Tuesday 15 August 2006
Walking
Posted in Goals
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DS14
has an early morning scripture study class. Getting up for this
is always a challenge for me (and more of a challenge for him), so we
are hoping we will be able to continue getting up and out so early in
the AM for the entire school year.(which just began yesterday). I am also wanting to make the time while I am waiting for him more productive. Not being a morning person, this is not normally a "productive" time of the day for me -- except for maybe 'producing' a few zzzzzz's!  In the past, I have either sat in the car and snoozed, attempted to read or watched the news my little TV. Or I've gone back home and checked email, or napped on the couch. I am going to try something different this year...I'm going to walk. Not run... Not jog... Not even power walk... Just plain walk -- I'll try to remember to move my arms, but right now even that isn't a priority -- just getting up and moving is the objective. I set the timer for 15 minutes, thinking I'd walk until it went off and then turn around and head back to the church. At about 10 minutes, I ran out of street lights. (I told ya it was 'early morning' -- as in pre-dawn). Anyway, I didn't want to walk down an unlit street so I turned around. It actually turned out to be a good thing, cuz if I'd have walked away from church for another 5 minutes, I would have overextended myself. As it was, I was nicely invigorated when I got back to the parking lot. I could feel that the blood was moving through my body and if I'd have had to talk it would have caused me to be out of breath...so the distance and pace were actually about right for me as I strive to add this new activity to my life. After my son came out I drove the route I'd walked and it was 0.6 miles (round trip) -- a nice start, as far as I'm concerned. So, my goal is to continue this at least 3 mornings a week, until I feel it is time to increase distance, pace or frequency. Then I'll re-evaluate and update this particular goal. In addition, I plan to read something inspirational after my walk (I had about 10 minutes left before the class was over). I found it a bit easier to focus on my reading after walking this morning -- maybe because there was a little blood flowing to my brain?  Wish me luck -- mostly with the getting up part! (Encouragement is always welcome, too.)  ************************************************************************************************ 8/16/2006 -- walked 0.6 miles in 16 minutes (slightly faster than yesterday). Read Standing for Something for 10 minutes. ************************************************************************************************ 8/18/2006 -- walked 0.6 miles in 17 minutes Read 10 minutes I met my goal to walk a minimum of 3 days...hope to do at least one more day next week. ************************************************************************************************* 8/21/2006 -- walked 0.6 miles in 17 minutes. Read for 10 minutes. ************************************************************************************************* 8/22/2005 -- overslept. No walking, no reading. Son missed his class.  ************************************************************************************************* 8/23/2006 -- walked 0.6 miles in 16 minutes. I stepped up the pace a little, and could feel the difference in my heart rate and breathing. I was hoping to shave off a little more time than one minute, but, oh well...it's still progress. Right?  I did attempt to read today, but wasn't able to focus very well, so only managed about a paragraph and will probably end up reading it again tomorrow. It happens sometimes, especially when I'm tired -- as I was this morning. I'll have to get more rest tonight. ************************************************************************************************* 8/24/2006 -- Drumroll please.....  well, okay, I guess I gotta let the whole band play along.....Today I walked 1, yes, that's ONE, mile!!!!!!!!!! In 23 minutes!  I hadn't planned to, but by the time I finished my normal route, I felt like I was just reaching my 'peak' and didn't want to stop just then. So I walked on until I felt like I was tiring and then turned around and went back to the car. 1 mile in 23 minutes...I feel great! Reading -- I read for 10 minutes after I walked, but also listened to several tracks of American Gospel on a cheapy little $5 mp3 player while I walked. Another interesting book. It was interesting reading Standing for Something after listening to American Gospel -- they seemed to overlap and correlate somewhat . Maybe I'll write a blog entry about that sometime, or about where I feel I am being led, but too much going on for that right now... I've been thinking I should probably get SfS on CD, so I can listen to it, my reading progress is so slow! I've been reading for a week and am still in the introduction! LOL Anyway, all in all, a very productive early morning. *************************************************************************************************** |