Baby needs new shoes

As I've mentioned before (several times, I'm sure, partially to reinforce it in my own mind), I'm walking every night, or nearly every night. There was one night this week that I just couldn't do it--I sat down on the couch to watch an episode of Stargate with Bob, and I knew it was about 100 degrees outside, and it was just more than I could manage to get up and get out there. But most nights I do.

The main reason is that I'd like to lose a few pounds. There are other, marginal reasons--I'd like to get a little more fit, a little stronger. I've been doing some research, trying to figure out how much is enough, and I've been reading a lot about programs that say you should try to walk 10,000 steps a day, which equals roughly five miles.

I have no idea how many steps I walk in a normal day, but I've been walking anywhere from a mile to three and a half miles at a time on my evening walks.

When I started walking, I got a pedometer and measured my stride, and if I did it correctly, it takes a few more steps (like about 500 more) for me to walk a mile--I actually always thought I had a pretty long stride, but I guess not. Anyway, it also turns out that my pedometer wasn't accurately measuring either steps or miles, because for the last couple of weeks instead of attaching it to my waistband I've been attaching it to the fanny pack that holds my cassette player, and consequently, it wasn't level, so the number of steps/number of miles might be close, but are certainly not accurate.

Not that it matters, but I do like to keep track--it's motivating for me.

So yesterday I wore the pedometer all day, just to see. I walked 3,000 steps during the day, and another 4,000 on my evening walk, so a total of 7,000 steps, or about 3.5 miles. I really should have walked farther last night, but it was so hot and humid that I just couldn't bear it, and since I wasn't using the fanny pack, I was carrying the cassette player in my hand, and since it was so hot I was carrying a water bottle in my other hand, and I felt awkward. I need to figure out a better system. I don't really want to get some huge, high-tech pack with a holder for water, etc., but I suppose realistically, I should. I guess I want to feel like I'm just going out for a short stroll around the neighborhood, free and unemcumbered, but that doesn't work out so well.

I need the phone; I need keys and ID; I need something to alleviate the boredom which, even on the nicest nights, is generally what makes me turn around and start home. I've been listening to John D. MacDonald novels (abridged) on cassette, which is very nostalgic for me. That Travis McGee, man, he had a new girl every book, a new troubled girl, and he always solved their problems and they always left him at the end of the book. The ritual is kind of comforting, actually. You know what's going to happen, you just don't know for sure how, or the details.

My next-door neighbor has been walking, too, although she tends to start out later than I do, and we've been passing each other on the street. It looks like she does more of a racewalking thing, and it looks more hard-core, i.e., no water, no headphones. More like work.

It is work, but I try to enjoy it, too. I try not to go the same route every night. Sometimes I go to the park, sometimes I walk around the neighborhood, sometimes I head up to the main drag and walk through the more commercial area--it's a mile to Wendy's, and although I haven't yet, I always think, well, I could stop in and get a Diet Coke before I turn around and walk home.

The trail through the park makes me a little uneasy when it's dark, so if I've waited too late to start I usually stay on the lighted streets rather than heading through the trees.

And I need to get new shoes. I've got some pretty good ones, but I think the insoles are worn out, because the bottoms of my feet hurt after I've walked awhile, and I don't think they should. So this weekend I'll probably look for some new ones, or at least check out new inner soles.