Jenny and Erin

Erin and I are changing! Our acceptance of the crazy walking dare has turned into a good thing. Yes, change still is uncomfortable and I stand my ground when it comes to just how much becoming a better person sucks, but we are pushing through and seeing the benefits.

When Erin and I first started walking just getting out of bed before sunrise was an accomplishment. Every morning we spent the first 5 minutes of our walk congratulating ourselves for being there. Now, the morning runs like clockwork. That is unless, Erin’s been out late the night before. Then she’s a little late and a wee bit grumpy, but give her five minutes and she’ll tell some excellent stories! We have doubled our daily mileage. Honestly, other than more time to chat, more people to watch and more time for Erin to “instruct” me on “elusive” and “rare” wildflowers, birds and weeds, we have barely noticed a difference.

This isn’t the only thing that has changed. Apparently walking is a great workout. We are in better shape, our heart rates our dropping and our legs are more toned. But surprisingly, we are seeing the benefits elsewhere too. It really is an overall body workout. For example, during our first 10 mile days my abdominal muscles would be sore. Imagine abdominal muscle pain equivalent to many, many sit-ups. Erin expressed her doubts, until it started happening to her. Yep, from walking. Who knew???

When walking up big hills I used to have to decide whether to walk or talk. Last month while we were walking up a particularly long, steep hill on the Gitchi Gami Trail I realized midway up a hill that I wasn’t just cruising up it, but I was chatting away.

In addition to the physical changes other things are shifting. For example, Erin and I agreed from day one to ban complaining. Why spend nearly 600 miles complaining? However, after toeing the proverbial line a few times during our first walks we have learned how to reign it in. Interestingly, this attitude has seeped into our non-walking lives as well. The decision to push forward and walk these trails despite the occasional poor planning, overwhelming time commitment and occasional argument has been a good one.

We leave this week on our most ambitious journey yet. Rather than tempt the gods, Murphy or whoever seems to keep laughing at our well laid plans, I’ll leave the details for our return. We’ll be walking over the next week regardless of the weather, as we no longer have any wiggle room if we want to uphold our word and complete all 15 trails by late October. Posts will still go up but I’m not sure how much time we will have for much else.

Take care, we’ve gone walkin’!

This entry was posted in Boots are Made for Walkin on Friday, June 29th, 2007 by Jenny. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.