Doing Some Calculations

I could not sleep last night. I tossed, I turned, I paced, I sat up… It was around 5am when I finally got a little sleep, but I woke up a couple of hours later. I forced myself to go back to bed, but only after determining a few things about the day. First, I was not going to Stillwater like I had hoped. Second, I was not going grocery shopping. Third, I wasn’t even sure I was going to get a walk in. I did do some upper body exercises and got some movement in generally, so I did get all of my rings closed pretty early. I felt good about that.

I watched a movie this evening, Devil’s Partner. Even though I hadn’t slept much, I still felt restless and feared I would struggle again tonight. I left to go up to the park at 9pm, hoping to get in about a mile. Sometimes that is all it takes. By the time I reached the park and did one lap, I was feeling like going a full 3 miles. So, I went downtown and back. That route is exactly 2.5 miles, so if I either do 2 laps at the park before or do 1 going and 1 returning, I can easily get 3 miles in.

I could feel my body’s exhaustion, but it also felt nice to get the steps in. I was struck, as I sometimes am, by how easy the walk actually felt. I’m thinking about looking into abandoning “consistency” in my walking times and replacing it with fitting in an hour at times when I often have one to spare. Early mornings are always great because a walk gets me going for the day, but I often have an hour or so in the evening when all I am doing is scrolling social media. I’ll realize at some point that I’ve been doing that, having no memory of what I was just looking at. While that is how I keep abreast of current goings on in the world, it is just a way to give myself anxiety. Spending that time walking would be better.

I don’t know if I will be able to commit to two 3 mile walks everyday, but if I get into it, maybe I can do some sort of schedule that both gives my body a rest sometimes, but also allows me to get in more steps. And when I say schedule, what I mean is saying I want to do two separate walks in a day, but fitting them in when I’m feeling bored or whatever. If I do four days of two walks & three days of one walk, with the option of taking one of those days off entirely, that increases my walking for the week significantly without feeling overwhelming. That is increasing from seven walks per week to ten or eleven, with eleven the preference. That would increase my average exercise minutes from 60-70 to as much as 102 (daily average). It would also increase my daily distance walked from 3.50 to about 5.50. It seems so easy…too easy. I worry I’m trying to add too much, but I really need to be moving my body more.

I’m exhausted. Mentally. That was a lot of rambling. I should sleep.

[Walk #351, 3.12 miles]

• Location of Walk: home to downtown, Guthrie, OK
• Magpie: orange silk flowerContinue Reading