The Walk (Part I)

After several months of being sedentary, I started walking again a few weeks back. It is always a bit humbling (if not aggravating) to have to start all over just to work towards where I started the last time I was walking. I have to stop the backsliding. Each time I stop, it is just a matter of time before I end up in worse shape than I ever was before.

The first few days it is always a struggle to go around the block. Sore joints, painful painful painful back, short of breath, coughing and hacking, sweat pouring off me like Niagara Falls. I know that I have to push through it, and eventually I can start adding to it. I waited until I'd been walking about three weeks before I attached my new pedometer to my waist (or where my waist is supposed to be, I haven't had a "waist" in 20 years). After thinking I was walking the equivalent of a marathon, I found out that on the first day of the pedometer wearing I had only reached around 6000 steps, far short of the 10,000 goal (that skinny jocks set for us all to achieve).

Put I keep truckin'. It is getting easier. Of course there are always days when it is difficult again, but for the most part it gets easier. And I'm seeing a lot more. Riding in a car, something I really don't enjoy much, you just miss out on life. I got to know Seattle over 20 years ago when I first moved here by walking and biking all over.

Now with my camera in my pocket, I've started snapping shots of things that catch my eye, things I might not pay attention to on a bus or in a car. Most days I walk downtown from work to catch my bus home, but I've switched that up a bit too - sometimes adding a lunch time walk, taking different bus routes, getting off early and walking home, or waiting until I get home to walk the trails.

Today I did a 35 minute lunch time walk, and then a walk downtown. Darn if I didn't get 8080 steps in. Oh well, it is closer than ever. I took it off once I got home. Probably add a few more steps to check on the chickens and walk about the house. I'll add a few more blocks - get off the bus a few stops earlier. Something.

These are some of the things I saw on my walk today.