I am so glad I got a blister today

Isabelle with Grandpa about half way through our walk. There is a geocache on this horse, but we couldn't find it.

Mama and Issy on the granite Teddy Bear. It is on the other side of the bridge at Lakeside.

Issy with the leaf she carried...the...entire...way.

Well, it has been a long two weeks with very little exercise. Two weeks ago we had inservice, and I made absolutely no time for exercising (besides the fact I was completely exhausted and had to juggle Isabelle's childcare). Then last week, we had the first week of school and I got up at 5 a.m. on Monday and walked 2 miles, but I didn't manage to walk the rest of the week. Somehow I associate "taking care of myself" with NOT exercising.

This morning though, I knew I wanted to get some good mileage in. I was hoping to get up early, walk from my parent's house (in West Highland Park) to my mom's office (in East HP) about 2.8 miles, then the 7 miles on the Katy Trail, and then 2.8 back to parent's house to total, I think, 12.6 miles. Kind of glad I slept late, so the plans changed. I made it to my mom's office around 10:30a, and managed to get on the Katy Trail pretty soon thereafter.

Mile 1 was good. Every ounce of my Sociology Minor self was so enjoying the people watching. I have the most interesting conversations with myself on these walks. They are so much more interesting than my walks on just streets with passing cars. There was a man on a bike with an old time looking front week with the diameter of probably like 6 feet and the back wheel with a 1 foot diameter. There were several families on bikes. Mostly healthy, interesting people. There was a lady swinging her arms as though they were both rigid and pendulums on clocks. It looked painful the amount of extra effort she was putting into her jaunt.

The entire time, I had a permanent smile on my face. So many thoughts were going through my mind especially the overwhelming ponderance of why I resisted walking all week, when it makes me feel SO. FREAKING. GOOD. I just don't get why my mind thinks that taking care of myself means to NOT walk, when everytime I do walk, I feel so great. The great thing about having made a commitment to the H&H Half in 4 weeks is that I knew I needed to continue to be walking.

It probably took like 30 minutes longer for me to pack up all my walking gear before leaving the house this morning since it has been a while. Shorts over here in this laundry pile, socks over here, shoes under the bed, ipod by my purse. I almost couldn't find my socks that were polyester blend therefore helping keep the sweat off my feet. Then I had the fleeting thought that since I had a small blister on my back heel (mainly because I wore big girl shoes, i.e. not crocs this week) that I should put a band-aid on and bring 2 extra just in case.

I am SOOOOO glad I did that. Turns out the scab over the blister did quite its job of protecting the heel....but...my toe started hurting about mile 4. Which by the way, the view as I was making it to the AAC (American Airlines Center) was amazing. Truthfully, there was probably nothing spectacular about the view, but it was so cool to be thinking about having walked from mom's office near Mockingbird and Central Expressway to Downtown Dallas.

Back to mile 4. My toe was hurting, and I sat down to take my sock off, and sure enough, there was a super delux blister forming. Strangely enough, all I could think was how glad I was that I had that blister. Weird, right? Well, I was thinking I was glad that I was having it today, because for

1: I was prepared with a band-aid

2: I was only doing about 10 miles rather than 13

3: it wasn't the H&H Half

4: this blister would form tougher skin that wouldn't be as likely to form a blister in the future

5: I was super glad to be able to learn from this lesson to always bring band-aids

So, today I was super grateful for my blister.

Mile 5, Dad called, and he was going to meet me at Mom's office (at the end of the Katy Trail) with Isabelle to ride her bike and us walk back to their house. I made it to the end of the Katy Trail (7 miles) in 1:58:51.47. That is about a 16:58 per mile pace. I was pretty happy with the results. The weather was awesome, and I was glad to have made it all the way to mile 7.

Around 1pm, Dad, Issy, and I headed west along Beverly Drive in Highland Park. If you are not familiar with Beverly Drive, it is definitely one of the top drives for Christmas light viewing in the winter. The homes are not only large, but they are beautifully landscaped and kept. The most interesting phenomenon is that for whatever reason about 10 years ago, the traditional 200 foot wide lot probably costing around 2-4 million was not sufficient, many people bought a next door lot to double their space. The joy of walking this way was that we got to soak in so many of the details.

Isabelle found a beautiful Magnolia Tree leaf at the beginning of the walk that she asked me to carry because it was "the biggest leaf she had ever seen in her whole life." I told her that no, she'd have to carry it. That crazy little 8 year old carried that big 'ole leaf the entire way back, wouldn't you know.

We made it easily at a very slow pace (which was nice after the faster pace on the KT). When we made it to Lakeside Drive we tood a detour to walk along Lakeside and it was so beautiful. We then walked over the bridge, ran into a high school friend of dad's who was building a house right there, and took some pictures on the granite teddy bear. We crossed Preston Road to head back on Bordeaux, and it was such a beautiful walk. It took us a total of an hour and 45 minutes to go 3.2 miles, but I should probably take off about 30 minutes we stopped to look at the friend's house and to look at this crazy house next door to it. So, it was about 1 hour 15 minutes for 3.2 miles.

My Real Time Glucose Monitoring was soooooo nice because instead of testing my blood every 2 miles, I was able to just click the button and see the trend or direction it was headed. So at 7 miles, I knew to eat raisins, but not too many. I absolutely love my new Real Time System!!

It was such a nice end to a medium speed walk to spend time with Isabelle and my dad. I soooo enjoy the quality time I get when walking (even with myself). So often throughout my day, I don't slow down to smell the roses, much less look at them. Today, my friends, I looked at the roses, and they are beautiful. 4 weeks baby!!!! And I'll have done my first Half Marathon.

Lesson for the day: Walking makes me feel good, I enjoy the journey, the view, and the feeling, taking care of myself means to walk, not skip, breaks are ok, as long as they end, add band-aids to the packing list for long walks, I love my Real Time new system, JUST SHOW UP!!!!

Part 1 - Katy Trail

Time: 10:30a - 12:30p - Part 1 Katy Trail, 7 miles

Temp: 75 - 85, cooler, clear skies

Distance: 7 miles

Time: 1:58:51.47

Pace: 16:58/m

MPH: 3.53

Half estimate: 3.71 hours

Part 2 - Beverly Drive

Time: 1:00 pm - 2:45 pm
Temp: 75 - 85, cooler, clear skies
Distance: 3.2 miles
Time: 75 minutes
Pace: 23.44 minutes/mile
MPH: 2.56

Half estimate: 5.12 hours