how it all ended up for me

So in the first couple of weeks, I missed 3 days, and was all gung-ho about running many/most of the miles.  Sometime around the end of the second week, I was running and my ankle turned a way that wasn’t quite right.  I was limping around in the mornings and then sorta okay during the day and walking actually seemed to help it.  So then I decided to go ahead and run again, and halfway through the ankle really started to hurt.  I took a day off, walked another day and then the next morning after that walk realized that I really needed to take a few days off.  I ended up taking a week off, and then finished up the last week or so walking about 3 out of every 4 days.  I stopped keeping track of it, which actually seemed to help my motivation.  I’ve been going out walking regularly since May ended as well, at least 2 out of every 3 days, if not 4 out of every 5.  I’ll often go longer than a mile and find that I do feel better having had the physical activity.  While others in this experimonth exercize regularly already, I’ve always preferred to be a couch potato and have pretty much been so all my life, with the exception of high school when I ran cross country and track.  It’s nice to be self-motivated to exercize because it’s something I want to do, rather than something I feel like I should do.  I feel like overall, this experimonth was a big success for me.  Not only did I continue on when I missed/failed several days, but I gave myself permission to stop and pick it back up later when that was clearly the best thing to do.  Further, I feel like I’ve developed a good habit that I want to keep and will keep, which is something I’ve struggled with in previous experimonths.

Is it over?

This month has gone by pretty quickly in my opinion, and I have loved all of my walks. My last two walks for this month were fabulous! On Day 30, I hiked around Red Rocks (outside of Denver). Then I was in Utah on Day 31 and hiked in Arches National Park. Both are a must-see if you’re ever in that part of the country.

Red Rocks

Arches National Park

Overall, I have really enjoyed this experimonth. I agree with Erin, I’ve always considered myself a walker. I’ve always opted to walk somewhere instead of ride or drive if possible, whether it be all around campus in college, to the outdoor exhibits at work, or to a restaurant that’s sort of far away in a city I’m visiting. That’s the reason this experimonth has been so easy and at the same time slightly challenging for me. Easy because I love to walk so it’s no big deal to go out on a quick 20-minute walk. Challenging because I  walk so much already that I had to figure out what I wanted to count as my experimonth walking.

On that note, it was also interesting to have a walking partner over the past few days while on my road trip. As I was looking forward to all the chances to walk around the cities and parks we were traveling through, my friend Amber (who used to love to walk around UNC’s campus while in college as much as I did) reluctantly walked with me. Each day, after fabulous walks through St. Louis, Denver, and Arches National Park, Amber wanted to make sure we had gotten our mile in for the day and didn’t have to do any more walking. Yes, but I could have kept walking and walking and walking.

I’m actually a bit sad this month has come to an end. (For one, I’m not too sure how excited I am about June’s experimonth as I sit here at 5:30 am writing this.) I’ve been thinking about where I could walk for each of the next couple days while I’m still on my trip to California, but then realized I don’t need to worry about it anymore. But I want to still try to take relaxing walks just because as much as possible from here on out because I found that to be very enjoyable for me this month. Walk on!

For the record, here’s a log of my daily walks from this month:

• May 1, 4pm: 1 hour/on trails and streets near Museum/with Jeff and Beck
• May 2, 5pm: 1.25 miles/on Al Beuhler trail
• May 3, 9pm: 1.00 mile/on neighborhood streets
• May 4, 6:30am: 1.5 miles/on neighborhood streets/with Lucy (dog)
• May 5, 6:30am: 1.5 miles/on neighborhood streets/with Lucy
• May 6, 6:30 am: 1.5 miles/on neighborhood streets (part of morning jog)
• May 7, 6:30 am: 1.0 mile/on neighborhood streets/with Lucy
• May 8, 6:30 am: 1.5 miles/on neighborhood streets (part of morning jog)
• May 9, 8:00 am: 1.5 miles/on neighborhood streets (part of morning jog)
• May 10: walked around UNC campus
• May 11: walked around UNC campus
• May 12: FAIL
• May 13, 12 noon: 1.0 mile/took a break to walk on trails through Dino Trail and Catch the Wind at the Museum
• May 14, 7:30 pm: 1.25 miles/walked to grocery store
• May 15: FAIL
• May 16, 7:00 pm: 1.5 miles/on neighborhood streets/with Lucy
• May 17, 5:30 pm: 1.0 mile/on track at gym after my workout (rainy outside all day)
• May 18, 12:30 pm: 45 minutes/on trails and streets near Museum/with Beck
• May 19, 2:00 pm: 1.0 mile/on trails near Museum
• May 20, 8:00 pm: 1.25 miles/on neighborhood streets (at end of run)
• May 21, 9:00 pm: 1.0 mile/on neighborhood streets/with Lucy
• May 22, 6:30 am: 2.5 miles/on neighborhood streets (part of morning jog)
• May 23, 5:00 pm: 1.5 miles/on neighborhood streets
• May 24, 11:00 am: 1.25 miles/on trail at Apex Community Park (at end of run)
• May 25, 7:00 pm: 1.0 mile/on neighborhood streets/with Lucy
• May 26, 8:00 am: 2.0 miles/on neighborhood streets (at end of run)
• May 27, 8:00 pm: walk on Monon Trail in Indianapolis (with Erin, Evan, Amber)
• May 28, 12:30 pm: walking around St. Louis (with Amber)
• May 29, 7:00 pm: walking around Denver on way to dinner (with Amber and Mary Todd)
• May 30, 11:30 am: 1.4 mile hiking trail at Red Rocks in Colorado (with Amber and Mary Todd)
• May 31, 4:30 pm: 1.1 mile hiking trail in Arches National Park in Utah (with Amber)

