September 2006
Monthly Archive
Song Walk Day 56, Wednesday September 20, 2006
Posted by Administrator on 20 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: 10,000 Steps, Exercise, Song Walk
10:32PM – 11:03PM 31 minutes. 3632 steps aka 1.15 miles.
Washing machine at Jeff’s Mum and Dad’s place, preceded by a visit from the plumber/grader guys meant the walk went late tonight.
I’m aiming for about a mile a walk now, which we seem to be able to do in around about the 30 minute mark.
Not quite Roger Bannister, but speeding up.
Song Walk Day 55, Tuesday September 19, 2006
Posted by Administrator on 19 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
walked the ususal route, up to 5th and broad street, round back down broad to 10th street and home.
10:45PM – 11:19PM approx
didn’t walk this morning, slept in. Weird dreams with frogs in the shower/bath, so I couldn’t have a shower. Wherever else I went, it morphed into concrete seats for the Dixie Chicks concert. Seats that up and revolved around to right next to the stage. Fabulous ticket! And then I ended up being on stage, as part of their imprv bits (that they don’t have) between songs. I didn’t freak, I just went along with it. Chatted to them between sketches, behind the scenes. the point at which I realised it was a dream, was when one of the girls explained that she was a lesbian, and also Persian. Since she’s married and not anything other than Caucasian, my brain worked out that I was still asleep, and really should wake up and get ready for work. Dream from 8:00am until I woke up with a start at 9:30AM. No walk, but a strange dream involving frogs and bullfrogs and toads in my bathroom. Could be related to our ongoing sewer problems, and the fact that I miss our bullfrog singing, now we’ve had to fill in the pool.
Song Walk Day 54, Monday September 18, 2006
Posted by Administrator on 18 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: 10,000 Steps, Exercise, Song Walk
9:21-9:43AM 21 minutes, 15 seconds Pedometer says 2763 steps, or .87 miles.
That corresponds with both the red and the blue pedometers on their good days. The one day this new one registered the walk as half a mile, I don’t believe it was moving well. If the waistband on whatever jeans/shorts/track pants that I’m wearing isn’t just so, the pedometer does not want to play. The beauty of this new beastie is that I can push the talking button in between songs and get some clear idea if it’s on track and recording correctly or not.
2.06 BBC – Ming Tea (Austin Powers)
4.40 Atomic – Blondie (Eat to the Beat)
4.05 With a Shout – U2 (October)
3.18 God, Pt. 2 – U2 (Rattle & Hum)
3.00 Sloop John B – Beach Boys (Pet Sounds)
3.18 Fall at Your Feet – Crowded House (Woodface)
.48/2.38 I Knew the Bride (when she used to Rock n Roll) – Dave Edmunds (A Pile of Rock Live)
Woke up melancholy. The particularly vivid dream involving Rachael Ray being the only person who could save the world from demon infected zombies didn’t help. I’m less and less a RR fan, and I’m absolutely not into horror flicks particularly. I liked Shaun of the Dead; the humour leavened out the horror for me. Still a surprisingly touching movie that one. I don’t seek out horror at the cinema, so not a delightful dream to start the day.
Then I forgot (ahhh!) to say Happy Birthday to Jeff after forgetting (aaaaahhh!) to say it as we moved into his birthday last night. My only (feeble) excuse is that we went to his brother/SIL/niece’s place on Saturday night for cake and presents, and then out with his Mum and Dad last night for dinner and presents, so my brain half thought we’d done the birthday thing. bugger. (We are doing work cake and card for him, which I’m picking up today. It’s not forgetting if you get it on the day, right??)
Then while walking along briskly, I kicked the body of a small dead bird which made me sad, and walked past a dead garter snake upside down, which made me sadder. Garter snakes flip upside down to pretend that they’re dead, to avoid trouble. Doesn’t work with cars, poor little thing.
The song shuffles were all on the bittersweet side too.
Sigh.
Song Walk Day 53, Sunday September 17, 2006
Posted by Administrator on 17 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: 10,000 Steps, Exercise, Song Walk
11:48 – 12:28PM 40 minutes. Pedometer says 4747 steps, or 1.5 miles.
Matches up with my just around 3 miles in 1 hour 20 minutes yesterday.
I don’t think 5 k walks are going to be an issue for me. Although I do have blisters on my left ankle from yesterday. This means I need a better pair of shoes, and probably slightly longer socks.
I have some Puma ankle socks, but I think I need socks a little bit past the ankle. I also prefer wigwam brand, they’re the best supporting sock I’ve found.
My current shoes I bought on the cheap, from Evil Walmart, Dr Scholls brand, with the gel heels. Not bad, but not really good for walking long distances. Consumer reports mag for this month has a recommendation Saucony Grid Omni Walkers or New Balance 791.
We should have some spare dosh in the next pay, so I’m aiming to buy both. I need a new pair of gym shoes also. They’re supposed to be cross trainers, so I’m going to check out Consumer Report’s website for their recommendation.
I sound a little sheep like, but really, Consumer Reports does all the work for me. There’s dozens and dozens of brands, and something to make one of them stand out, reduces the tyranny of choice for me.
We walked up and round past Wheaton Arts; the Italian Festival was on, and we nearly got run down by some lazy cow in a red SUV who couldn’t walk the 100 metres from her parking spot but had to drop people off at the front, without looking for those people already walking past.
