Advent posting - Day 16 - Walks

Walks became a thing when we were all sent home from work and to work. I went from at least 5000 steps at work, plus cycling to and from work, to be stuck at home the whole day.  I was still training and running, but I missed the movement throughout the day. My body missed that movement too and after a few weeks, I got pain in my hip flexors, and on my shoulders/neck. As so many other people did. 

A long walk during early Autumn.

Running once a day was not helping, because it was only once a day, and my body needed more breaks than that. That's when we bought a standing/sitting desk and started to go for lunch walks. Sometimes I and the hubby go together, sometimes on our own, depending on our working schedules. Unfortunately, none of our workplaces adopted walking meetings, but that would have been great. I got so used to lunch walks and felt so refreshed afterwards, that I do them every time I can, even nowadays, and even if I'm working at the office. Sometimes I need to keep them short, due to time restrictions, but it's always nice to get those 15 minutes of fresh air in the middle of the day. 

Autumn

Winter

Last summer, while talking to some crazy and cool ultra runners, one of them told us that ultra running involves a lot of walking as well, so any extra walking in our daily lives helps a lot. She tries to have a yearly average of 20 000 steps a day and challenged us to try it. We did and started including morning walks during the days we work from the home and evening walks on non-running days. We have been on a similar average since then and started feeling the health benefits of not sitting as much almost immediately. Now, don't get me wrong, we do not walk 20 000 steps every day. We usually get a lot more than that in our long runs on weekends, so we get some buffer for the more tiring working days.

 

Lunch walk this week

 We walk to our errands making the time useful, we listen to interesting podcasts, we have long talks with each other, we explore new corners of our neighborhood and our forest. Most important of all, we feel better, stronger, and happier. 

And one should do more of what makes one happier.

Tea behind the window: Ghostly Green

Oreo behind the window: Hazelnut bar

Running: 70 minutes (window 14)