Teleidoscope

Sun, Jun 22, 2008

Walking to Rivendell

Posted at 11:22 am MDT to Exercise

On this date in 2001 I weighed 40 pounds less than I do today, and my body fat percentage (I have a smart scale) was about 10 points lower.

Some of the reasons for the weight gain are medical: they took Propulsid off the market and my Synthroid dosage was lowered. Some of the weight gain was due to travelling, though my exercise journal indicates I kept up with my weight lifting and yoga pretty steadily for at least the first 20 pounds of the gain.

My weight has been pretty stable for the past year even without any exercise to speak of. I think it would start to drop if I added some exercise to my routine, especially with these diet changes.

In the past, walking has been what got my weight down to the ranges where yoga worked and weightlifting was... feasible. I need to do a lot more walking, but walking without a goal is boring.

In college I used to walk an extra mile or two most days, over and above the walking that was needed to go to classes and the library and the dining hall (the campus was quite hilly). I had a loop that went across campus, then down the hill to the public library, then farther down the hill to Main Street. Along Main Street there were two stops: a used book store and a news stand that sold comic books. Then back up the hill, but at the other end of campus, with a stop half-way up the hill at the University book store.

Now there is nowhere useful or interesting to walk to. I have a treadmill but that is the essence of goalless walking, though it decreases my exposure to heat and hayfever.

On the Eowyn's Challenge website, they have the travel mileages for the journeys in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Some people use them to track their exercise progress. I heard about it on Elizabeth Bear's LiveJournal matociquala. She's currently somewhere in the mines of Moria.

I decided to do the Hobbit routes first. Bilbo and the dwarves only travelled about 12 miles a day. As of this morning I'm one mile on the way from Bag End to Rivendell. I have crossed the bridge across the Water, and I am on the road to The Green Dragon in Bywater to meet the dwarves. 396 miles to go to Rivendell.

I may do some more walking later today. I need to do more than 1 mile a day if I'm going to get to Rivendell in less than a year.

And if I'm stiff tomorrow morning, it will give me the incentive to do some yoga.

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