Almost 3.5 Miles By 9:30 Almost

My dog wanted to go out so we did a mile before 7:30 this morning and then I went to get the paper. A little while after coming back home I found my son was still sleeping and decided to do a couple more miles. I walked the "Big Block", which in my lingo is all the way around about a quarter of our "greater neighborhood". [Ya hadda be there?] For locals it's Xana Way to Alga, then Melrose north to Carrillo Way and back around to Xana in the simplest way possible.

During the descent towards Carrillo Way I noticed that I felt the lactic acid burn in my left calf more than in my right (a first) and I wondered if that might be because I'm right-handed and therefore probably right-footed, too. I also noticed that I was moving pretty fast and some people might consider this pace speed walking. I just knew it was cold and I was moving fast enough to keep warm. Maybe I finally reached the threshold of making my calves do some extra work. Half a mile later while I was coming up the hill I noticed that the lactic acid in my left calf had lessened and both calves felt the same another quarter mile later as the terrain leveled out. I'll ask Christine Burke at Fitness Together about it. When I got back home my pedometer said almost 3.5 miles and it was a little past 9:30 (on Saturday!).

I am walking. You can walk. Please walk today. No matter what.

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I've mentioned before that one of the reasons I like walking and writing about it is that about 99% of us can do it. I found the site of someone who may prove that MORE than 99% of us can do it. Her name is Stacey James and she's a motivational speaker who was paralyzed from the neck down in a diving accident. The motto on her website is "Equipping people to rise above the challenges of life." She's at WalkingVictorious.com.

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Remember FreeRice.com.

A Walk Before Toastmasters

If you've never been to Toastmasters, you should visit one or two clubs near you. We learn how to be more comfortable speaking in a group or in public. I've been a member of Expressions Unlimited, our Carlsbad club, for almost eight years. I found a club that's a good fit for me with some great people. Today at noon I was the Toastmaster of the day, which means that I'm the one running the meeting. Each meeting has a theme and mine was walking. Surprise. The meeting went well and our enthusiastic members really would have made you feel at home if you had been there. If you google expressions unlimited toastmasters, you can easily find the club blog. You can also check out the LINKS section of Big Man Walking over on the right of this page. I hope you visit a club and if you're near Carlsbad, California I hope you'll come see us.

This morning I took dropped my son off for calculus and instead of going home and puttering around for 10 minutes I went straight to Toastmasters. I was just over 45 minutes early and so I decided to take a walk. Our club is near the ocean and I could hear the waves as I walked to the southwest. I found a staircase I hadn't explored before and went down to the beach, stopping on the bottom step. I like finding ways to take a walk in street clothes as I hope to show people that walking more frequently can also be fairly convenient. I spent a few minutes taking in the beautiful view of the ocean on this cold, clear day. I had a smile on my face as I turned to go back up to the street and I walked to Fresco Trattoria on Carlsbad Village Drive. I sometimes see bumper stickers referring to this area that say something like "Locals call it Elm." I guess there was controversy over the name change some years back.

I realized that I didn't need to go to 101, which many people call Pacific Coast Highway or PCH, so I went back toward the beach and walked the path at street level which ends up along 101 as it sidles up against the Pacific. I stopped at the 30 MPH sign across 101 from the Tamarack Beach Resort and turned to go back to my Toastmasters meeting. Along the way I had a quick conversation with a woman reading a book on the bench titled The Best Travel Writing: True Stories from Around the World 2006. She said she liked the book and really liked our beach and places to walk in Carlsbad. I said goodbye and walked back past Fresco Trattoria again on my way back to Heritage Hall at Magee Park where Expressions Unlimited meets. My pedometer said I had walked 1 1/4 miles, some of it briskly and some of it leisurely, and then I was really ready for Toastmasters and my theme of the day: Walking. My walk took me 27 minutes.

I am walking. You can walk. Please walk today. No matter what.

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I really think FreeRice.com is a fantastic idea. Click on the title of this post to go there.

I See Bike People

Maybe it's just me, but now that I've been walking purposefully for almost a month, I sense some solidarity with the people riding bikes. I've given the thumbs up a couple times and turned some heads. The same goes for runners, which is kind of like doing what I'm doing, only faster. I notice how many people are out walking, running and biking and there are a lot of us.

Some of the bicycle riders seem to be having fun and some look pretty darn serious. I've observed that runners almost always look serious. These are just some observations from someone who seems to have discovered a view of the world that he had been missing. Are you missing it? Like John Lennon sang, "I hope someday you'll join us..."

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I'm going to stick with this website for a while. Please send your friends to Big Man Walking and tell them to click on the title of the post. Send them to http://TheBigManWalking.blogspot.com.
By clicking on the title of the post you'll be taken to...you'll see. What a genius idea. People are having fun, learning and people are getting fed! I love the internet sometimes.

