Tuesday, January 17, 2006

The Walk™

Today was the first day of college classes (everything went fine), and I found myself just finishing dinner and errands at around 8:30 tonight. Most normal people would then go home--especially people with syllabi to revise. But anyone who's read the last two years and nine months of The Musings knows that this is no normal person. I had one more stop to make. Why? Because I'm addicted to The Walk™. (Is it possible to "trademark" a physical activity? Sure, why not--especially considering I did the same thing to a social event a few years ago.)

As I said at New Year's, my non-resolution is for there to be a little bit less of Kev within a few months, and what's left of me wants to be a lot more active and fit. The possible deterrent to this is that my schedule will allow me maybe two days at the gym at most (it would be three if it were still open on Sundays), so I decided that, weather and operating hours permitting, I would go to Firewheel and do The Walk™ on as many non-gym days as possible.

For those of you familiar with the layout of the place, I walk the entire "streetscape" portion, adding "bonus sections" if I've been at one of the Market food/drink places up front. I don't do the dorky swingy-arms thing like "power walkers" do, but my pace is faster than it would be if I were just shopping. I've been known to drag friends along on this if we're up there for some reason, but if it's just me, that's cool too. Even if I feel creaky from a day of sitting down in cramped practice rooms, I always feel better after walking. Oh, and I can't imagine doing this at an indoor mall, where I'd be the only one doing so who didn't have grandkids. There's something about a (simulated) small town setup that just makes it eminently...walkable.

Anyway, that's a quick update on progress since New Year's; I also have continued the crunches every morning. I don't weigh myself every day, or even every week, but I'm starting to feel smaller and definitely feel better...and that's what counts, right? So even when part of me is begging to go home for the day, The Walk™ is 20-25 minutes well-spent.

And turning to sports: In college hoops, your final score is Duke 3,688, North Carolina 3,444. But lest you think that both Coach K and Coach Williams completely forgot how to coach defense all of a sudden, you should know that the game was played by regular students from both schools, and they set a new world record after playing for 58 straight hours, raising some money for charity in the process.

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