Walk the Talk - Steps Update

Time to take accounting of what I did and didn't do in my walking program.

 The history looks like this ...

May                           11,133 Average Steps (Partial Month - no real goals)
June                          10,306 Average Steps (Goal 10,000)
July                             9,849 Average Steps (Goal 10,500) - failed to reach goal
August                      10,782 Average Steps (Goal 10,500)


September looks like this ...
September                11,212 Average Steps (Goal 10,750)

But it wasn't as pretty as it looks here.  Several days I fell below 5,000 steps.  Of course, other days I was thousands of steps above my goal average.  This is why I like to look at averages over a month's time.  

I made my step goal average for September.  Time to bump the goal up to 11,000 steps average per day for October.   Looks like that goal will be do-able.

Bumping my step goal each month has been a good way to keep focused and increase my activity.  I haven't decided what the final goal will settle out to be - obviously there is a normal ceiling for most people - what you physically want out of your exercise and how much time you can devote to the pursuit of a number.

I am not training for anything.  I am just trying to find a good fitness and energy level.  

So I am still undecided what makes sense for me!  But I am pleased with my progress.

Talk the Walk - Update

Woke up today just plain tired - and for a change I slept really good.  

What gives??

I increased my walking in September.  Maybe I just need to take a rest day today.  Sometimes I wake up tired and then get a second wind.  Maybe when I get that second wind, I need to just use it for something else and let my body rest today.

Looking back I can see I am making progress.

May                         11,133 Average Steps (Partial Month - no real goals)
June                         10,306 Average Steps (Goal 10,000)
July                            9,849 Average Steps (Goal 10,500)
August                     10,782 Average Steps (Goal 10,500)
September (to date)  13,000+ Average Steps (Goal 10,750)

White blazes on the Appalachian Trail

Some of this progress is due to the mind games I like to use to keep me motivated.  Mind games are a useful tool in the walker's arsenal - especially when you are starting a walking program.  In August I started virtually walking the Appalachian Trail (walking north) on my blog.  And in September I started on the Appalachian Trail on Walker Tracker (walking south).  The Walker Tracker event is not a race, but I like to note my position with other participants.  I am in 4th out of 14 (as of this morning).  Some have not logged their steps for yesterday yet, so I am probably somewhere in the middle of the pack - which is my usual position in these events.  I like holding down the middle!!

At this point I should meet myself on the trail

 coming from the south

 and coming from the north

 maybe in January 2013.

  :-)

Anyway the double incentives of walking the trail in both directions have caught up with me today and I think I will lay low.  If I were really on the Appalachian Trail, this would be a rest day spent in one of those 3-sided shelters.  I imagine it would be a rainy day spent waiting for the skies to clear sharing walking stories with other hikers who are also waiting out the weather.  A rest day.

Walking the dogs this afternoon and evening will do for me.  I will share my "walking stories" with them.

So how are you doing on the trail?

Talk the Walk - Virtual Appalachian Trail Hike

Some people have a "bucket list" ... stuff they want to see or do before they die.  I don't have that kind of list.

But over the last 10 years or so, I have had a small voice inside me that whispers a nagging message.

"Too bad you never hiked the Appalachian Trail."  

Yeah ... I know ... that sounds like sort of a mid-life crisis reaction ... something you do because you fear advancing age and you gotta squeeze in just one more thing ... hoping to slow down the march of time.  Some people buy a red sports car, some have an extra marital affairs, some take up running, some live in house boat and sail off to see the world.

Me? ... I would have loved to walk the Appalachian Trail.  

Well, I am past my mid-life now at 65.  But the AT hike idea did pop into my head around 50.  And although my husband and I discovered light hiking late in life (our 50's), our later years have been filled with family responsibilities for me and increasing visual impairment for him.  So even light hiking now is out unless you considered the walk from the kitchen to the living room a "light hike".  We weren't campers, or hikers, or outdoors enthusiasts earlier in life.  The preparation for so strenuous an adventure wasn't there. 

But it doesn't stop me from reading about people who have taken long hikes.  Currently I am reading Walking Home, A Woman's Pilgrimage on the Appalachian Trail by Kelly Winters (publication 2001).

Does she look 65 years old to you?
hmm
Maybe in my next life.

It is one of many books I have read about people who have thru-hiked this 2160 mile trail on the eastern coast of the US.  I recommend it if you enjoy arm chair travel books that share an adventure you probably would never take.  I think it is out of print, but my library had it. 

Then I got to thinking.  I can't actually walk the AT trail, but wouldn't it be fun to virtually walk it.  This trail has a long shared documented history with many pictures.  Wouldn't it be fun to periodically apply my milage to the Appalachian Trail (AT) map and see where I wind up each time.  What are the sights I passed and the typical challenges of that trail, what can I expect going forward, and how long would it take for me to virtually walk the entire distance?  Yes, I am not making sterling progress on my current 1,000 miles a year goal - although I am picking up steam (and distance - with more on that later).  But, heck, it is a virtual walk and I am actually walking the steps anyway so why not see how they play out on the AT map.

