  What it doesn't say (but I later confirmed with a topo map) is that the elevation change is about 220 feet.  In the event, I took 19 minutes outbound (downhill), and about 21 minuts inbound (uphill) -- not bad, considering that I needed a breather at the middle and again at the top of the stairs (!) next to the engineering labs.

I admit to being a little exertion-giddy for a few minutes after, and I worked up a little too much sweat to be comfortable.  And I bought myself a very nice cup of Thomas Hammer coffee downtown to sweeten the sweatin'.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Everybody Loves Saturday Night

... at the Friends of the Clearwater benefit concert, dancing to Moscow's own Smokin' Mojo.  One nice thing about a hometown band is knowing lots of the persons in it, so you can cheer them on in a special way.

I made sure to wear my "slippery city shoes", so I was glidin' and slidin' with the best of them (my wife, who is my dancing inspiration).  About 45 minutes of energetic movement with one break made for a pretty good workout -- it felt like more work than the regular lunchtime walk, especially for my hips!

Friday, March 8, 2013

Slight Slopes...

... can be more challenging than they look.  I never thought about the ups and downs of Grimes Way (formerly called "Farm Way") until I had to huff up 'em and puff down 'em.
The uphill portion, looking east.  The top is about a half mile, and maybe 30 feet of rise (if I read the topo map right).
Still looking east, downhill from the high spot.  The white truck you can barely see in the road is near my turnaround point.
Looking back (west) from my turnaround point.  Just enough upslope renew the challenge after my half-way point.
The long westward downslope home.  My office window is the little white square on the top floor of the slope-roofed building in the center of the picture.

Monday, March 4, 2013

How Time Flies

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and today (Monday) I did my lunchtime walk -- I just didn't blog every day for all the usual lame reasons.  I didn't have my watch on me Wednesday and Thursday, but wall-clock time was about 24:00, which is about the same as earlier walks.  Friday was just over 12:00 outbound and just under 12:00 inbound, very much the same.

Today I made a slight effort to up the pace from 120 steps per minute to 126 spm.  That should make about a 5% difference in my time -- cut about 1 minute off the 24:00 round trip.  My time outbound was 11:44, inbound was 11:15, for a total of just under 23:00.

The point is not really the time.  I need to get more exercise value out of 25 minutes of walking -- that means walking faster.  The alternative, which is just walking longer, would just add time pressure in other areas of my life.  So little by little, as the weather improves and my body permits, I'll be stepping up the pace -- in baby steps, to be sure.