six degrees of torture

Today was the first day of Sun Rise Power Class at the College gym. We started work an hour late to go. So much for sun-rise!

It was torture, surrounded by torture and finished with torture. And muscular skinny people. Envision a room full of perky Jillian's.

I went thinking I could do half the stuff. I did maybe a third. It was hard and I am unfit. I couldn't even do a jumping jack. A jumping jack for Pete's sake. I did them all the time as a kid.

The first part of the workout was arms, with weights. I used 2 pounds. I could do the arms, or the feet, but putting the two together didn't work.

The next section popped back and forth between standing and on the mat. By the time I got down, or got up, they had often moved to something else. I am not agile. When I was in sync, I did three half pushups. I stayed on my knees, not my toes.

Now if I was still doing my Fat Butt exercises I could have maybe done more, but probably not. So you are in a plank, on your hands and toes, and you start kicking out to the left and the right without killing yourself or someone else. Then there was another called the grasshopper. Again you were on you toes and hands, and you rolled up and down somehow. I still haven't figured out how. At one point I just laid on the mat. I wanted to cry.  But I didn't.

My new goal, to be able to get to half by the end of the six weeks. Maybe practice getting up and down. That would increase my productivity.

I think the lame squats I did killed my knees. Dang they hurt. Maybe gym day will be Aleve day.

My favorite part of the workout was the walk to and from the gym and climbing all the stairs. But I need to get out of my comfort zone. And I paid the $20. So every Weds I will be tortured. I think I need to get some bike shorts to wear.

This is part of the motivational email Karen, the leader sent us. The graphic above was in that letter too.  Enjoy.

•When you exercise early in the morning, it "jump starts" your metabolism and keeps it elevated for hours, sometimes up to 24 hours!  That means you're burning more calories all day long just because you exercised in the morning!
•Exercise first thing in the morning is really the only way to assure that something else won't crowd exercise out of your schedule. When your days get hectic, exercise usually takes a back seat!
•For many people, that appointed time every morning becomes something they look forward to.   It's time they've set aside to do something good for themselves - to take care of their body.
•When you exercise in the morning you'll be ENERGIZED for the day!

a public blog?

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I try really hard to control my online presence. Everytime I join or sign up for something I go into the settings and lock them down tighter than Fort Knox. Is it possible to keep it all in control? No. I'm a realist. The only way to do that is to not use the net. That means paying in cash and living off the grid. Heck you can't even get out a library book without being electronically tracked.

Did you know that the email I use for this blog has an alias? Probably not. I have the blog a little open, you don't need an invite to see it, but it is off the grid as far as searching goes.

Which brings me to the point of this post. I got a request from the Walk Your Butt Off author to print my blog address. I declined. This blog really isn't designed for public consumption. It's for family and friends. They can read it when they want to, and not when the don't. It keeps their email boxes free of long winded stories about a fat girl walking.

snakes alive!

Sunday morning the bus pulled out at 9 am for St Mary's City. The first capital of Maryland. The 10K was taking place at the old city, now an interpretive park. I had been up since about 5:15 working in my class.

We arrived in St. Mary's and were greeted by the Freestate Happy Wanderers. The park was closed, but the FHW had permission to use it, and made arrangements for the bathrooms to be open. When they boarded, we were told to use the bathroom on the bus, because the park had no power from a storm the night before!

We got our instructions and did the "city" section of the 5K first. Why I am holding a roll of fat in my hand in the picture, I have no idea!

It was a cool place, and we spent more time being tourists and not enough being walkers. It took about and hour and a half to do the 5K. We got turned around a couple of times.

Highlights of the first section included "The Dove" a tall ship—and an ospry nest. We had seen several of them on the cruise last night also.

After coming up from the ship we headed thru an old cemetery on the campus of St Mary's College of Maryland.  Then back down the hill to find Cross Point Cove. There the instruction were a little vague, and we met up with Sue and Lou (last pix) from the FHW. We spend most of the rest of the hike together, getting lot and found.

Bonnie was in the lead for this hike, and found this birdhouse. She used my camera to take a picture. As she did, a snake slithered out. You can see the bulges in his body where his meal was sitting. Not sure if he got the eggs or the babies. But her got something. He also looked like he used that pole a lot!.

Sue and Lou moved on, as we explored the statehouse gallows. We continued to follow the instructions which took us into the woods. Again, Bonnie, the snake finder, was in the lead. Sh stopped dead in her tracks. Another snake. We waited for him to go back into the forest. (We heard at the start/finish there was another one in a birds nest in the barn.)