Walking While People Watching

I dropped my son off for calculus and found a parking space that was further away from the campus than I had hoped. No problem. I'll just walk a little more. He just has 50 minutes of class at the campus today, so there's no reason to go back home. I walked to the northern classrooms and back down to the student union several times and while I did that I watched the people. Mostly young. College students seem amazingly young. I remember Dana Carvey on the Tonight Show with that other host...what was his name? Oh, yeah...Johnny Carson. Johnny commented on how young he looked and he said something like, "You should have seen me when I FIRST started. I looked like a fetus with shoes." I wouldn't quite go that far, but maybe embryonic is close. (And if you don't KNOW who Dana Carvey is, you might be really young. Ever seen the movie Wayne's World? He plays Garth.)

I liked seeing all the different faces and hearing the occasional bits of cell phone conversation. I saw people in earnest conversation in the student union. Some people sitting alone. A group telling each other stories loudly outside the bookstore. Two different guys greeting to different girls with nothing more than a raised eyebrow and tilt of the head. A dozen people about my age.

I only noticed one other person out of hundreds who seemed to be walking for exercise and I remembered a conversation with the dad of one of my son's friends. He is in good, even great shape and I think that's why he thinks of walking as boring. His wife was training for a half-marathon or something and he ran with her just to keep her company. I guess that if you can RUN a half-marathon, walking might seem that way. We all have to start somewhere. Plus, when you actually start walking more, if you pay attention, you'll see and hear things while you walk that are actually interesting. I urge you to walk more, even if you are like the guy I wrote about in the previous post who started out unable to do 40 yards. If you can do nothing else, you can do an extra 100 steps a day. I know that's not true for so many of you. Can you do 30 extra steps an hour? That's in the neighborhood of a quarter mile a day. I'm sure you can do a quarter mile, half mile, mile or two or more from the start. Measure your walking and exercise in general against your past performance. With walking, using a pedometer is an easy way to measure, provided you get one that works. I like my step pedometer and that's what I recommend until I explore other pedometric (I'm pretty sure that's a word.) options. The thing is, whether it's 100 steps or 5000 steps or more, you must take that first step. Take that step today.

I am walking. You can walk. Please walk today. No matter what.

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My honey met someone in Florida who told her about a site where we can have a little fun, pass a little time, learn a little and truly be of service to people. It's called FreeRice.com and they gave away a lot of rice yesterday and they will again today. They are feeding people and you can (essentially) play a game to help feed those people. Awesome. What a genius. I think for the foreseeable future I will put that link under the title of each post.

Walking By The Pool

National Weather Service confirms that technically speaking, it's C-O-L-D here. I was walking the dog a little bit ago and saw two guys in the pool area. One was walking in the pool and it's not the first time. The other was in our complex's jacuzzi. I got to talking with guy in the pool who said he's 67 and a couple years ago he couldn't walk 40 yards. Now he walks in the pool for exercise on a regular basis and can walk a mile at a time. I hope you can walk more than 40 yards, but if you can't right now our "pool guy" is a hopeful sign for you. I told him that I've walked around 120 miles since January 1 and he told me to keep it up. That's how he started to tell me his story. Walking can open up conversations with people you haven't met before, if you let it. There's a little bit of a feeling that we're all in this (struggle?) together. Join us.

I am walking. You can walk. Please walk today. No matter what.

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Click on the title of this post to read about water or pool walking.

12 Minute Walk

You can walk a few extra minutes when you get the mail or go out to find something in the car or when you knock on a neighbor's door. Stay outside and walk 10 or 12 more minutes or even 5 or 6. I saw that I had a little time before the phone call to my honey in Florida and took the dog out for about 12 minutes. I walked about half a mile. Even a quarter of a mile extra per day adds up over 365 or 366 days. If you walk just a little bit over a quarter of a mile extra per day, during the course of a year, you will have walked an extra 100 miles.

My trainer friend, Christine Burke, tells me that 1 mile burns 100 calories on average and 3500 calories burned is what it takes to lose one pound. So, for a little effort beyond whatever you're currently doing, you can lose approximately three EXTRA pounds per year. Doesn't seem like much, you say? Well, if you think of it the opposite way...that you UNDERexercised that much per year. That would mean you GAINED an extra three pounds per year and that's how you can put on an extra 30 pounds over 10 years. Plus, if you actually lost the extra weight instead of gaining it, the difference between what you could have gained and what you actually lost over 10 years adds up to 60 pounds!

I am walking. You can walk. Please walk today. No matter what.

I Feel Better

There's a buzz in my body. My guess is that I'm feeling improved circulation. Whatever it is, I definitely feel better. It seems like my mind is clearer. You can benefit, too.

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Click on Health Benefits of Walking or the title of this post to see the About.com article.