Finishing Strong

For the last walk of the month, Evan and I took advantage of the beautiful day and drove a quick 10 minutes to Fort Harrison State Park east of Indianapolis.  We spent over three hours walking.  My best estimate in terms of miles covered would be around five.  We hit some geocaches while we were out and also managed to get lost in the woods for a bit.  After jumping the river six different times and bushwacking our way through knee high foliage, we did finally find our way back to the car.

I’ve really enjoyed this month’s activity.  I always considered myself a walker and considering the ease with which “walk a mile a day” was accomplished, I proved myself right.  I only missed four days of walking the entire month.  On many walks, I went much further than a mile.  All tallied, I most likely covered 44 consciously-walked miles by foot.  While I can’t say I am going to walk as frequently in the future as I have this month, I at least confirmed that I do enjoy walks and will continue to take advantage of the trails and neighborhood sidewalks as long as the weather stays sunny.  Regardless of how often I go out in future, I have always viewed walks as a way to self-reflect or to spend time (cheaply) with friends and family.  I look forward to the miles I have yet to cover and am excited to see what they bring.

36 out of 50

Friday’s walk was along the Canal in White River State Park downtown.  I had walked a bit of it before when I visited the Eiteljorg Museum earlier in the month.  This time I went the other direction, walking through pods of school groupseating lunch outside of the State Museum, admiring various sculptures, smiling to myself at a family taking time to count turtles in the canal and finally turning around on the path that went behind the Indianapolis Zoo.  This was about noon and one thing that struck me was the sheer number of 1) joggers, single and in pairs, and 2) people who seemed to be walking the path on their lunch break from work.  I also began to recall my time on the Monon Trail this month with the hoards of joggers/bikers/walkers that I’ve seen out both in the evenings and around lunchtime. 

I was reminded of an article I read on the stair climber on Thursday.  In summary, it stated that of the 50 most populous metro cities in the U.S., Indianapolis ranked #36 in fitness…rather low.  It is not surprising when you look at the state rankings; Indiana ranks 9th “fattest”(tied with Michigan and Oklahoma).  I don’t find myself in the position to question the validity of the findings, but as I have been dodging people who seem to care about their fitness all month, I was a bit surprised.  If the trails of Indianapolis are heavily populated at many different times of day, I could only imagine how busy trails and parks in, say, Washington D.C. must be.  So where’s the difference in ranking?    Maybe the difference does not lie in those who I have seen out on the trails, but those who stay indoors.  So it must be that couch potatoes in D.C. are healthier, in general, than those in Indianapolis.  Hmmm… this may be yet another characteristic I don’t think I will ever share with my fellow Hoosiers.

Fitting it in

This week has been a bit busy…not that I’m complaining.  I’ve been away at my new job for the past three days training.  It’s been a whole day endeavor although it’s only a part time position.  After work, Tuesday night was yoga, Wednesday Elizabeth came in and Thursday I had a standing date with Evan for the gym.  I’m used to being able to fit in my walks whenever I feel like it but this week it has been hard.  I admit, I skipped the walk on Tuesday – I didn’t get home until 7:00 and we were done with dinner at 8:00.  Neither of us felt like moving much.  Wednesday, as you know, I was able to get a walk in with Elizabeth after dinner.  Thursday, though, there would have been very little time, so I fit it in to my exercise routine.  For my warm up and between sets of weights or crunches, I would walk/run a few laps around the track.  Sixteen times around and my mile was complete.  I’m not exactly satisfied with this scenario, though.  It didn’t seem as purposeful as taking the time to walk a full mile all in one go.  If the month weren’t nearly up, I would have to work out some sort of morning walk schedule on work days like Beck has become accustomed to.

