A Fried Face, Carmex in My Hair and... OMG! My Hip is Killing Me!

4.6 miles. Yeah. I did it. :D

I was in the mood to walk, this morning and rather than wait until this afternoon after William got home, I got dressed, laced on my walking shoes, grabbed my necessities, clipped on my pedometer and headed out. I walked up Willow Creek Road while Slacker poured the latest into my willing ears. The wind was blowing pretty briskly which was nice, in a way since it kept me a little more cool than if it were still. It was brilliantly sunny and just a gorgeous day to get my walk on.

I had thought that I would turn at Country Park Drive and head back but by the time I got to that intersection, I was feeling really good and I was just over a mile, according to my pedometer. So, I thought I would go on... Maybe another half mile, making my walk a three miler. As I went along and checked my little distance gadget on occasion, rather than wanting to turn back, I felt motivated to keep going. I got to the top of the looooong uphill (the first mile and three quarters is almost all uphill, some of it at a decent incline) and thought I might turn around. I had a nice drink, checked my pedometer and decided to go on. Why not just make it two miles out?

At two miles, exactly I was so close to the intersection at Willow Creek and Gail Gardener, (across the street from my Walgreen's) that I carried on to the light, had more water then headed home. I slogged back uphill (the last quarter mile or so out was downhill) to the top of the hill again, then I was able to cruise on home. I started flagging a bit about a half mile from home but I was still doing just great.

Until I got to the bottom of my driveway. lol The climb up that steep horror brought out just how tired I was and how much my poor hip was hurting. All the way up the drive, then up the side of my building it was singing Ave Maria at the top of it's voice. I barely managed to get my feet up high enough to step up on my patio and enter my back door. I hit my kitchen nearly sobbing from the effort.

But ya know... I also felt good. Tired. But good. Hurting. But good. And really pleased with myself for pushing, for making myself really work. This is what I need. Easy walks are nice but to really improve my conditioning and push my weight loss out of this self induced stall I have been "enjoying" I am going to have to work myself.

That walk took me an hour and twenty minutes. Not too shabby, considering that most of the distance outbound was uphill. According to my pedometer, I burned 524 calories. If I go by the online calculator, I burned 728. If I factor in the fact that I did two miles of uphill work, I could increase that a good bit. By my calculations, figuring forty minutes uphill and forty "regular" I burned about 992 calories. Yeah... That isn't confusing in the least. So, what is it? 524? 728? 992? Split the diff? Average it out? Say screw it and just be happy that I walked?

I'm soooo confused. lol Anyone who is an expert on this kind of thing, a little help, please? I don't need to know exactly but a good, solid ballpark would be nice. :D

I also would like to learn how to compute my calorie deficit. I think you take your BMR, those calories are what you need to live. Then you subtract the calories you take in for the day and the calories you burn through exercise, right? The end figure is your deficit or overage for the day... Correct?

My face is hot. I forgot to apply my mineral based sunblock and I get a little crisped. My skin is pink, not red so I am not too burned. There were shady spots and it was early, so the sun wasn't as bad as it could have been. But, note to self, remember your sunblock! And I need to get tubes of mineral based bod sunblock, too. I don't want to expose myself to the sun this Summer like I did, last year. I had Carmex in my hair when I got home. The wind kept blowing my ponytail all over the joint and it kept sticking in my lip balm. Blech! From now on, the hair gets braided or put up in a bun for walking. It is too long to just ponytail, any longer. You should have seen the tangles I had to work out of my hair when I got home. Not good. :P

I was so stiff I could barely move, earlier but I am loosening up and getting around a lot better, now. I recover faster and better than I used to. Yes, this walk wiped me but not as bad as shorter, easier ones did, when I started walking last year. Hell, at my heaviest, just going to the grocery store and walking down and back up my stairs once would make me feel as if I had been taken out back and had the shit kicked out of me.

I think I am in better shape than I was, then. :D

Okay, 'nuff of that. You are probably bored stupid. lol

It is windy as hell, again today and now it is getting overcast. This weather is weird, this year. It actually feels a little cool, in the wind, especially. I have a window open but no fans on, right now.

Okay, I guess I have chattered myself out, for now. I'll talk to you later. :)