Jo Dee Messina and Me

I will walk early in the morning.

I will walk in the heat.

I will walk in the cold.

But I won't walk in the wet.

When I started my concerted efforts as a walker I always walked in the afternoons after work, because I am not a morning person. It got really, really hot that first summer I was doing this, though, and I was forced to make a decision: quit walking outside, do all my walking on a treadmill in an air-conditioned place, or get up earlier and walk before it got truly horrid.

I did the treadmill thing at our local Y's Up for a while and found it interesting in its own way but an utter bore. It also made it way too easy to quit before I got over that "hump" where you think you have nothing left, and then find that, indeed, you do. When you are out in the neighborhood walking, you kind of have to keep going to get home, and while needing to have that reason to keep going might be seen as a crutch I'm unapologetic about needing to have it. 

Another test of my resolve came this winter. Last winter, if the morning temperatures were 45 or below, I did not go outside to walk. I would head to the treadmills. This winter we had to give up our membership to the Y when my husband lost his job, so I was faced with another decision: quit walking until spring, or suck it up, layer like the world depended on it, and get out there and try.

And I did. And I discovered I love love love walking in the cold weather. I went out one morning when it was 19 degrees, and did decide that 20 would my personal cut-off point, though.  I have the ugliest compression/warm pants in the history of textiles and when I put those and my other cold weather layers on I feel like an Arctic Warrior. I also discovered that I don't really care what I look like when I'm out there since I don't have to see myself. Why it took me 53 years to hit on that bit of brilliance I will never understand.

So yesterday morning when I discovered it was a bit misty outside I thought about ditching but decided to give it a go and was surprised to find I was quite disappointed when it stopped. I got home and began polling friends who are serious about this stuff about what they do when it's raining outside -- what clothes? what precautions?  This would all be helpful to know in case there is rain on on October 1, because one thing I have learned for sure and certain is brilliance of this motto:

PLAN YOUR WORK AND WORK YOUR PLAN.

~~ My Daddy

I spent free time yesterday Googling for answers, tips, suggestions, and as I went to bed last night, with the suggestion of rain in the morning forecast, I began to channel Sister Jo Dee Messina....

And guess what?

A light drizzle does not exactly a rain make, but it was more than a mist, and it got ambitious a time or two and teetered on the fence of true wetness. It lasted the entire time I was out, and I was pretty wet when I got home. I did not melt, and now I find myself hoping for a real rain, just to test myself up against it.

I never seem to stop having to learn the lesson that when I change my can't to won't I give myself the opportunity to go from won't to might was well try all the way to yes, I do. 

***

Yesterday's Walk 

Total Distance: 8.11 miles

Total Time: 2:00:53

Pace: 14:54 per mile 

Today's Walk

Total Distance: 2.89 miles

Total Time: 47:12

Pace: 16:20 per mile

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