No Horsing Around, Back on Track

A world famous Budweiser Clydesdale at Grant's Farm.

After my return trip and a walk in the mall I am back to the trail. This time due to the distance I was walking in Chicago I am going a longer path on Grant's Trail. Now I am turning left on Gravois and walk toward Grant's Farm and the National Park. I got to see some of the world Famous Budweiser Clydesdale there as well. They have on their winter coat of hair too. It was nice that a few of the horse came to the fence and I even got to pet them on the nose. I saw how their hoofs make the snow fly up as they walk like in the TV ads. They were pretty friendly but still a bit skiddish.

The distance was over ten miles the way I walked. Most of that is on level ground or at least at a very slight incline. I also extended the walk to the Moose lodge at the end of Grant's Trail. On that last section there is some construction work being done and it looks like there might be some sort of bike park or trail there.

Without a doubt there is a need for some warmer temperatures soon. It wouldn't be bad to have about a week or longer of temperatures in the 30's or more. That should get rid of the ice and snow. But of course with the warmer weather will come rain and storms.

From the famous Grant's Farm bread package.

I am almost at 250 miles of the 1750 mile goal I am shooting for. I am looking forward to the next 60 days as that should really make a bigger difference in my gut and such. If I can lose about 40 to 50 pounds by then I will be most happy with the results. With Today's walk I did ten miles and even though that is the longest one for in St. Louis I still have several that are longer when I was in Chicago. I understand that due to Chicago being so flat that it is much more easy to walk further. That is why so many people are able to start and finish the Chicago marathon.

Look for a run near you.

I would say by April or May I should be jogging again and maybe by then I can consider looking at doing some actual runs for a charity or something like that. There is a website that has these events listed called “GO! St. Louis.” There are lists of many running and walking events.

My blood pressure is good so far for the month but do to the snow and travel I got only Today listed but I am glad that it is staying low going into the short month.

Two For One Monday

A place to see some rising stars.

Due to the busy weekend and stuff I am doing the duel blog of Monday and Saturday. Saturday Cheryl and I walked up north to the Apple store and a little bit north of that to the historic Stephenwolf Theater. It is a place where many of a fine dramatic actor has honed their craft. This walk we did was more then seven miles. And later one we went to the movies so all together we walked thirteen miles. That was by far the longest walk I have done since I began. But with the cold the walk doesn't seem to bother me near as much as it does when it is hot.

At the Apple store we were going to get the pedometer sensor that didn't come with her iPod touch and when we did we were told by the Apple rep that you have to have the sensor in an Nike shoe for it to work right. And that it had to have significant impact on the sensor in order for it to count your steps. So between the additional requirement of a Nike brand shoe which costs around $160 a pair their was no way to use this feature provided at the Apple store. While we were walking back we passed a shoe store and went in and talked to a girl there and she showed us some “pockets” we could use to hold the sensor on Cheryl's existing shoes.

Looks like Dorothy needs a coat.

The walk was long and we did stop a few times but Cheryl was getting a bit walked out so I told her she could rest and I would make some lunch for us. Later on we went to the movies and walked there so that is what gave us such a long total for the day.

Sunday I didn't do any particular walking but we went out to Barrington to visit some friends of Cheryl’s and with the walk from the and to the train station and several other things we got more then four miles in.

Today I walked down State street with is the east west divider street in Chicago. In St. Louis we use the Mississippi to divide east from west. So anyway I walked south ion State to IIT and crossed Interstate 90 at 31^st street. And could see the downtown skyline really good. The bridge covers the red line CTA and I-90 was merging into I-55.

Now that I know that area of town is “Chinatown” I understand why I see so many Asian looking people there. The circuit Today was about 8 miles. It wasn't so cold but the wind was bad. Well it was cold it was 22ºF. But I have walked in much colder. It is the wind that really gets me going.

Looking north from I-90 at downtown Chicago.

The best news is my weight is at 264.5 pounds which is 25 pounds lost since I began all this mess. I don't even miss it. This is also the end of my “second” month. Remember I started in the last few days of December. It is also going to be my last walk in Chicago for a while. It has been really fun getting to see and learn about the place. Maybe I will show it to Cheryl someday.

