Mid-year Review

Ok, I've been walking a lot, 140 miles in the last four months of last year and 627 in the first six months of this year. I've almost worn out my 5-10 Dome shoes I bought last January with about 600 miles on them and maybe only 100-200 miles left before I wear the soles.

The upper part of the shoe is still in good condition, but I have an mild underpronation with both feet and wear out the outer heal and toes of shoes faster than normal wear, often where it's through the sole before the shoe is half worn out.

But I've found that 5-10 shoes are the best for wear. They weren't always as I've had shoes wear out in 2-3 months but lately their shoes have been great, especially when I've worn them through a winter, spring and now summer weather. Yeah, from the worst rain and snow to the hot days here.

Anyway, all this has had a significant improvement in the body with the muscle tone, especially the legs and weight, if I ever weighed myself, which I don't but I know in January at the doctor's office I had lost 15 lbs from the first four months of walking.

That, however was probably the easy fat, and over the last 5-6 months, the easy fat is almost gone and I'm left with the fat my body loves, sort of the genetic fat level, which takes more exercise, hence the longer walks with hopefully more weight in the backpack.

That said, the goal was to get to 160 or less lbs from my initial 180+ last summer. I think I'm getting close as the clothes are fitting better but there comes a point the body is so big and won't get smaller, just healthier and fitter. And that's the goal, wherever that weight is but with the least amount of fat.

The second goal is to get back to running. That goal, however, is more a dream or hope for now as I've tried short jogs during the walk home, but never the walk to town as I get shin splints so easily with stress on the legs with running.

This is the reason for the longer walks, for two purposes. The first is to build endurance back into the leg muscles. The second is aerobic exercise, to burn calories and get the body into fat burnning mode. And the distance was to make it comparable to my old running distance of 3+ miles.

I've done that with walking 2+ hours at a 15-16 minute pace with some weight. To get back to running, I'd have to start with shorter distance and build back to the distance I had and maybe longer runs down the road.

But all of that is a goal for now while I walk. And walk a lot, but at least there's a cafe with a coffee drink with my name on it along the way.