In the past week, I got a reasonable amount of walking in, despite the less-than-perfect weather.
When I sat down Sunday morning, I started thinking about where I had walked recently and realized there were about four different locations I use for my ‘planned’ walks. I have gotten a fair bit of exercise some days just walking around doing the adult things like grocery shopping.
The place I walk most frequently is also the place I get the fewest steps in at a time. I’m in the office at CFIS really early weekdays, and I have done a lot of laps of the big open space there.
I counted it a few times and it’s 50 steps around the outside edge. That doesn’t sound like much, but I usually do six laps at a time, so that’s 300 steps, and I sometimes do as many as 10 sets of laps, so that’s 3,000 steps. Not a bad number, it’s inside, and I’m there already.
I also like to walk at Masich Place Stadium. The new track is very comfortable to walk on, you can do a bit of people watching just from the other walkers, and you’re never that far from the car in case the weather changes.
The minuses to Masich Place are two: It is outside, so walking there is somewhat weather-dependent, and two, there are some time constraints, since you can only walk when the track is open.
That same minus applies to Pine Centre Mall, since it’s only open close to mall hours. On the other hand, it’s inside, so no weather problems. You can also do people watching with the other walkers as well as the people shopping at the mall. It’s also a chance to do some window shopping.
Minus the window shopping, the same things apply to CN Centre during the winter. I walked there a fair bit this past winter, and it was kind of nice to not have to reserve a spot ahead of time.
That leaves the walking site that’s easiest for me to get to and offers a variety of scenery – the streets around my apartment building.
I have a few different routes I like to walk, and I know about how long each one takes, so I can decide which one to take based on real-life needs.
I have found, however, whoever is in charge of weather doesn’t like me. They wait until I’m at the furthest point from my apartment before they change either the wind or the precipitation to make the experience less pleasant.
But if the weather is good, I love those walks. I’m getting fresh air, there’s usually a few chances to do some people watching, and the scenery changes with the seasons.