Walking on the Road

A walking update from my California road trip:

Day 1: Walk along the Monon trail in Indianapolis with co-experimenter Erin, her husband Evan, and my friend Amber, following a lovely dinner at a local brewery.

Indianapolis

Day 2: 30 minute walk around St. Louis to see the arch. After walking around for a while to find a place to eat lunch, Amber asked to make sure that had counted for our mile for the day. Yes, that counted, I replied.

St. Louis

Even though I got my mile in at lunchtime in St. Louis, Amber and I walked for another 30 minutes or so along Massachusetts Ave. in downtown Lawrence, Kansas in search of dinner. I love exploring college towns, especially ones with a strong basketball tradition (Kansas is the “Birthplace of North Carolina Basketball” after all, according to one t-shirt we saw in Lawrence).

Lawrence, KS

Can’t wait to see what walking is in store for us on Day 3 and beyond of the road trip!

The Mechanics of Group Walking

Yesterday I was able to walk with my co-experimonther Elizabeth when she visited Indianapolis en route to California.  Evan and Elizabeth’s friend, Amber also joined the walk.  We walked after dinner at local brewery, which happened to be on the Monon Trail.  Walking in a group like this got me thinking…what is the most effective placement of people who are walking in a group together talking?  As we dodged after-dinner bikers and runners (or did they dodge us?) I found ourselves making a square with the four people in the group – Elizabeth and I in the front, followed by Amber and Evan.  With this arrangement, group talk was difficult and conversation typically was between just the front partners or just those in back.    It would have been rude to all walk shoulder-to-shoulder as the bikers and joggers may get into their minds it would be okay to run one of us over.   A line would be silly – then no one would be able to talk to another.    So there we were, stuck in two-by-two orientation.  Occasionally one of us in the front would turn around to talk to those in the back, but you had to be careful not to turn your back too long lest a stray rollerblader come your way.  So, though I enjoyed the time with my two new walking partners, it is much easier to achieve this walking/talking thing in a pair.  I have yet to find the perfect foursome orientation.

Ritual

One of my heroines, Twyla Tharp, talks about morning rituals in her book The Creative Habit.  Her morning ritual involves getting up at 5:30am, putting on workout clothes, going outside and hailing a cab to the gym.  By the time she’s in the cab it’s too late to not go and her day gets started in a routine and productive way.  She mentions her morning ritual in a book about creativity because she points out that rituals can be a fantastic coping mechanism for things we do not understand… like God and love and creativity.

Besides giving me productivity, May’s experimonth has given me ritual.  I wake up, throw on a pair of shorts and some shoes and walk around the neighborhood, mentally dress-rehearsing and planning my day.  By my walk’s end, I am awake and well on my way towards being more deliberate with my motivations and my time.  On mornings that I have early meetings, I get up earlier so that I can accommodate my walk.  I know it’s only been a little while, but this is one habit that I am certain to not give up in three days.

Road Trip

Tomorrow, I’m leaving on a cross-country trip to California. I am helping my best friend move to San Diego and we are going to take a circuitous route to get there. The plan is to be in Indianapolis by Wednesday evening and in Denver on Friday. Other than that, we have no definite plans. So I don’t know exactly where I’ll be walking each day, but I do know that a mile walk will be a perfect way to stretch my legs after a long day of driving and explore whatever city we wind up in. I’ll keep you posted! 

Does Cumulative Count?

Time to fess up.  I didn’t walk yesterday.  I could blame it on the vacuum salesperson that came to may door 5 minutes after I arrived home from work (seriously, a vacuum salesman!) interrupting the cleaning I had to do before a friend came over.  But had the salesman not come to the door, I probably would have skipped the walk anyway.  I had a long to do list and needed a quick nap and naptime trumps walktime every time. 

This is not the first walk I’ve skipped this month.  A couple weeks ago there was a rainy day that made my head feel stuffy and my legs feel lazy so I consciously decided not to seek out a dry place to walk.  But hey, two days missed out of twenty-three aren’t bad.  Of all the experimonths (except maybe February’s) this month has the highest “success” rate.  And I’m more than successful if I go by Evan’s rule for me this month:  extra miles walked can count for missed miles. 

Since the first weekend of the experiment this has been the ongoing debate between us.  If I walk 2 miles on day #1, can I skip day #2?  I say no.  The goal is to walk a mile a day, not 31 miles this month.  But he prefers the “savings account” method.  Since I walked 6 miles on day #2, I have five days I can skip…tempting, but I think it’s cheating a little.  I don’t view that as the goal of the month.  Like Beck, for me it’s not walking for walking’s sake, but taking the time to do something out of the ordinary to learn more about your community, yourself, etc.  So, I know that I just presented a one sided argument, but what do you all think about the “savings account” method?