Five Mile Walk.....in Earth Shoes

Do you remember these things?  I ran across a pair at a consignment shop not long ago, and bought them more out of nostalgia than anything.  They are so freaking comfortable!  And so incredibly dowdy!  But today I just felt like doing the tights-and-earth-shoes thing.

In fact, they felt so great that, worrying a bit about a time crunch tonight, I decided to wear them on my walk.  I took a late "lunch" -- 1:30 -- and walked to the trail.  I didn't keep track of the mile markers, just kept going til I hit 45 minutes, then turned around and came back.  I wore my regular work clothes, and today was just cool enough that I could get away with that.  It got me to thinking, though.  I did this a few times in late winter/early spring, before the heat and humidity made it impossible, and I'm just now remembering that having the noon walk as an option took a great deal of pressure off of me.

Remember a few months ago when I blogged about discovering the perfect breakfast, and how I couldn't wait to fix it every morning?  I must have had that homemade Egg McMuffin for three or four months now, and I mean IN A ROW, eating something else only when I went out for breakfast, or found myself out of a particular ingredient.  Two days ago, it hit me that I'm sick of them.  Really.  I don't want another one, but I have the ingredients for about four more of them, and I'll ride that out.  What should I do next?  It was the perfect breakfast!  Lots of protein, enough food to keep me full for several hours, nutritious.....oatmeal seems so bland, I hate fruit, cereal just doesn't do it for me.  Any suggestions?

muscles

I thought long and hard about taking, and then posting, a particular photo today, but then decided it would be a little weird, even for this blog.

Yesterday just before I started out walking I went to the bathroom, then noticed that my right sock was slipping down beneath the back of my shoe, irritating the top of the heel. I put my right foot up on the bathroom counter to get a better angle, and as there is a mirror that runs the length of the counter, I got a very good view of the side of my right leg. It was quite an eye-opener.  I’ve only really ever noticed my legs from the front, or maybe when I’m walking down the street, I get a hazy sidelong glance at them in a store window. But here my whole long leg was, with the shorts riding up to the top of my thigh, and ….there were some serious muscles there!  I mean, really!

It’s possible these are not the legs that other women aspire to.  “Shapely” would probably not be the right word.  “Athletic” says it better. Along the outside of my thigh there are three distinct sections, look to be about 1.5 or 2 inches each, separated by long muscles.  And in my calf, there are numerous smaller, vertical sections that pop out whenever I move my leg around.  Definitely the legs of an athlete, which I certainly don’t consider myself to be, but – toned, athletic legs!  It’s kind of cool!  And make no mistake, I didn’t get those by walking around a track, I got them by climbing hills. 

So after that realization, you know where I’m about to go – to Stacy Park.  At my request, Jackson took Banks out for a short-ish walk, because I want to walk hard and fast tonight.  The sun is down, it’s perfect hoodie weather, and I am going to tackle those hills.

So rather than a – let’s face it – very weird picture of my legs, which it’s entirely possible you wouldn’t find as fascinating as I do, here instead is a picture of my handsome boy Sam, having breakfast with me at Trudy’s this morning.    

Hip at last, hip at last.....

I finally did it!  Here I sit at one of my favorite coffee places, Fair Bean Coffee on South 1st.  I just finished a delicious salt and rosemary bagel devoid of any nutritional value, am just about to start on my second cup of very strong coffee, COLD outside....life is good.  It was .9 miles here, then of course .9 back, then my plan is to walk with Banks to my car at 11th and IH 35.  That might leave me a mile or so short -- Google Directions seems to be having trouble understanding my destination, insisting it's 15+ miles from my house, when I know it's more like 2.5 -- but I'll clock it on the way back and make up whatever I need to make up.