Song Walk Day 52, Saturday September 16, 2006
Posted by Administrator on 16 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: 10,000 Steps, Exercise, Song Walk
pedometer 9253 steps 2.93 miles. Add 925 more steps (when the pedometer wasn’t working. We measured it for about the period of time/distance we’d missed, 5 short blocks or 925 steps). 11:45 – 1.30PM. take away 25 minutes for the sundry bits and pieeces (Holly City Gym to sign up for the Walk American Challenge, lemonade shop, Bank atm). 1 hour 45 minutes total, 1 hour 25 minutes actual walking.
925 steps @20 inches = 18,500 inches. /12= 1541.667 feet. =.291 miles.
.291 miles + 2.93 = 3.22 miles = 5.18 kilometres.
I’d like to walk a 12K walk one day, like the City to Bay. The woman who won it in 2005 walked 12km in 57 minutes. Holy crap that’s fast! Based on my average speed of 2.25 miles and hour, I’d be there in 5 and a half hours.
The slowest walker in that race took 2 hours and 53 minutes. That’s 4.15 miles an hour. I’ve got a little way to go there.
The slowest 6km walker took 2.15 hours. I can do that! We did 5.18km today in 1.25 hours. Another 3/4 of a kilometer is only quarter of a mile. That’s about 5-10 minutes on. I’d be towards the end of the pack, but I’d be there.
Song Walk Day 51, Friday September 15, 2006
Posted by Administrator on 15 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: 10,000 Steps, Exercise, Song Walk
3251 steps, 9:56PM 10:30PM 1.03 miles
Walked after Third Friday. Even though Third Friday usually leaves me knackered, the walk is important, and has to get done.
Song Walk Day 50, Thursday September 14, 2006
Posted by Administrator on 14 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: Exercise, Song Walk
Up at 7:45 for the pool filler in man.
Walked after the 2nd MWC meeting, didn’t get home until after 10. Walk was from 10:25 – 10:55PM Didn’t have the pedometer with me, it was raining, just had a short walk.
Song Walk Day 49, Wednesday September 13, 2006
Posted by Administrator on 13 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
Up early, 7:30, for the construction guy to start filling in the pool. Not that I needed to be up, per se, it’s just with the banging of the truck back as the dirt comes out, and the grader being right behind our bedroom window, continuing to sleep would not have been an issue.
Had several hours of web design to do before the day job, so no morning walk.
Worked late, until just after 8. Made dinner, a riff on the Fig Quesadillas. Figs at the local Pathmark are $1.00 each (each!!). I still had some of the coriander, purple onion, jalapeno mix that I wanted to use before it went slimy and sad. I substituted 1 diced avocado (for $1.50, better than $5.00 for figs) and covered that with the juice of 1/2 lime, so it would not go brown.
Jeff folded the tortilla like a burrito, and then in the oven for 10 minutes on full 350 heat, flipped, oven turned off, and the burrito crisped up nicely while we did a quick car dash to drop off a gift certificate and card for a friend’s grandson.
After we came back, and ate, we went for our walk. We walked up to the new food market on the corner of 5th and Broad, where I bought an Alex’s Stand Pink Lemonade. I made a couple of “how you doing, old fella?” cracks to Jeff, and we sprint walked for 5 or so minutes. Worked up a sweat!
10:10 – 10.47. No idea how far, the new pedometer decided it didn’t want to record after 251 steps. Feh! I thought I had it on right. I’m claiming at least a mile, we did a fairly brisk walk.
Tomorrow I’ll talk about the two charity walks I’m signing up for!
Song Walk Day 48, Tuesday September 12, 2006
Posted by Administrator on 12 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
9:23 – 9:46AM. 1620 steps, .51 miles.
I’ll have to check new pedometer tomorrow, wearing the same grey track pants and grey stretchy polo neck. The other pedometers all showed this distance to be .81 miles, but they weren’t consistent when they worked. If I get two days of the same results, wearing the same clothes, I’m going to try a lighter pair of pants, with a firm, non elasticised waist, for two days, same route.
If I get the same results, I’ll have to walk faster and aim for a longer distance.
4.10 Beverly Hills Creep 2 – Arty Fufkin on Mashuptown.com
3.46 I drove all Night – Roy Orbison (King of Hearts)
3.45 In the Clouds – Under the Influence of Giants (Heaven is Full EP)
3.38 Light up my Room – BNL (Stunt)
4.08 Beautiful Day – U2 (Best of 1990-2000)
1.04/3.41 Wake Me up when September Ends – Green Day (American Idiot)
Song Walk Day 47, Monday September 11, 2006
Posted by Administrator on 11 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
8:45PM – 9:15PM. 4571 steps, 1.45 miles.
I think the pedometer’s right, or at least consistent. I still have to do two standard consecutive Song Walks and see if I get the same length each time.
Today was a tightly wound day. Two meetings, one at the beginning of the day, one at the end. Both community work (MWC and the Theatre group respectively), weeks long email and spam issues left me torqued up to the max.
Probably accounts for the longer distance we walked tonight, in a shorter time. I think I managed to keep up a pace that gave Jeff, with his longer legs, a good workout!
We went out to the end of our street, left at G, left at 10th, up to the last traffic light on 10th and Main, and then around and back home again.
I’m not the most Zen of people, hell, I’m not anywhere in the same State as Zen, but walking fast and long or swimming, really helps me think about something else other than the thousands of things I think about all the time.