Two more weeks till the Half Marathon in Lodi. Our weekly "long" walk has jumped dramatically from 6 miles to 9 miles, and next week it will be 10 miles. So, how do I know when I've walked 9 miles?Aside from knowing that I'm a pretty consistent 20-minute-miler, there is a neat "pedometer" hack for Google Maps - you "record" your walk by clicking on the map, and it calculates the length of each segment as well as the total length of the walk. You can turn on other features, like mile-markers and calories burned (based on your weight.) This is where I walked yesterday. (You will have to zoom out to see the entire route.)
Ah, but you ask, "Who is John Phillip?" Well, here's the story. I've been listening to audio books on my walks to make them a little more interesting. I've walked through Lois Lowry's "Gathering Blue", a couple of pedantic motivational titles, and am currently involved in "Snow flower and the Secret Fan", by Lisa See. This is all good, as long as I'm walking in the green belt parkway or on lightly-trafficked streets. Walking on the levee, however, is much noisier, because it runs right alongside the immensely-busy I-5 freeway. I was looking for something to listen to that I could hear above the traffic noise, and thought that perhaps marching music might be just the ticket. I downloaded a handful of John Phillip Sousa marches from iTunes, along with a couple others that are very different (Irish, New Orleans). Now, I stride along to the tubas and trumpets I remember from my childhood - my dad was in the Army band during WWII, and had several recordings we listened to often - and discovered it's GREAT walking music! Even if you're getting tired, the next march has you stepping right along and loving it! (Photo courtesy of SoldiersMediaCenter on Flickr and used under the terms of its Creative Commons license.)
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