20.81

On Monday I mentioned that I was going to renew my efforts to get off of the couch while the kids are at school. I walked a little over 5 miles on Monday and I did 5 miles again on Tuesday. I walked for a while with one of our older neighbors which slowed me down a little bit but also made the last couple of miles a lot more enjoyable. By dinner time that evening I was rethinking my new efforts at getting fit. My legs were feeling every step of the previous two days.

On Wednesday I was almost done with mile 4. I was out on the hiking trail and heading home. I heard my phone chirp that a new email was waiting, so I did a quick check while I was walking down the trail. My web enabled phone is a new toy and I haven't yet started ignoring it each time it alerts me to a new message. It was lucky that I did not ignore the message this time. A neighbor's dog had run off and had been spotted heading for the trail I was currently walking on.

I started calling the puppy, but I made it to the trail with no sign of the dog. As I was getting to the house I saw the neighbor who was headed out to search for the puppy again. I grabbed my car and a leash and headed to the opposite end of the park, The neighbor headed to the trail I had just hiked.

We each hiked into the park and met up in the middle of the trail but neither of us had found the puppy. I was ready to sit for a while, so I decided to drive the neighborhood streets, and search for the puppy who now had a couple of hour head start. As I was driving down a dead end street a car came up behind me, flashing it's lights. I was moving slow but I was on a mission, so I kept my pace and just figured some jerk wanted to pass me.

Better sense took hold of me and I did not yell at the alleged jerk. Good thing too, because the driver was out driving around, trying to see if she could find anyone out driving around looking for a lost puppy. She had found the puppy and taken it home to her house.

I followed her over there, picked up the puppy and called the neighbor. We had completed a successful puppy search!

For the record, I finished up my 5 miles while I was walking back to get my car after searching the trail the second time. But my sore legs combined with stopping to listen for the puppy every few steps slowed my average speed down a little bit that day.

I skipped out on walking on Thursday. No need to over do this whole walking-the-neighborhood-hero thing. Plus it was raining and I had a headache. But mainly I just didn't wanna. My legs were tired.

I hit the neighborhood streets in a light rain this morning, 5 miles in the 'hood is a lot more boring than 5 miles on the trails, but I didn't want to end up a muddy mess, so I cruised the sidewalks today. I did my 5 miles, plus some extra, in 1 hour and 25 minutes. The fastest I have gone this far.

On Monday I set a goal to walk 20 miles before Friday night. In the end I managed a little extra, 20.8 miles total. Next week I want to try to walk 30 miles over 6 days (Full disclosure, I am counting tomorrow's walk towards that goal.)