We had about an hour left, and didn't think we could finish the second 5K. So we decided to walk for 25 minutes, then turn around and come back. It probably wasn't necessary. We waited about fifteen minutes for walkers who were still in the woods.

Our final stop, before retuning home, was the AnnMarie Sculpture Garden. I could have spent much longer there.

sunset cruise

As part of our trip we took a sunset cruise on the Patuxent River aboard the Wm. B Tennison. He was in the Drum Point lighthouse.

The group photo was taken by our bus driver. The boat only held 40, so there is 14 people missing from the picture.

I was a bit disappointed that we didn't see the Cove Point lighthouse.

After the cruise we went to a local pub for Nachos with crab, black olives, cheese, and tomatoes. It was that good and then some. We also had margaritas!

solomons island

At 7 am we hopped on a bus and headed to Solomon's Island, Maryland, with the Liberty Bell Wanderers Volkssport group.

The bus driver and the man in the front row (who will be walking cross country in February) were very, very chatty. It's how I found about about another group, Shorewalkers, that does walks in Jersey and New York. Including a 50K around Manhatten Island in May.

The bus was brand spanking new and even had seatbelts. It also had Wifi, which was pretty spotty. It depends on cellphone towers, and we went thru many areas where the signal was weak. After losing many student posts, I gave up trying to work, and went on to knitting. I also took my Kindle, but never opened it.

We arrived at about 11, and finally hit the asphalt at maybe 11:45.

can you see the lighthouse? It has a red roof.

The weekend was sponsored by the Freestate Happy Wanderers Volkssport Group. There was a 6K and a 4K, making a figure 8 and the Holiday Inn was the start/end point. The 6K wove around the downtown area and beaches and the 4K around a ritzy gated community.

We ate breakfast at 6, so our first stop was lunch. We were about 1.5K into the walk. We ate at Stoney's, who had their own dock. That's how we role at a shore town. Bonnie had tuna, Lyd had scallops, and me, salmon salad. Food was delicious. service sucked. Clearly, they were still gearing up for the summer season.

Then we took off and did the rest of the 6K on the island.  We we close to the Holiday Inn and the route led us thru a shopping center. The poles had hand knitted socks on them? Maybe the were cold. I wasn't—it was hot and humid!

Lydia decided after we did the museum and Drum Point lighthouse, she'd stay behind (horrible chaffing issues), and Bonnie and I could finish the 10K. It never happened. As you know we get easily distracted.

The maritime museum was small but nice. The lighthouse was only three stories and tiny. The third floor was the lamp. Seven people lived in that house. Total square feet was about the size of my living room.

On the way to the lighthouse there was a children's activity tent. As it turned out the children could be any age. The three of us made boats.  Theoretically they float. floats. It was fun. 

Our room was the room used to store all the luggage. You couldn't check in till three. So we had lots of visitors.

When we got back to the room, I volunteered to walk to the 7-11 for Vaseline and baby powder for Lydia's chaffing. Then I went exploring to find a close pub to get a snack after our sunrise cruise, at 7:30.

It's 6:58. We board at 7:15. We gotta hit the asphalt. We found out a couple of things on this trip. Whatever time they tell you be there 15 minutes early. We gotta hit the road!

phase 1, done.

I finished the first portion of my Presidential Active Lifestyle Award Challenge. It was pretty easy. They give you made 50 categories to pick from. If you don't lay on the couch all day you can earn it. In addition to walking, stair climbing I logged putting up the awnings under home repair. I put swinging under children's games. I put mowing the lawn under gardening. See what I mean?

I guess I don't have to finish the last two weeks before I move on to the Presidential Champions challenge. It is all about pushing yourself to be even more active, logging activities, and earning points as you do it. The more points you earn, the sooner you’ll reach the point total required for your desired award: 40,000 points for bronze, 90,000 for silver, 160,000 for gold, and a whopping 1 million for platinum. You know I'm going for platinum!

And apparently they are yearly points so you can do it over and over again until you get bored with it.  There are five, four time platinum winners listed. I'm at 15K. Have quite a ways to go to a million.

standing to work.

I've been reading, and seeing, reports that standing is good for you. It make the blood flow, not clot, and reduces your risks for strokes. Mostly it makes you less fatigued.

I've been working on several projects at work that are big, with massive amounts of copy. I nearly fall asleep at my desk. Today, I worked for about an hour and then said the hell with it, and moved my computer. That was about 9, after climbing stairs at 6:30 am.

