Setting better walking objectives

As I mentioned briefly, I've been lately rediscovering my love for walking and am therefore trying to do more of it.  It started out when I started going for midnight walks while at Home Bar in order to get away from the noisy crowds for a bit without leaving home.  The nice thing about Home Bar is that because it's in the city (and not too far from downtown), there are some nice and well-lit streets to walk along.  Even if I walk the few blocks to the river and take the river path toward downtown, it's well lit.  So it makes for a pleasant experience.  It also gives me some not-quite-alone time, meaning I can mostly get lost in my thoughts without having to shut out the shouts of others, yet I will infrequently cross paths with other people, to whom I can say hi and exchange other pleasantries.  Or in the case when I'm wearing one of my spicy tee shirts, they can stop and ask if they can take a picture, which is always a pleasant experience.  (Especially if it's a tee shirt with a saying I came up with myself.)

To expand on this practice, I've decided to start trying to walk regularly (ultimately, I'd like to make it a nightly thing, but I'm giving myself permission to miss a few nights for now, to help keep the pressure off) late at night here at home.  Walking around my home isn't quite as nice.  I live in a part of the suburbs that is somewhat isolated and poorly lit, when compared to the city proper.  Plus I'm not as likely to run into people while walking in my suburb.  Those I do run into don't seem to be as friendly either.  (Does something about living closely together in urban conditions tend to make people more likely to interact with those around them even if they're strangers?)  But the walk will still do me good.

I've started walking to the convenience store which is about a mile from my house.  Including the stop in the store itself to talk to whoever is working and picking up whatever I decide that I need, the round trip is taking me between forty and fifty minutes, which I think is a good start for now.

I had tried to get back into walking earlier in the year, but as I think about those efforts, I think I made a few mistakes which I hope to avoid this time around.  The first of those mistakes was trying to set a goal of walking for an hour each time I went out.  That began to tire me out quickly.  There was a time -- a few years ago -- when I could handle that objective with no problem.  But when I tried it in this Spring, I should have acknowledged it was beyond my current abilities.  I might work up to that again at some point, but I need to pick something more reasonable in the meantime.

Of course, I think the way I set objectives and then hold myself to them is something of a problem, too.  It turns an enjoyable stroll into a chore.  At that point, some part of me begins to resent the idea of walking and looks for reasons not to do it.  It's not good when I take something that I enjoy and not ruin it for me.  This time, I'm keeping that in mind and am trying not to set hard-fast rules.  I'm trying to keep it enjoyable, and look at what walking I want to accomplish -- where I want to go -- rather than trying to "walk out a clock."

Another mistake that I made was in not making my walks work with my schedule.  I would often try to find someplace to go to walk.  In many ways, this made sense to me.  After all, as I noted, staying here near my home and walking is uninteresting.  Going to one of the park trails or walking along the river is much more enjoyable.  Walking downtown is much more enjoyable.

The problem is, all those walks require me to first drive miles to those locations.  This adds more of a time commitment to the process.  It doesn't matter how nice the walking trail is, if it means another twenty to forty minutes to drive there, that cuts into my schedule.  As such, I'm trying to go with the "walk where I am" idea.  If I'm at home and have time for a walk, I'll go for a walk to the convenience store.  If I'm at Home Bar, I can enjoy my midnight (or after dinner, in tonight's case) walks downtown and/or along the river.  And then if I really have  a lot of extra time and feel like it, I can occasionally treat myself to a special trip to a park or some other location.