Health Benefits of Walking

OK, I'm Up

I have a bunch of stuff to do the first few hours this morning, but I'm up. I just have to let the dog find a defenseless stationary object. I WILL walk in a few hours.

I will walk. I will.

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In the meantime, click on the title of this post to visit Walkable.org, the website of Walkable Communities, a non-profit corporation helping North America develop walkable communities.

Full Moon Record

This is one of the coldest Januaries (does the plural of January look funny or is it just me? It's right. I looked it up at Dictionary.com.) I can remember in North County. I'm sure my friend Gordon near Salem, Massachusetts (Yes. That Salem.) wouldn't really think of this as cold, but for this part of California it is really and truly cold.

Last night and tonight the full moon has been beautiful during my walks with the dog. I was reminded of nearly 30 years ago waiting in line with my brother and my dad in the middle of the night at the Salton Sea. We went hunting there a couple times. My dad and older brothers went a lot more than I did - especially my oldest brother, Mike. He's the one who had pancreatitis recently. I've never really thought of the Grateful Dead and my family before now. But I can honestly say "What a long, strange trip it's been." I'm not going to get maudlin here. I just touched a happy memory when I was taking a walk is all.

I'm happy to say that today is a new high on the long (strange?) walking trip I'm taking - over 8 1/2 miles. Visit my stats at Lime.com.

I am walking. You can walk. Please walk today. No matter what.

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I saw this amazing story about a father who found out he had a daughter, Tran Thi Kham, who had been looking for him and didn't realize that she had found him. It might make you believe in miracles. Click on the title of this post to read the BBC story.

Six Miles By 1 (Almost)

First, I want to remind you that each of us, you and I, are competing against ourselves. I'm competing against my past performance (no guarantee of future results?). So, when I get home from completing a 2 1/2 mile walk and today's total so far of six miles, I must remember that I'm not competing against Tommy Daly.

Who's Tommy Daly? I was thinking the same thing when I saw the giant poster on his garage. Apparently, a guy in the neighborhood ran in the H.U.R.T. 100 mile trail race over the weekend and did 100 miles in 35 hours and 18 minutes. I did my 100 miles in 21 days...

H.U.R.T. stands for Hawaii Ultra Running Team. I don't think I even qualify for the Ultra WALKING team yet. You just can't compare yourself to the super athletes if you're not part of that group. And everyone is different, so stick with comparing you to you.

As for me, I was walking at Palomar College while my son, Stuart, was in Calculus class. I got a nice surprise. I walked the track five times and found that my quarter mile is around 498 steps now as opposed to 575 when I measured last summer. If I have improved, that's great. If the shoes make a difference, if I walked the middle of the track this time, if I was overly careful in the steps I took last summer, whatever...I don't really mind the reason. It's good to know that only 498 steps are a quarter mile for me, which means a mile is 1992 steps. I guess I'll keep measuring to stay on top of it in the future.

That brings me to my six miles before 1 pm (almost). My pedometer said 12063 steps when I got inside the door, so the six miles is correct because 11952 (less than 12063!) steps is 6 times 1992. But, it was a couple minutes past 1. Still a great achievement for me, Charlie Hicks-Moore.

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Click on the title of this post to see the H.U.R.T. blog.

100 Miles In 21 Days

From January 1, 2008 through 9:00 pm January 21, 2008 my pedometer has counted over 230,000 steps which for me translates into 100 miles! Yes!

I am walking. You can walk. Please walk today. No matter what.

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Click on the title of this post to see my daily numbers recorded at Lime.com.

Walking As A Value

I arrived at Rubio's in Mira Mesa a little early and while I was waiting I walked up and down the food court. I used to be bugged a little (or more than a little) when I had to wait. I remember when I was in life insurance almost ten years ago I told a coworker that I almost left for an appointment without him when he was eight minutes late. While he did have a tendency to overschedule so as to value his time over the client's, I did not realize then how out of balance I was.

I was meeting a church friend for noon lunch to introduce him to the Fiesta Salad because it's such a good fit for the South Beach diet that he's on to improve his triglycerides. Because I am paying attention to when and where I can walk (almost anywhere) I noticed that I could simply get some walking in while I waited. I value walking. I hope you do, too. Even those of you who get so much other exercise can benefit by walking while you wait. A fair skinned animated beauty once sang "Whistle while you work," but I say "Walk while you wait". My pedometer said I walked 1/2 mile right before lunch at Rubio's. When you value walking, you won't see all the waiting time as wasted and maybe, like me, you'll find yourself in a good enough mood that you'll be more gracious than I was when I was in life insurance.

Now the dog is waiting...

I am walking. You can walk. Please walk today. No matter what.

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I googled Big Man Walking and found that my recent post came up in 13th position. Click on the title of this post to see that search result for Big Man Walking.