Happy Birthday to Me

Actually my birthday is still a ways a way and more importantly for the purpose of this post, my 40th birthday is quite a ways away. However, I have decided to give myself a year-long birthday present in my 40th year by walking the distance of Highway 40 (see graphic at top of right column) - on a quest for continued improved fitness, better health, good eating habits, and a strong body. I found a great tracking website at MSN Health Vault's Route Tracker.  As a visual learner (see my learning preference inventory), I find that the added graphical interface serves as an additional motivation.  If any of my regular followers or loyal readers would like to join me on this route, please drop me an email or leave me your email in the comments section.

(post note: If you decide to join me on this adventure, I will spot the the number of miles I have walked at the time you join.)

Airport Perimeters, Sunrise, and the Library walk

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was nervous about how I would keep up my momentum once I arrived down south to provide reinforcements for my mom, who is nursing my dad back to health after a nasty knee injury. I was lucky enough to walk 2.6 miles at the airport (from concourse c, to the end of b, to the end of a, back to the end of c, down to the end of d, to the Starbucks, and then back to my next gate at d). Thanks to google pedometer I was able to zoom in on the airport via satellite and trace my course.

Last night, I confidently said to my parents that I was going to jump out of bed and take a walk. When the garbage truck and sprinklers woke me up, the last thing I wanted to do was "go for a walk." I fell back asleep. About a half hour later I woke up again and this time did get out of bed. I walked for almost 50 minutes - covering about 3.5 miles. I took three shorter and slower walks with my 4 yo niece later in the day - one to the library 1.7 miles away (took us 35 minutes), the second from the library to the bus stop (.4 miles away, 10 minute), and the third from the bus stop back to the parents' house (.3 miles, 10 minutes). I feel good about my ability to keep up my progress and wonder how I can use this experience, particularly the airport walking in the future.