This new posting series will be called The Virtual Appalachian Trail Hike.  And I will do my first post at the beginning of September.  It will give me time to get organized.  I will apply my total August mileage to the AT and report on what I passed with pictures.  (I will try to avoid waxing on about my virtual blisters!)

I am also looking for an online map of the AT that will allow me to post a little marker on it - sort of a visual that shows where I virtually am.  I haven't found anything yet.

I would welcome company - either with comments on my "adventures" or with reports on your own progress should you care to join me in this walk.  Hey, come on!  2160 miles sounds like a big number, but ... really ... it is just a walk in the woods!

Oh, you should also check out A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson! (My review here.) It is my favorite book of all time!  It is the story of the author walking the trail.  He is so unprepared at first that he makes me look like an AT veteran!  Great fun.

Cheers!  

Talk the Walk - The Big Picture: Age Well

Keeping the "big picture" in mind is very important to me.

It is easy to get distracted by breaks in exercise, times when the pattern of activity gets interrupted by life in general.  It is then when the temptation to take the easy road (the couch) is the strongest.

For me - I have really only one goal - my big picture:  age well, age comfortably, age with enough energy and flexibility to do what I want for a long time.

Aging well - guess that means different things to different people.  So often in our culture aging well means: keeping up with the younger generation, wearing a size 4 or 6 pair a jeans, using the advances in medicine to "correct" the signs of a aging, applying more make up to look younger.  Sometimes those things just point out your increased age - not how "young" you are.

I wish our culture wasn't so shallow in their judgements of its older citizens.

Well, I can't change that.  But I can march to my own drum.

All the really "young at heart" people I know are active.  They are moving.  And they are interesting people who have active minds and bodies.  They are interested in living, thinking, creating.

I believe aging gracefully includes respect for the limitations of the aging body (that isn't supposed to live forever), and making the most of what body and mind are left to you at any given time of life.  It is accepting the limitations that nature has hard wired into you at birth while using the rest as best you can.

For me - walking is the key to the "big picture."

Talk the Walk - My History

I thought this picture was representative of what I am trying to do.
Bring back some of the person that I was before.
Connect the dots with walking.

When starting any new endeavor, talking it out can be helpful ... even if you are just talking to yourself.  So in this semi-regular blog post, I am going to pretend I am talking to myself - about me and walking.  I am happy to share this "talking to myself" with you.

Walking for me has been an on-again, off-again habit.  I started running back in my 30's.  I was younger and all my body parts cooperated without complaint (looking back I am amazed how little I appreciated that then.)  I was a hobby runner.  I ran about 2 miles several times a week.

On those runs I discovered a few things about me and exercise.

• I feel better within a week.  It happens just that fast.
• I improve in time and speed quickly.
• I sleep better.
• I am happier.
• I love the natural rhythm of running.

Also in my 30's I discovered that:

• Regardless of all the positives exercise gave me, I always stopped.  Always.

In my 30s, however, the benefits weren't so in-your-face important.  After all, I was 33, 35, 37 ... and I didn't need to do anything to feel better or look better or be normal.  I wasn't disintegrating before my very eyes.  I was going to live forever - every 30 year old knows that!!  So why work up a sweat if the person I see in the mirror is just fine!! (The logic of 30 year olds!)

So I stopped.

In my 40s, the person in the mirror was less sure about living forever.  I tried running again. Mistake!  My knees popped, my lower back spasmed, and my plantar faciitus (foot/heel pain) began ... all were a constant reminder that pounding the cement was probably not a good idea for me.  But still I tried, because I was never very good at listening to my body. After a few falls and injuries that benched me,  I stopped running, but tried walking.

I know, I know.  There are ways of working into a running routine safely, but that didn't happen. (The logic of 40 year olds is ... I am still 30. I don't need to do anything special.  I am still "young.")

So walking it was, and walking gave me all the same positive benefits. 

But still, I stopped.  

In my 50s the reality of the physical decline was hard to ignore. And now I knew I wasn't going to live forever.  But I still had another 100 good years ahead of me.  I also saw more of my future watching my mom struggle with the aging process that was complicated by her inactivity.  So I "fixed" my feet with prescription orthopedics, bought expensive walking shoes,  and put time aside to walk regularly.

And guess what happened ... (all together now), "She stopped."

Now I am in my 60's.  The road ahead doesn't look any rosier that it did 10 years ago. Regardless, I tried to keep walking, but it was an off-again, on-again kind of thing!  All the benefits I know by heart, all the consequences of non-movement clearly understood ... all the excuses have been used up.

So I am walking the roads again.

Next time:  Talk the Walk - Mind Games