I already have a new path set up for when I get back to St. Louis and on Grant's Trail. I have reached 233 miles and 13.36 percent of my 1750 mile goal. That equals more then 10 pounds of walking at an average of 1100 kcal per day. This also means I am walking nearly 8 miles per day too. And the best part is the health part of my blood pressure coming more in line with medical recommendations.

Warmest Day, Started Late

These are the first two people I saw Today.

Today was the warmest day of the year so far for me to walk. This morning the temperature was an unbelievably warm 36ºF. I saw more people on Grant's Trail than I have ever before but there could be several reasons for that. One, Today is Saturday and more people are off so they have the opportunity to walk in the morning. Two, being as warm as it is more people may have been willing to come out to brave the “cold” weather. I saw one woman, jogging with a man, she was wrapped up with more clothing on than I ever have been. Plus it looked like she had no clue as to what she was about to do.

The third reason may have been I started an hour later then I normally do so maybe I just miss all these people because I am already done with that section of the trail. I doubt it. The footprints in the snow from the past few days doesn't bear that out. So with all that said there were 29 people on the trail Today and five dogs.

Tomorrow I am going to Chicago and will be spending a few days there. I am not going to be doing any fitness running but I may have some to add to the fitness tracker since everyone walks everywhere downtown. Just to get outside the building is almost a half mile. I wonder how the construction is going. I will show a few pictures of that as well.

Walking on the trail may be a good way to pass the time.

Also while in Chicago I will complete a few mile stones. The first one will be my first 100 miles. That will also lead to completion of six percent of my goal. I will also reach more than 200.000 steps total. Actually I may even do that before I leave since I am so close.

Another thing is since I am riding on Amtrak that I may see how many steps I can take on the train walking back and forth. That way I can have a work out ready to go when I sync up on Sunday.

The Storm Approaches.

"Jizo" is a graffiti on the railroad bridge near Grant's trail.

Day four arrives and Happy New Years Eve to all. Did the Grant's trail route again Today and was happy to see more people out. I counted 22 people on the trail this time. I am sure Tomorrow there will be more even if the weather is bad being that it is the first day of the New year. The weather was a bit wet but nothing bad. Of course latter Today we had some bad storms. The tornado alarms went off but the news here on TV seem rather aware of that. I hope they are more cognizant if there is a nuclear attack and the sirens sound.

Anyway. The walk was good and I took some picture along the trail and the path I took to add to the blog. I figure a picture is always a nice thing to look at when reading the daily roll. In the past 4 days I have walked about 21.5 miles and my blood pressure and pulse seem to be doing well. I find out yesterday that the portable monitor that I have been using reads a bit high about 10 to 15 points I would say. Which is good because if I am within on that monitor my heart rate must really be doing good.

Today is a milestone. I reached the point that I used enough calories walking to burn up one pound of fat. Too bad I can't select which pound? Wouldn't that be funny? So I guess at 1 pound for four days I could look at 45 weeks to reach my goal. That isn't too bad I guess. Too bad I can have a routine like boot camp. I remember some fat guys when we started out looking like a totally different person after two months. One guy had to have his uniforms changed three times before we got done he lost that much weight.

Keep on pushing forward.
Thomas

Stepping Out

Well it has been pretty cold the past couple days. Tuesday it was nice enough but Today there was a slight mist so the trail was covered in a slight coat of ice. So I walked on the edges most of the time. But I think tomorrow should be better. So far from the first two days I have only seen one person. I have a feeling this will all change on Saturday or Sunday after the New Years begin. Just another reason why I wanted to start a little bit early to see what the before and after is on that too. I can tell you for sure that by the end of the year there is no one walking at 8:00 am on Grant's trail.

The hardest part Today was after I got off the trail and was going down Union. Where the trail meets Union Rd. it is all up hill. Which is fine normally but the thin ice coating made it interesting a few times. Plus people driving do not look for pedestrians whatsoever. I guess they cannot be bothered to look since they have to use their phones and drive in such pristine weather.

Since I began my average blood pressure has been good. The night before I started it was way too high. Here is something funny, going to the bathroom helps you have a lower number. At least it works for me. I have never heard that but it seems to make sense to me. I am going to start bringing my rain cover now on too because I was a bit wet from this mornings walk. I am averaging about a hour ten to and hour twenty minutes for the 4.5 to 5 miles.

It was nice to start my blog today. If anyone has any comments or questions feel free to put them in the comments or send me an e-mail. Keep On Trucking!