Hilly Walking

I'm up in Keystone through the Memorial Day holiday since Brad is away until Thursday.  I thought a week of peace and quiet might give me half a chance to catch up.  You know you're behind when your inbox is a laundry basket.  I have managed to wrestle my email inbox into submission, mainly by sorting into subfolders (which I'll never look at?).  I think I'm going to have to start scheduling email correspondence time or it just never happens, especially up here where it's so beautiful that mostly I just want to be outside.

I went for long walks yesterday and today, which I think in this terrain is called hiking.  The snow has mostly melted along the trails near our house, but there are many places that are pretty wet.  I had to tiptoe across what I would call tussocks and hummocks and muskeg if I were walking in Alaska.  The good thing about the melt is that there is plenty of water for Kenai to stay hydrated and cool and come home completely muddy.  Yesterday I did have a lot more bear thoughts than usual, but today my mind was emptier.  Friday I met only one couple with 2 dogs and today I met a mountain man or maybe Old Father Time also with 2 dogs.  It's so restorative to be out in the mountain woods just moving the body along.  I really love hiking by myself.  Even after therapy and ongoing meditation, I still worry when I'm with other people whether my pace is too slow or fast and I don't like walking behind a taller person because then I can't see the view and I'm always thinking about the other people instead of just being in the moment.  I'll keep working on caring less about what other people think, probably for the rest of my life -- but in the meantime I like hiking alone.

I have a fun step counting device (thanks, Brad) which reports that yesterday I did 146 minutes of aerobic steps and more than 15,000 steps for a day step total of 18,657.  Today I did 17,499 aerobic steps in 167 minutes for a day total of 20,193 steps.  I've finally remembered to charge my Garmin Forerunner (thanks again, Brad) and will wear it for even more data gathering on my next hike.

Tomorrow I'm going to read the Sunday NY Times and rest my sore toes. 

Comments

[cathy]

Hi Amy
I'm a long time reader of your blog. I love your writing. I have been reading you and Brad since Brad spoke at one of my classes in 2004.
I'm curious about your Garmin. I'm pondering the Garmin Forerunner 305 and wondered what model you were using and how comfortable it was. Do you use the shoe pod device or just the Forerunner?
Thank you.