I am in love with walking. Like, I'm probably one of those irritating people you'll meet who wants to tell you all about how much I love walking. So, here we are.  

I'm not a professional. I'm not all geared up nor are my goals intense or lofty. I do it for the dopamine, the daydreaming, and for my simple weightloss goals. 

For the past 2 months, I have been going short distances. I have two hills on either side of me. Hill K is .77 miles and an elevation of 80ft at the top compared to my starting point. My average of walking this and getting home is 14 minutes.

Hill F is .95 miles and an elevation of 160ft at the top compared to my starting point. My average walking this and getting home is 18 minutes.

I will usually do one in the morning and then the other later in the middle of the day. 

I also have been lifting weights while I walk them. Since Hill K is lower, I start with the heavy weights on that one while still doing lower weights on Hill F. 

This week, I am doing a 7.5 lbs in each hand for Hill K. And a 5 lbs weight in each hand when I go up Hill F. Sometimes, because the 5 lbs are so light for me by this point, I will walk up Hill F, then coming back, instead of going home, I will walk up Hill K and then come back down and go home, so I am getting more repetitions. Literally, I forget I'm pumping them while I'm going, I can't even feel it. Sunday is my set schedule to drop the 5 lbs and start doing the 7.5 lbs for both hills. And I'll lift these for a couple weeks before starting with the 10 lbs on Hill K.

My goal is to be lifting comfortably 15 lbs by the first week of October, and likely walking both hills in one sitting. I'm focusing less on the scale right now because I want to build up muscle. I'm more focusing on measurements.

I took a power walking course in college. It was fun.

Though, I preferred jogging.

@Ten Is your pup joining you on your walks?

(June 16, 2023 at 9:14 am)Tomato Wrote: I took a power walking course in college. It was fun.

Though, I preferred jogging.

They're very similar. I find it easier to mentally check out while walking, personally.

(June 16, 2023 at 10:54 am)arewethereyet Wrote: @Ten Is your pup joining you on your walks?

No. He is not a good listener so he needs to be leashed anytime we're outside. And I find it difficult to control him with two huge weights in my hands, in the case where we run into someone else or he sees a critter he likes.

(June 16, 2023 at 12:33 pm)Ten Wrote:

(June 16, 2023 at 9:14 am)Tomato Wrote: I took a power walking course in college. It was fun.

Though, I preferred jogging.

They're very similar. I find it easier to mentally check out while walking, personally.

(June 16, 2023 at 10:54 am)arewethereyet Wrote: @Ten Is your pup joining you on your walks?

No. He is not a good listener so he needs to be leashed anytime we're outside. And I find it difficult to control him with two huge weights in my hands, in the case where we run into someone else or he sees a critter he likes.

LOL - I understand that.  I have three, two are not only not good listeners but are also stubborn as hell.  The other one is a bit neurotic.  A loud car, a lawn mower, a trash truck...and he would need a Xanax and I'd have to carry him home.

I used to run quite a bit, got to be too much on my knees. I walk about as much as I used to run.

These days, I need to be motivated if I’m going to run. Ideally, being chased by a shrieking clown who’s waving a bloody knife.

Boru

(June 16, 2023 at 12:38 pm)arewethereyet Wrote: LOL - I understand that.  I have three, two are not only not good listeners but are also stubborn as hell.  The other one is a bit neurotic.  A loud car, a lawn mower, a trash truck...and he would need a Xanax and I'd have to carry him home.

Ugh, by the Yellow King, yes! That is exactly my poopy puppy. I adore him. He's a lovely companion, just us. But a car was coming down the driveway behind us one time and I was dragging him, inconsolable, back to the house. Like, bananas.

(June 16, 2023 at 1:40 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: I used to run quite a bit, got to be too much on my knees. I walk about as much as I used to run.

These days, I need to be motivated if I’m going to run. Ideally, being chased by a shrieking clown who’s waving a bloody knife.