I'm starting to get tired. I'll admit it. But there's only an hour left in the day. I can do it.

Note to self. Clean up bookcase. Maybe actually put books in it!

more stairs

The gym program we signed up for at school doesn't start till next Wednesday, so we did the stadium, again. One flight further than last week.

I left my house this morning at 5:45 am. Got to work at 7:30 on time. Gonna be a long day.

salisbury township

Bonnie was the administrator on call today as well as the nurse on call. We had to walk close to home. Thank goodness her phone never rang.

It's tough to plan a walk in her hood. She's at the top of the mountain, so it's uphill in both directions.  I managed to work out a route that was about four miles. Before we went to Bonnie's we drove the back end of the route because I wasn't sure what the terrain was like. We discovered quickly that Salisbury needs some maintenace on their street signs. Really, they are unreadable. Fix them or take them down.

As we were walking down South Albert we were busy talking and went incorrectly and it ended up adding about a half mile.

Several of the bridges washed out in that section of Salisbury and this one on South Albert is no exception. I think we have crossed them all in the last few months. Although this one said nothing about no pedestrian crossing.

Then I found this stop sign. I think I'm going to start making a collection of these altered signs. I've seen stop war, or cancer, eating animals, but this is the first one that added two words. Never stop loving. Good advise. Probably inappropriate for an intersection.

While doing the second half of the walk we planned a party. July 7, at Bonnie's. My sister Barb will be in town and we're going to get the whole family together. I'm tired of seeing people only at funerals. I need to get the invites out this week. But first I have to make them!

Lyd and I returned to my house, grabbed the dog, and walked for another half mile. I held his lead. Before we left I gave him a stern talking to. I old him if he pulled me over again no more walks, ever. He was 90% good.

Then we put up the big awning. Wonder how I log that into the presidential challenge?

10k in the parkway

Today we did our first Volkssport walk in a long time at the Parkway.

We met at the Comfort Suites across from Dorney and drove to the start point, the fish hatchery. At the Comfort Suites we met Carol, who is coordinating next weeks walking trip to St Mary's, Md. Her email handle is bobodancer, so she thought it was funny that that's what we called her. On of the ladies also remembered Lydia from a previous walk. I guess because Lyd is always the youngest one there!

Bonnie and I walked together, and Sharon and Lyd walked together.  This was Sharon's first Volkswalk. I'm not sure she understands that it's just a walking group. I kept annoying Lyd by calling her on the phone to give her directions.

The trail is gravel, my shoes were full of it by the end, and avoided most of the major hills. All of us cheated on the course to avoid the hill from h*ll under Rt. 78.

Lyd and Sharon turned back at the first pedestrian bridge. There total was about 4.25+ miles. Bonnie and I came in at about 5.5. There was one little jughandle that we didn't do.

When we arrived back at the Native American Cultural Center Sharon and Lyd were waiting for us under a tree, sitting at a picnic table. We headed back to the car together.

Bonnie is doing two separate on-calls tomorrow, including a nurse-on-call, so we'll walk in her neighborhood. She's got to stay close to the car.

the new gym plan

This plan changes frequently.

For the summer the gym at school doesn't open till 7 am. We start work at 7:30. No one else comes in until 9-ish. So the plan late yesterday was to walk then go to the gym for a half hour and stay a little later.

We had even talked about taking gym orientation. (I'd rather clean a toilet.)

Then my colleague sent me an email for something called "sunrise power".  I quote: "Formatted for all skill levels. (They haven't met me!) Calls focuses on resistance and power moves to strengthen, tones and defines every major muscle group in your body.  Burns fat, burns calories and builds lean muscle!" OMG I think I'll die. And it starts at 7:10.

The new plan is to go to work much earlier, work in gym clothes since there was no one else there, go take this class, and return to work before our colleagues arrive. We might still have to stay a little later.

Too bad the dirty girl isn't till fall. I'll be "buff" and ready to go.

Meanwhile today I joined my friends team for the Lehigh Valley Cure Search Walk. It short and slow, but her daughter is battling leukemia, and this is the group they work with, so I volunteered. If you want to donate money to her team go here. I already kicked in the minimum. I hate fundraising.

(I always laugh at the 3-Day commercials when they say "fundraising was the easiest part." Bull.)

fisher stadium

When we worked on campus I used to do the steps of Fisher Stadium on a regular basis. I had forgotten how shallow the stairs were. Today, I could only do five sections (about 500 stairs). It's part of the new summer workout program.