I'm torn between spending the evening with Brian, Mark and Janette, eating seafood and watching a Halloween themed movie (Janette is very big on themes) and staying in and watching the CNN documentary on Lance tonight at 8:00, "The World According to Lance Armstrong."  Of course they'll run it again, but I continue to be obsessed with this story.  Now they're talking about making him return not only his Tour de France money, but the endorsement money from at least one of his sponsors.  What's next?  Will he be sued by everyone he defamed for calling him a doper?  By every company he ever endorsed for?  Is he going to go bankrupt? Mark thinks he's probably on 24-hour suicide watch, but I tell him that with five kids, no, that is not going to happen.

Everyone keeps saying there is no way to clean up a sport as dirty as cycling, but I think this sad tale could ultimately be what makes that happen.  What if the rules changed to the effect that every cyclist from here on out would have to refund any earings -- prize money and endorsements -- if they test positive, even 2, 3, 5 years after the fact?  I think what has kept the doping going is the knowledge that the dopers are always one step ahead of the testers -- I think Lance had said he was two years ahead of them -- and the lure of money and fame is so tempting that they figure they'll deal with the fallout when and if it comes.  Well, if they know going in that there will be a day of reckoning, and it's going to cost them hugely, that just might be what turns it all around.  I would love to see next summer's race if there were a reasonable chance that at least most of the riders were clean.  Wouldn't it be obvious from their times?

My house needs a severe cleaning, laundry is piling up, I need to make an IKEA run and do my grocery shopping.  See you tomorrow.

That damn key again.....

The cold front finally arrived.  It was the kind of morning I would have loved to have walked, but my schedule had other plans:  I had to be in Christoval, just outside of San Angelo, at 10:00 am; it's an approximately four hour drive, but I left at 5:30 just to be prepared for any mishaps.  This time I rented Diane Keaton's "Then Again" -- it was pretty entertaining, at least when she talked about herself and her movie start life, a little less so when she spent loooong hours discussing her mother and -- especially! -- reading verbatim from the woman's journals.  Diane, we appreciate the fact that you had a loving but complex relationship with your mother, but seriously, don't you think we'd rather hear about Warren Beatty and Al Pacino?

As I parked my rental car back at the Budget lot, my heart sank as I realized that my own car key was missing.  Where was it?  It had to be in my purse!  But it wasn't.  Well then, it had to be loose in the car somewhere.  But it wasn't.  I had rented the car the night before, so it's possible the key was somewhere at home, but I called Jackson and he couldn't find it either.

So, I grabbed my purse and my weighs-a-ton leather binder with all my work in it, and walked the 8 or 9 blocks to South Congress, grabbed a southbound bus, which I shared with, like, 30 insane middle schoolers who all got on together after a few blocks (who WERE they?  Where were they going?  Weren't they a little young to be going somewhere en masse, with no adults?).  That walk, as well as the five minutes or so it took me to get from the bus to my house, took a total of 20 minutes.  So after allowing myself a half hour or so to unwind, I took Banks to Stacy Park, and we had a cold, windy and wonderful 1 hour and 10 minute walk. 

And when we walked into the house, my eyes rested on my work badge, hanging from the giant jack on my bookcase, and there it was -- my key, hidden right behind my photo i.d., which is where I carry it during the work day.  Thank God I don't have to spend the bulk of tomorrow making arrangements for a new key.

I am so excited about tomorrow!  Finally I am going to realize my long-deferred dream of going to a coffee hosue with my laptop.  I'm going to put it in my backpack and find a place (ideally) 2.5 fmiles from the house, and take care of the whole wad early in morning.

Temporal (adj): enduring for a time only; transitory

Tuesday was my day off this week. Last night, I took Banks only about a half mile, because I felt like being alone with my thoughts. 

I was aware of a tinge of melancholia accompanying me on this particular trip. I think it is beginning to sink in, that this journey is drawing to a close.  The changing weather and the shortened days are serving as markers.  Ten months in, just two months to go.

Another way to look at it is as a new adventure. There is no way I have come this far, only to slack off and sink into middle-aged complacency. I'll emerge from this with a new plan.  But it won't be the same.  "Three days at the gym, two days of walking five miles and one day of yoga" just does not have the same sacrificial, ceremonial feeling as "five mile walk with a piebald pit."

