Image via Pixabay.com
This has not been a particularly pleasant week to amble about the neighborhoods upon the edge of which my place of employment is perched. It’s hot, it’s humid and while I did venture out on Wednesday in the pleasant heat and higher humidity, the fact that most of the routes I can take are mostly shaded and offer a pleasant breeze from time to time is most delightful.
I’m very lucky that my office is located where it is. The neighborhoods are quite nice. Lots of “pocket parks” are sprinkled about. Mature trees populate the yards, which are often manicured and perfectly landscaped. I have numerous routes from which to choose, and they are all pleasant even if they are all “uphill both ways”.
A good number of my coworkers are lunch- or break-time walkers. Some change into a workout outfit and head off to speed-walk over hill and over dale. Me? I don’t get so fancy. After working here for most of a year I headed to a shoe store and picked up a pair of Go Walk 2 slip-on shoes that I keep here at the office. But for all the fitness buffs in the office, the fact that I don’t go through a wardrobe change, and in the winter months tend to head out in my tall boots (they have a low heel), gives some coworkers trouble. One even seems compelled to comment on the weather, both pleasant or slightly-less than, offering up a sarcastic “Good luck”; coincidentally – they don’t take walks.
Wearing my boots in the winter has gotten me a sniff of derision accompanied with a raised eyebrow completed by, “You wore those out on your walk?”
Yes, yes I did.
I’m surrounded by fair-weather, technical-equipment junkies. This gives me great amusement as the only things you need for a walk are your two feet and mobility.
I love to walk. I prefer walking outside, even on a sidewalk, to walking on the treadmill – even though treadmill time is one of the only times I watch television shows that I enjoy. Walking outside also seems to be easier and go faster than 30-45 minutes on the treadmill. I find it fascinating that hoofing it uphill in one of the office neighborhoods at 3.5 miles per hour is far easier than the same speed and incline on a machine.
Walking is beneficial, whether you’re ambling around the neighborhood or marching on a belt. It gets your blood pumping. It clears your head; plus, it’s been shown to boost your creativity. Add to those benefits the bonuses for good health, physical and mental, you’ve got yourself a great reason to get out and take a walk.
So, here I am right now in my Fortress of Solitude which had the worktop raised to standing height this week, itching for a walk on a day that is once again too dangerous with high heat and humidity for me to be striding around the neighborhood on an uphill-both-ways route. I’m mentally preparing myself for a jaunt on the treadmill, begrudgingly, once I get home. But, I also know that while I may start off unhappy that hitting the belt is my best option today; and, once I’m done – I’ll be in a good mood.
Do you take lunch- or break-time walks to get out of the office?
If you’re a work-break walker, do you gear up or go in what you’ve got on?
What is your favorite way to get fitness in for the day?
Musings of the Amusing Muse 
A lot of my office coworkers go for works around lunch or other breaks, but when our hours changed this summer, I ended up with a crazy schedule which means mon-thurs, I don’t take breaks and do working lunches. I could take a lunch break, but then I’d have to stay even later, and I’m already doing 9 hour days. Fridays, I get off at noon and that’s when I try to hit up a coffee shop for some lunch and writing. It stinks. But I’m kinda stuck now. Sometimes I’ll get up just to walk around the building (though I work in the basement – so it’s not exactly scenic. Actually, it’s not scenic at all. There are zero windows.) #HeadDesk
No windows can potentially suck. I had an office once that did not have windows. I called it “The Bat Cave”. People forgot I was there. I liked it. Of course, I worked on State Street at that point – so it was easy to step out of the building and into the world.
But, I hear you about working through lunches. I have a tendency to do that and I, too, work 9 hour days. Sometimes I feel like it’s easier to just work through a break while scarfing down my lunch, though I know it’s better for me to get out and go for a walk.
Oh, I hate the dreadmill.
So (and perhaps you’ve noticed this, as I’m commenting on a bunch of posts that I had tagged for later read, but am only getting around to reading, a full month later), work has been especially hellish lately. Normally, I head to the gym over lunch, do some lifting and/or cycling. But with the added ickiness at work, I’ve actually been walking around the campus here . . . and, as loathe as I am to admit it, I think I kind of enjoy this more.
I actually find myself making excuses to skip the gym, just to enjoy being outside & taking in the fresh air. Of course, as it starts to get colder, that will change . . . but for now, well, part of me wants to bring in my hiking boots and just trek for miles in one way, then miles back (until I remember that I have a very limited amount of time for lunch)