My thoughts on walking

Evan and Charlie walking - a long time ago

As I was walking today,  I had a few thoughts about walking for enjoyment or exercise. Most of my thoughts are about making sure you continue to walk and staying motivated to walk. I guess most of these thoughts could be summarized in the statement, "Walk every day."

1) Get out even if it is only for a few minutes
I find this to be the most important of these thoughts. Even if I am dead tired or sick or it's raining or snowing or too hot or too cold, I get immense satisfaction even if I only walk for five minutes. But usually, once I get out, I'll continue the walk for the full time. Another reason for getting out even for only a few minutes is that any exercise is better than no exercise. Also, once you've skipped a walk, it is much easier to skip the next walk, too.

2) It's better to walk on uneven paths and up and down hills
I haven't done a study on this and I'm not aware if anyone else has, either. I just find it to be true in my own experience. On my first walk of the day, about one mile with my dog, Charlie, we are walking on the sidewalk and the ground is flat. On my second walk of the day, at lunch time in the woods behind our office, I'm walking on an uneven dirt path that goes up and down some small hills. At least they are considered hills here on Cape Cod. Depending on the direction, that walk is about a mile and half long. I find that I get more benefit from the walk in the woods. I'm constantly needing to balance myself and exerting more on uphill sections. Maybe it's because it is longer. Maybe it's because I'm not stopping as Charlie checks out smelly points of interest. I just find that my back hurts more at night if I've missed my lunch walks as opposed to when I miss my morning walks.

3) It's better to walk on a schedule
Here we're back to a version of my "Walk every day" thought. When you walk on a schedule, you can set aside time for the walk. You are not interrupting something to go for the walk. Also, other people expect you to be going for the walk and don't expect you to do something else.When you walk on a schedule, you can set up a reminder for yourself in case you forget. If you're low tech, you can set up an alarm clock to go off at your walk time. If you're higher tech, you can set up a more elaborate reminder (something that allows for different times on different days). In my case, I don't need the reminder. My schedule is: first thing in the morning (after getting a pot of tea ready, feeding the pets, cleaning out the cat boxes and checking the news on TV for a few minutes) and at lunch time on work days (after eating lunch). So, maybe I should amend this to, "It's better to walk on a natural schedule." That way, you don't need to be reminded.

4) It's better to walk with a dog (or another person, but a dog is better)
Let's start with why you should share your walk. It's another motivator to keep you going. If you don't go for the walk, you have to explain yourself to the other walker. Sometimes, it's not easy to find that other person before the walk starts and you know they will show up for the walk and wonder what happened to you. And this is the reason it's better if your walking companion is a dog - a dog will accept no excuses! Charlie has gotten me out for a walk in the worst conditions simply because he won't take no for an answer. He just expects to go every day at the same time (whether it's New Year's Day morning and you stayed up till midnight or not). Yes, this is yet another variation on "Walk every day" - if you're keeping track.

5) It's a good idea to take a cell phone with you
This is both for safety and for helpfulness. I'm fortunate that I've never gotten into a problem where I've needed to call for help but if you did twist your ankle, you'd need to call someone to come and get you. But the reason I always bring a cell phone with me is because of the time Charlie and I found a stray dog on our walk. I found his name and a phone number on his collar (but no address) but since I didn't have a phone, I walked all over the place looking for someone out in their yard looking for him. I had taken my belt off to use as a leash and, fortunately, he and Charlie got along well. We walked all over the place but I didn't see his owners out anywhere. We were saved from needing to bring him all the way home with us by some neighbors being outside and lending me their cell phone. The owner was not far away (but not on our usual route) and we met him half way. I've never needed the phone since but it's ready.

6) Take a small notebook and something to write with
I find I get some really good ideas while I'm out for my walks. But I also find that these ideas are fleeting. I get so many thoughts and see so many things that the ideas can fly away as fast as they alight. It's great to be able to pull a small notebook and pencil out and jot down the ideas before I forget them. If you're not as forgetful as me, you can probably skip this one.

7) Keep track of how long you walk
There are a couple of reasons for this but I think the most important one is that it keeps you honest. If you find that your walk over the same distance is taking longer and longer, you need to remind yourself to keep up the pace. If you're not walking for exercise, you can ignore this one, too, but another reason for keeping track of the time is to let your own competitive nature spur you into improving yourself by walking the same distance faster or by walking a further distance in the same time.

8) Take a camera with you
For two reasons: One reason is similar to the reason for taking a notebook with you. You never know what wonderfully interesting things you'll see and may never see again. I've gotten pictures of a box turtle, squirrels, chipmunks, people dressed in medieval gear (sorry, that picture isn't on my blog), birds, people on dirt bikes (again, that picture is not on this blog), Presidential helicopters (actually, I missed that one) and the results of fires in the woods and tree munchers. In every case, they weren't there the next time I walked. That leads to the second reason I take my camera and it's another variation of the "Walk every day" theme. I have convinced myself that if I don't walk that day, I'm going to miss a great picture. It's gotten me off my lazy rear-end a number of times that I wouldn't have done otherwise.

9) Walking a shorter distance more times is better than walking one longer distance - and then canceling
This is similar to my first thought. If you walk only once a day, say for two and a half miles, and miss it, then you've not walked at all. But if you walk twice a day with one walk of one mile and the other of one and a half miles and you miss one walk, you'll walk at least one mile and maybe one and a half miles (assuming you didn't miss both walks). There is a limit to this but you might extend this to taking five walks of a half mile each time. Each walk doesn't take as much time and it may be easier to motivate yourself to just get out and walk. But I would worry that it is then too easy to say to yourself, "Well, if I don't walk this time, there are four or three others that I can walk." This is a bad precedent. You get too used to skipping walks this way. I think two (or maybe three) walks is ideal.

But that is just for me. As with all of these thoughts, they work well for me and maybe not for anyone else. As with the first thought, just get out and start walking. It is good for you and may lead to some wonderful discoveries. You can come up with your own motivators as you go along. Another idea is to start a blog so you can write down what you find on your walks. If you don't walk, you'll have less to write about!