Thursday, January 14, 2010

I'm a Mall Walker (Pun Intended)

As part of my goal to become healthier this year I've begun walking most nights. Yes, it's true I'm not the most consistent in getting my half-hour of sweat-inducing exercise, but with my extraordinary partner - the hubby - I've been walking more these last two weeks than I have in quite a while.



Walking with my husband is not for the weak-hearted, nor the slow going. His "power" walk has me trotting to keep up. His normal pace has my calf muscles crying in pain. I remember the days I used to keep up with him without hoping someone would run up behind me with a wheelchair because I could feel my legs turning to jelly even as we rounded a corner. One of these days I'll be able to keep up again.

Seeing as how it's winter in Utah, there are nights when the air is crisp but not freezing and taking a good half-hour walk feels exhilarating rather than exhausting. I love exercising in cooler weather, if for no other reason than I don't smell as bad after it's all done. However, this being winter in Utah there are nights when the air is bone chilling, or snow is falling in droves, keeping us from wanting to lose a nose, finger or toe to frostbite. These nights, we take to the local mall.

I don't know if they're common where you are, but here in the Salt Lake Valley mall walkers are a regular sight. They range in ages, but mostly consist of the "older" set, and are most often seen in the morning hours before the opening of stores brings an onslaught of shoppers. Hubby and I, however, brave the evening hours to do our walking.

To keep things exciting we switch up which mall entrance we park near. I know, you can hardly stand how utterly awesome we are at this moment, right? Tonight we went really wild...and walked in the opposite direction. Funny thing is - it threw us off! We almost took a few wrong turns in Macy's.

Tonight I was not in fine form. As we finished our first lap around the mall I told my hubby to go on ahead of me, that I needed to slow down. I watched him race off and could literally feel my legs sigh in relief as I let up a bit on the pace. Hubby went screeching off through the food court, but I skipped it, as I knew it could take about as much time for me to finish the mall by cutting a few corners as it would him going the full course. And it did.

Still, I'm grateful for a husband who pushes me to go just a bit faster in walking, whether it be in the mall or outside. He's the reason I'm still going strong on exercising. And for those who didn't get the "pun intended" in the title? Our last name is Walker :)

1 comment:

Debbie said...

Good for you! You are an inspiration or is it perspiration? j/k I too am gearing up for some lifestyle changes.