Ch-Ch-Changes

During my morning walk yesterday I was chilly. It was also 64 degrees when I left my house.

Since when is 64 chilly? Not that long ago - last summer in fact - I seem to remember that that temperature was comfortable. I typically wore shorts - it's wrong to hide legs like mine anyway - and a tee shirt, just like yesterday. But yesterday I was cold enough even after 45 minutes of steady and fast paced hiking that I wished I had a jacket.

Is this another of those old folks things I must adjust to?

Good Mornings

This is just about my favorite time of year for my morning walks. It's warm, and you can start early as dawn begins around 5:30. In da U.P., Michigan's Upper Peninsula - I'm sorry, Michigan's glorious Upper Peninsula - you can be out before 5 AM and it's light enough to see.

Yep, I like walking this time of year. I surely do.

Go on now, that's all you're getting out of me today. I have to walk the walk.

Not quite Spring

Today is Sunday, May 17. That means we're coming up on being two-thirds through Spring. But it hasn't really felt like Spring so far, has it?

I'm not talking merely about the corona panic and wrongly induced inactivity, although that's certainly a factor. There's not much green on the trees, and the temperatures haven't really tempted us of Summer yet. It's been gray and cloudy and rainy a lot. Things just aren't very spring like at all.

Oh well. I'll take my walk this morning and go from there, because I have been and will continue to keep things as normal as possible. That I do believe is the best which can be done by each of us as individuals. The old normal can come back only if we insist upon it. For me, that starts will tapping out a blog on my kindle and taking that walk.

Have a good one, friends.

Marty's walkies

The sun rises this morning at 7:09. You know what that means?

I can start taking my walks earlier.

I love the long days for all kinds of reasons. But one of them, one of the more childlike reasons I admit, is getting out the door at 6 o'clock and it's already bright. I know we aren't there yet. But those days are coming. They aren't that far away at all.

I'd like to abandon daylight savings time just so that the long days at the end of June start would start at about a quarter to five. I love the idea of being out walking at that time of day in sunlight.

It's a small thing. But sometimes, yes, the small things are the best.

Sixty One

Sixty One isn't cold, is it? Sixty One degrees Fahrenheit? That's not cold. That can't be cold.
Then why did it feel so cold this morning?
I checked the temperature before I left my house for my morning walk, right about six o'clock this morning. The Weather Channel told me it was 61. Ah, I thought dismissively, I don't need a jacket or a sweatshirt. Shorts and a tee will be fine. After all, it's 61.
Twenty minutes and about two miles later, despite working up a bit of a sweat, I wished I had a jacket or a sweatshirt. I stopped to pull my crew length socks up to help warm my otherwise bare legs. I pulled my Tigers cap closer onto my head.
Why would I do that? Sixty One isn't cold.
At least, it didn't used to be.

Yes indeed I'm walking

I've known for years that I need to be better about my health. So for about the last two months I've been regularly getting out the door and walking for an hour. It's reached the point where I wake up looking forward to it.

What's wrong with me?

I never expected to actually like exercise. When I've made myself exercise before, at times for several months at a stretch before running out of steam, it was a chore. I had to make myself do it each and every day. Even with activities I like such as curling, it isn't the physical part of the game I like. I never looked forward to a hard sweep. But then this morning when I popped awake at 4:12, I was immediately disappointed that it was too early, too dark yet, to take my walk. Huh?

In fact I'm actually reached the point of challenging my body, of pushing myself further, and wanting to do it. When I began I was walking about 3 1/2 miles in roughly an hour. Then I made up my mind I would ramp it up to 4 miles per hour. Now I'm approaching 5 MPH, just walking at a brisk pace. This morning I hit 4.6 miles in 61 minutes.

While I'm impressed with my efforts I'm also perplexed. Who in the world other than sadists truly like exercise? Here I had been been looking forward to second childhood. Now I'm walking 2 days out of 3 and wanting to. What is happening to me?