Boru

Indeed. I can hit a certain point in my cardio development where I've jogged for a quarter mile before with this surreal feeling of "Am...am I running? This is easy...almost like these aren't even my legs..." Eventually it hits you, but for like 2 minutes straight I was clopping along at a good pace and looking around strangely like I just discovered that you could run without it feeling like hel to your lungs and body.

But yeah, it isn't my chosen exercise. I find that the least successful exercise routines for me are the ones where I have to be very "present" for. But then again, with the ADHD, that is pretty much any task. They call it maladaptive daydreaming. I call it multi-tasking.

Today is my last day with the 5 lbs weights. If weather permits, I'm going to walk both hills in one sitting with the 5's one last time. Then tomorrow, my routine becomes taking the 7.5 lbs up Hill F in the morning and then Hill K in the evening. We'll see how it feels. When I first jumped from the 3 lbs. to the 5 lbs, Hill F had me wheezing and I needed a 20 second breathing break at the top. Now, like I said, 5lbs and I'm doing both hills at once without stopping.

That's the kind of progress I look for now. My waistline might not feel smaller yet and the scale might be slow to go down. But when you can feel the difference in how you carry the weights and see how it was hard and then easy, THAT really speaks to stuff happening, yeah?

(June 17, 2023 at 8:51 am)Ten Wrote:

(June 16, 2023 at 12:38 pm)arewethereyet Wrote: LOL - I understand that.  I have three, two are not only not good listeners but are also stubborn as hell.  The other one is a bit neurotic.  A loud car, a lawn mower, a trash truck...and he would need a Xanax and I'd have to carry him home.

Ugh, by the Yellow King, yes! That is exactly my poopy puppy. I adore him. He's a lovely companion, just us. But a car was coming down the driveway behind us one time and I was dragging him, inconsolable, back to the house. Like, bananas.

(June 16, 2023 at 1:40 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: I used to run quite a bit, got to be too much on my knees. I walk about as much as I used to run.

These days, I need to be motivated if I’m going to run. Ideally, being chased by a shrieking clown who’s waving a bloody knife.

Boru

Indeed. I can hit a certain point in my cardio development where I've jogged for a quarter mile before with this surreal feeling of "Am...am I running? This is easy...almost like these aren't even my legs..." Eventually it hits you, but for like 2 minutes straight I was clopping along at a good pace and looking around strangely like I just discovered that you could run without it feeling like hel to your lungs and body.

But yeah, it isn't my chosen exercise. I find that the least successful exercise routines for me are the ones where I have to be very "present" for. But then again, with the ADHD, that is pretty much any task. They call it maladaptive daydreaming. I call it multi-tasking.

I used to run five miles, three days a week. Never got that ‘runner’s high’.

I feel so cheated.

Boru

The last two days I have only walked Hill F with the 7.5s. I've been doing yard work in the latter half of both days. It's a half acre, so, it takes me 2-3 days to mow and weed whack the entire thing. I've got the last third to do tomorrow. Today was awful. Sweat pouring off of me while working the hand mower. But damn, my yard looks nice.

Got some wild flower and sunflower seeds that I want to put in the tall grasses around the perimeter. Just before the tree line, there's some tall grass that I don't touch. Right now, they're just very plain grasses and fronds and those stupid thorny bushes(my mother says they're blackberry but really, I call them wicked queen bushes). I've done battle with them before and cut them back from the perimeter because when I'm passing by with the mower, the long branches touch me and the two inch fucking thorns GRAB my arm and YANK me backwards. The two that I have fought with have done it three times before I finally took the shears to them and I bled like crazy each time. ....anyway, wild flowers might do better as a border.

Yard work isn't as intensive as weight lifting but still counting it as exercise.

I have a secondary, secret goal. I aspire to be a tightrope walker. I'm working on it. Right now, I am doing balancing on one leg on the ground, trying to get a feel for my feet and how to problem solve staying balanced. I want to walking a beam of wood all of August. Like, as soon as we're in August, I want to be walking a beam of wood on the ground and practice that all month. Will set new goals once we get there.