And that's okay. What has made this special to me is the fact that it IS temporal and deliberate, and not meant to be forever.  That would make it ordinary.  Nothing more than a habit, albeit a healthy one.

No, things will change, and I am working on embracing that change.  It just takes me a while. And tonight, Banks and I will walk at Town Lake, his favorite venue. And as this thing winds to a close, I'm going to start savoring every sight, sound, encounter and mishap.

Put it out there

My "to do" list grows longer every day.  I cross out one item, add two or three.  I'm losing ground here.  Most pressing has been getting Banks' flea control pills renewed.  The poor thing has been scratching and I plan every day to run to the vet, but it just hasn't happened.  The second most urgent item is my car.  Remember my accident of a few months ago?  I've been wanting/needing to get it aligned, but I can't find ONE DAY when I don't need the thing.  But last night, close to 8:00, I ran to the vet (Lynn, who uses the same vet, advised me that they don't take patients after about 4:00 or 5:00, but they're open and doing paperwork til very late, so I took a chance, and there they were).  I got not just the long-term preventative, but the "instant magic" pill that kills all fleas within 30 minutes.  He looks very happy this morning.

Last night was the last debate, and my neighbor John invited me over for sushi and salmon and wine.  The debate was -- let's be honest -- deadly boring, so about 45 minutes in, we started talking about other things.  I've known John for just over a year, since I moved into this place, and we've always been friendly neighbors, but with a bit of a reserve.  We're the same age, lots of the same interests, look after each other's houses when out of town, but how weird would it be to date your next-door neighbor?  Almost inevitably, you're going to break up, and then there will be those awkward encounters in the driveway.

So we had this fun and open discussion about that, and about the kind of partners we're attracted to, and decided that we both are kind of introverted and need to get out more, so we made a pact to just go out and do things as friends, especially the kinds of things that I'm not comfortable doing without a man, like listenting to live music, and keep an eye out for potential dates for each other. How fun!  I mentioned that, if he were a woman, and my next-door neighbor, of course we'd hang out as friends, so why does it have to be any different just because of the male-female thing?  I'm looking forward to this adventure.

As always, Monday was my day off, so this morning Banks and I did our five at Stacy Park.  "Buy new shoes" is still on my to-do list, so I went off once again in my canvas shoes, and my knees still feel great.  It's ridiculously warm for late October, but rumor has it we're in for a cold and rainy weekend.  I can't wait til "cold" becomes assumed.

Dense

Every so often, before I start blogging, I ask myself "Do I really want to share this?  Do I really want these people to know how unbelievably stupid I can be?"  Since I don't think anyone has any illusions about me at this point, I usually just put it out there.

Since I've got a very full day ahead, including a long report that's due tomorrow, as well as a date tonight (I know.  I'm as shocked as you are), I decided to do my five as soon as I got up. Left the house at 6:00.  Felt like wearing my lightweight canvas shoes rather than my tennies. Felt like leaving Banks at home so I could have my hands free to manipulate my tunes.  It was warm and muggy, even at that hour.  I walked around the neighborhood a while, then took on the Stacy Park hills.  Marveled at the fact that, as much pain as I was in yesterday, this morning my knee felt JUST FINE.  Gave a few minutes of thought to that.  Maybe my feet are more comfortable in these shoes. Oh, wait....didn't I hear something about....isn't there some kind of connection between...okay, I remember.  The last time I bought new shoes, the salesman told me to purchase a new pair every, oh, I don't know, 500 miles?  Three hundred?  Didn't he say something about how you knew when it was time to replace your shoes because your knees would start hurting? 

I've got two pairs of shoes. I keep one pair at the office and one at home, and I've lost track of which is the newer pair.  Is it that simple?  The shoes are worn down in crucial areas, and it's putting pressure on my left knee?  My bones actually are NOT grinding together like metal on metal? 

Okay. I'm going to assume I'm on to something here and pick up a new pair.  How wonderful if I find out that this is a temporary problem with a simple solution. Stay tuned.