When I woke this morning, I realized that I have been thinking of going for this sort of walk as something I would ALLOW myself to do IF I finished my chores, or my homework, or whathaveyou. Because of this perspective, I rarely did any exercise, which really didn't bother me because exercising has always been something that felt to me like a punishment of sorts. How in the world I thought I was going to exercise if I thought of it as something I "earned" by doing other things I don't like doing is a mystery to me. It shows how much I dislike exercise; I'd rather do a week's worth of dishes first!
However, getting out and walking, or riding a bike (which I don't yet have but it's on layaway) or lifting weights (I'll be picking up my old weight set from my mother's house in the next month or so, but that is a 12 hour drive one way) cannot be a "treat" that I give myself IF I'm a good girl. It's something I NEED to do in order to be MY best. So, it has to become a priority, in at least the top three of my list of things I absolutely MUST do today. It can't be an option. It has to be imperative, just like eating and breathing.
So, Beasley and I put on our walking shoes and went to Buffalo Park to walk the Flagstaff urban trail this morning. I took a walking stick. I did not stretch, I just took off walking. This was fine because Beasley took many opportunities to stop and sniff. She really wanted to be off-leash exploring but fortunately this is not allowed. She would end up being a coyote snack in a few short minutes. The sun was just showing through the trees. It was a beautiful February morning with clear skies and about 35 degrees F.
I could not walk very many steps, at first, without stopping to pant. I was glad that Beasley wanted to stop so often. I noticed that my "sitting" muscles were pretty tight, too; gluteus medius and maximus, more the medius, though. We made our way to the 1/4 mile mark and I decided that if I walked a 1/2 mile today (1/4 mile there and back) that would be a really good starting place. So, we turned around and headed back. My lumbar region and hips were still pretty stiff and I didn't feel that I was going to be able to loosen up and walk freely this morning. However, by the time we had just about reached the parking lot again, those muscles began to loosen and the pain began to subside. So, tomorrow I'm going to stretch out my back muscles first, THEN go for the walk.
I think if I just focus on walking a 1/2 mile each day this week, that will be sufficient. Right now, I'm going to commit to walking another 1/2 mile tomorrow. I don't need to look too far into the future. I think today I got my heart rate up and I got the blood flowing through muscles that haven't been used much in quite some time. It was an auspicious beginning.
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