Come with me...

I wanted to take you on my lunch hour walk. I have a friend who has a Garmin - Forerunner 305 personalized GPS trainer.  Which is a ocol toy.  I convinced him to come with me so that I could figure out how far I was walking, and how long it was taking me.  He went above and beyond.  I will show you the graphs at the end of the walk that you can download.  They are so cool!  Are You Ready...  (I know you like my tights with my shoes and socks)

First I go up the hill.  I know it looks like a very gradual climb - but not so much.  At this point I can still talk to you, but the breathing is labored.

Then I go down the stairs - what a relief from the hill!  My calves tell my that there are different muscles being used.

Once I have made it down the stairs and through a small historic residential area I come to the park.  I have finally caught my breath, and feeling pretty good.  Usually there a lots of dogs and people enjoying the out of doors.  It was a slow day for pedestrians.

See the great scenery as I head into the slightly wooded area beyond the groomed park. A creek runs by the trail/road the whole way. I love to listen to the water and all the little creatures that run around.  Especially during the summer I stay to the middle of the trail as to avoid any possibility there would be a snake curled up or stretched out without my noticing.  (this is the walk I saw that big old gopher snake last year)  I always check to see if he is back.  I know that you can imagine how much more pretty the area is once the scrub oaks and aspens are full of green leaves.

As you can see the road starts to climb in elevation again - I know it looks gradual, but it has kicked my butt more than once. At this point, the muscles are loosened up and I am raring to go.  Ok most of the time they are - sometimes not.  But I never quit!

We have now reached the half way point. I stop and stretch those leg muscles. Oh that feels good! Ready to make my trek back down the hill.

As you can see the road heads down, yes I walked up that!  The pace picks up.  If we were going any faster, it would be a slow jog.

Whew - down the hill and getting ready to re-enter the groomed park. Feels great. But...I know what lurks just outside of the park.

I have to climb back up those stairs - all 67 of them. Yes I have counted. The first 3 sets have 8.  The next one has 11, the next one has 12.  The last two have 10.  Whew!  I finally get to the top and my legs feel slightly wobbly and I am out of breath. What a great accomplishment. WaHoo!

Back down the hill to the finish line.  Thank goodness these are not San Francisco hills.  I think you would have to scrape me off the side of the road if they were.  Almost at the bottom we see the little guy on the walk sign that says it is ok to cross the street.  We run - ok jog across the street so we don't have to wait through another light cycle.  And...we are finished!  Here are the stats.You  can click on the image and it will show a bigger version.

This graph shows our actual pace through the whole walk. You can see the half way point where we stopped and stretched and then the point where he stopped at the top of the stairs to wait for me.

The next chart tells me that we averaged 3.7 mph.  My friend burned 592 calories and it took us 49 minutes to walk 3.01 miles.  Pretty good huh?  this next graph shows our speed.  How fast were we really going?  On the way down the hill we were above 4mph most of the way.  you can tell when we hit the stairs on the way back and then ran down the hill to catch the light.The final graph shows the elevation we acheived.  A total of 792 feet.  That is a great walk. 

Now.  I really want one of those toys.  It comes with a device that you can attach to moniter your heart rate as you exercise.  It then will tell you how many fat calories you burned and your heart rate.  I was so glad to know that I was keeping between a 3.5 to 4 mile an hour walk.  I know that as I get into better shape the walk will become easier.  Maybe one day I can even run it.