I'm a whiny walker

I headed out for my walk tonight excited because it's a beautiful night with cooler temps and less humidity than we've had lately, but my good mood was short lived.  Tonight, after several days of walking, my calves were killing me!  Over the sound of my ipod I could hear my legs screaming, "what the heck is going on here!"  I stopped to stretch a few times which didn't help one bit.

My legs loosened up after about 1-1/2 miles, but I have to admit that at the one mile mark if someone I knew had driven by I would have gladly accepted a ride home.  Face it, I would have accepted a ride from someone that looked vaguely familiar.  Luckily Christina Aguilara came on my ipod singing about being a fighter and I powered on and didn't have to risk my life riding home with a complete stranger.

I seriously considered cutting my walk short but I didn't - I finished all three miles and Bruce Springsteen brought me home with the 80's classic Born to Run, which clearly, I was not.

Walking 101

Over the years I've done my share of walking for exercise, but I have to admit that it's been a while since I've been doing it routinely.  I tend to be a talk radio kind of gal, so if you got in my car right now you would hear my favorite local talk radio station, not music.  In the past I've used a radio headset and listened to talk radio while I walked.  My biggest problem with that is that sometimes in order to get reception I had to walk with my head tilted at various angles - kind of a problem.

One of the blogs I read faithfully is Bits & Pieces which is written by Cathy Zielske, a scrapbooking guru.  In January she adopted the moto "move more, eat less" and on her blog she chronicles her adventures walking, running, swimming and bicycling.  She talks a lot about the music she listens to while she exercises and she got me thinking about buying an ipod.

While my daughter was home we went shopping and stopped in the Apple store to look at ipods.  I was surprised to find that an ipod touch, which plays music and allows Internet connectivity was only $50 more than an ipod nano that only plays music.  I didn't really plan to buy something that "fancy" but for the price difference it seemed to make sense.  I bought the touch and started buying music and loading my cd's.  Once I had a nice selection of music loaded on my ipod (including a walking playlist) I hit the road.

My current walking route is just shy of 3 miles and includes some beautiful sights.  I drove the route to find out the distance and I brought my camera along to snap some pictures so that I could share them with you.

This ball park is near my house and although it was quiet when I took the photo it's actually a busy park!

There are many lakes near my house (it is the Land of 10,000 Lakes you know!); here's one of them:

This hill, known locally as Swede Mountain, is not on my current route but I'm working up to it!  Uff da!

I do walk this hill at the end of my walk and it's challenging enough for now:

My walking playlist is still a work in progress; I'll share it once I have it just right.  In the meantime, feel free to offer any suggestions you have for great songs . . . you know, songs with a good beat that are easy to walk to.

I should mention that for many years I was a majorette in marching band, where walking to the beat was required.  That's what makes a good playlist so important . . . I cannot walk "off beat"!