Walking for Exercise: Breaking the Three Mile Barrier

When I first started walking for exercise back in July I was all about doing a mile in fifteen minutes. I am about 5'2" tall with a barely 29 inch inseam. I walk with people who are significantly taller than me. They can tic off more distance with fewer steps so I am always playing catch up. I have to step so fast I'm practically running. Turns out it doesn't matter how fast you go, four miles burns the same calories in an hour as it does in an hour and a half.

I was so busy wearing myself out over the time and trying to keep up that I was spent at the two mile mark. In two weeks I was supposed to walk three and half miles for charity. On a day when I was walking alone I planned a route I hadn't measured. It could have been two miles or five, I wasn't sure I just knew it was a loop that would bring me back home and I was going to do it because it was just walking. I put on the pedometer and checked the clock before heading out. I told myself it was a matter of walking and I had been doing it all my life so it wasn't a big deal.

I made it to the top of my street and was trekking down hill on the next thinking it wasn't so bad and then I hit the first major hill. You know how people tell you it's all about mind over matter. Well it is. I put my mind in gear over my matter and made it move itself up the hill in a way that was more efficient than any other time I had walked because it wasn't about me keeping up with someone else it was about me making it up the hill. I crested the next four hills like that and relaxed in the flat spots.

On the third street in my loop I was passing a telephone pole and noticed a stick bug. By that time I was about ten hills in and tired but this stick bug was a giant compared to the ones I'd seen before and I didn't have my camera with me. As simple as it may sound finding that stick bug motivated me to move along as fast as my little short legs would carry me. There was no telling how long it was going to stay there.

Not only did I break the three mile mark that day I smashed it. I walked 4.76 miles in 1 hour and 22 minutes and it was all because I put my mind in charge of my matter. I even got back in time, in a car this time, to take a picture of that stick bug. Today I walked four miles in 1 hour and 7 minutes. I now believe hills are my friend, I might slow down on the way up but I make up for it on the way down. And even though my husband was still quite a few yards ahead with his much longer stride it only amounted to a few seconds behind and I'm fine with that.