My car pool buddy and I decided that since the kids are gone we were going to try the gym before work. You know how I love a gym. So today we parked at the office and walked to Kirby gym. And it was closed. My heart did a happy dance. It seems like everything around here is closed the week between finals and graduation except our office.

So at first we were going to just walk, and then I said, lets do the stadium. And we did. When jelly legs made their appearance, we stopped and took the scenic route back to the office.

Next week we'll try for the gym again.

walking the circut

We have a couple of normal routes that we take for our weekend walks. They range from 2 to 6 miles, depending on what mood I'm in.

Today's was just under 4 miles. My original plan would have made it over 4, but a good training walk leader always plans for bathrooms. Today's winner was McDonalds. And it shaved off about a half-mile.

So we did a loop thru Fountain Hill and spent a little time in the park. According to the chalk drawing, Lydia has a "mystery man" and "is all dat!" Alas, we could not get her to reveal the mystery man, but in some other sidewalk art we discovered his name was Kenny. 


I also saw an old Girl Scout friend Eillie, on this walk. I stopped to talk a minute and Bonnie and Lydia kept going. I had to hustle to catch up.

I also took Lydia down Pawnee street and showed her grams old church and the house she grew up in.

water review 3

(If I must buy bottled water, it will not be purified tap water. I already paid for that once.)

Yesterday in NYC I stopped at a Duane Reade for a bottle of water. They had so many interesting choices I could have bought a dozen. Alas, I only needed one.

I settled on Delish Artesian Water. (I chose it for the label and price.) What is artisan water? It comes from an artesian well. My computers dictionary says it is "relating to or denoting a well bored perpendicularly into water-bearing strata lying at an angle, so that natural pressure produces a constant supply of water with little or no pumping". Aren't you sorry I asked?

That is why the Nutrition Facts listed fairly high mineral content. And it tasted good. But more importantly it was cold and wet on a hot spring day in the city.

saturday in new york

Yesterday my workout was a little different. Sure I walked a bit, but more importantly I attempted to dance.

I went on a bus trip with the Girl Scouts to NYC. They were going to a dance workshop at Pearl Studios, and the musical Sister Act.  With a stop for lunch at Dallas BBQ.

As I've noted before, I can't dance. I was doing okay with the foot work, then they added hands. Ut oh. I can't do two things at once. Then they added singing. Then I sat down! Even though I was just swaying and doing the arm work, it was a bit of a workout.

We had about 40 people. There was only a couple elevators and it took awhile to get everyone up and down. Bonnie asked about stairs—Pearl was on the 12th floor—and they were locked. We couldn't add a stairclimb to our day. On the 12th floor the door had emergency exit only on it, and a panic bar to get out.

It was about a 10 block walk to the BBQ place. We went to Dallas BBQ. Food was okay, but they clearly catered to large groups. Food was pre-ordered, and out about 5 minutes after we sat down. It looked thrown on the plates. I think the kitchen had an assembly line. As soon as a plate was clear they  took it away. They were totally cleaning the tables before we left. It felt really rushed. Like they wanted to get one group out and get the next in.

Across the street was Famous Dave's. (My brother Dave makes kick-butt BBQ. He also works in NYC off and on. A double life?) They had a great sign. Being a graphic designer I would have chose Dave's.

Finally we walked thru Times Square to the theatre at 54th and Broadway, and after the show to the bus stop.

bladder cancer awareness walk

Thought this one would be a walk in the park. It wasn't!

Bonnie had to bag-out because of a funeral, so Lyd and I met up with my friend Pam at the event. A friend of hers is one of the organizers. It was also opening day at the Easton Farmers Market. So we had a great place to kill some time while we were waiting.

The 4.2 mile walk began at Pearly Bakers and headed down 3rd Street to Easton's canal park. Then we picked down the Delaware tow path. Problem was the tow path had serious damage from hurricanes and other severe weather—Big pot holes, huge rocks, loose gravel...even a down tree to climb over! It was tough to walk. And a little dangerous.

(Angel and I had thought of biking down the trail, but that's getting crossed off the list till it's repaired.)

We turned around at a washed out foot bridge and headed back over the same terrain. When we got back to the park, we headed out the Lehigh canal towpath. Hurray, it was macadam. Then we turned around and came back to canal park.

At the park they had a balloon release. Probably eco-unfriendly, but pretty.

Then we walked the half mile back to the car.

why didn't i think of this?

Lydia found it and I am so happy. All my loves converge it one giant messy party. We have a large bunch of scoobies going. It will be so fun.

Is it July 8th yet?