Fit To Ride
Awareness of the outside world. What a difference a few miles makes. Hat tip to M for pointing this out. Birmingham is known as The Magic City. We have Magic City this, Magic City that, Magic City here, Magic City there [Magic City 5K]. Over in Atlanta, Magic City is a strip club.
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Last month I wanted to be more intentional with my time. Check. [State of the Fitness, October Walks]
I’ve been better about going out, sticking with the program, and coming home. Less time wandering around Birmingham looking for diversion. OTOH, the weather has been nice, so walking in the pasture is possible.
Walking going well. Considering what next.
Option 0. No change. One-mile daily walks. The occasional 5K, virtual or IRL. Legit possibility. One mile is still enough effort that I feel tired after. Keep on with it. Any extra energy could go toward variety, which I so clearly need, see below.
Option 1. More speed. Adding effort changes the walk from moving meditation to exercise. Not a good thing or a bad thing, just a thing. [In Which I Set A PR, Walk Report]
Option 2. More distance. Same speed, longer walks. Proves nothing. Improves nothing. Give me enough time and I can walk anywhere. [October, two walks on 26 Oct]
Option 1.5. Combination. You’d think I would be able to ponder the music of the spheres while walking at a slightly faster pace. Not so much. I really like that first mile of strolling along. So, I have been walking a slow mile and then stepping it up a bit after, with an eye toward increasing the “after” distance. Only problem? I keep forgetting to tack on the after.
Where does that leave me? Not sure. At least, I wasn’t sure. Now that I see this out laid in writing, Option 0 is the obvious choice. Walking is great. I don’t need more of it. What I need more of is, well, pretty much everything else.
New Places & One Repeat Of Note
Lock Haven Park/Hoover Dog Park, November 5, NYC Virtual 5K, post pending. Update [Walking Goes To The Dogs, Walk Report, Virtual Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5K, 2021]
UAB
1.1 miles
November 16, 2021
Daily mile. Wandered about after dental appointment due to being dark by the time I got home.
Downtown Birmingham, November 21, 5K IRL, repeat. [In Which I Set A PR, Walk Report, Magic City 5K 2021]
McCallum Park, November 28, Savannah Bridge Virtual 5k, post pending.
UAB Hospital Concourses, November 30, daily mile, post pending.
Activity Summary/Data Dump
Time frame. 34 days. October 28 through November 30, inclusive.
Walking. 20 days. Three 5Ks, above. One mile dailies. [Walking Virtually, Mount Fuji]
Got caught out by darkness a few times. I like to walk at the end of the day. Not practical when your day ends at 6pm and it gets dark at 4 pm. Need to plan to walk in the afternoon. Wandering out in the evening will have to wait.
Dance. 4 classes out of 5 weeks. Missed one for work. Walked that day.
Biking. 2 days early in the month, then weekends got crowded. [Great Ocean Road II]
Stretching. Cardio. Weights. And so on. As before. 0. 0. 0. 0.
Total. 26 activity days, including one Hunter Barn lesson day when I also walked. 8 days off, 5 days of which were weekends. Used to kinda give myself weekends off, unless we biked. Toward the end of the month started trying to at least hoof it around the pasture once we were done with activities of the day.
Admin
State of the Fitness moved to the first weekend of the next month. That way, I can record by month instead of by random chunks of the time between posts.
Previous [State of the Fitness, October Walks]
Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine
Virtual Brush Box 
You’re inspiring me- I’ve become more sedentary, and cold weather and the appeal of ‘hot cheesy food’ lurks… I like how you’re looking for more movement and variety and making that happen! Bravo!
Oh, wow. You are doing great! Dance class!
Weekends were never “off” for me. Back in the day, I would run long on Sunday mornings. Now, I run when I can talk myself into it, and ideally on the flat, and usually only one mile. But one mile running is good, I tell myself. It’s rarely very cold here. (Any time temps drop during daylight into the low 40s, we call that cold.) I ran a flat 5k on sand last week—near miracle! Then the sand pretty much went away (not to mention rain), and we’ve been walking on rock. I got a hilly highway 1-mile run the day before yesterday. We try to walk ≥3 miles every day—weather makes us walk fast.
Go for it!
Good for you!