Walking to work

Posted on May 2, 2021 by KJ Eastwick

So the car is not even in the shop yet – they can’t get the parts as they are in Melbourne and they were scheduled to be freighted up by road but Northern NSW is in flood – as usual as soon as it rains.

This morning I did my push ups but ditched the squats. I made 10 of them off the vanity in the en suite – it’s lower than the old house and I did them deeper so that is an improvement. Tomorrow I aim to up the amount. I made sure I filled up my water bottle – it’s not super hot here but it is humid. My walk for this morning is split up into a 2km stint to a train station – not the closest one but it means I won’t have to change trains. It’s a nice walk, a short hill upwards then it’s all down hill (this afternoon it may be a bit exhausting after a long day).

I then have a 3km stretch to work along an old railway line that they ripped up years ago because it was no longer profitable. It’s now converted into a bike/walking trail called a rail trail. Eventually the trail will be 15km + long but for now it’s about 10km. I only have to do the first 3km but it makes for a pleasant walk and today it wasdeserted.

I started out quite nervous. I’ve left my train as the latest possible train to catch to get to work before school starts. However, I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to walk. It’s raining, the ground may be slippery – we’ve had 4 days of solid rain. Yesterday several people offered me lifts from the train but I declined. At least it was still cool. Fortunately I only had to dodge one massive puddle on the path, bike trails in the grass marked a high road and I avoided wet shoes. I arrived in time for the train and had to climb too many stairs. My knee and lungs are unimpressed – I was a puffing billy by the top – not as bad as I have been in the past but you’d think walking up the stairs at home for the last two weeks would have helped – apparently not.

There were a lot of stairs – my knee quite strongly objected but there was no point avoiding them (I had a bad experience in a train station lift many years ago and have refused to use them since!)

The step counter on my phone was faulty. It told me I did 345 steps. Say what – I walked two kilometres – those must be big steps 😊. Perhaps I walked too slowly??? Must download a different step counter setting on an App I have used before. It doesn’t count steps but it does measure distances and track your walks. I look at my phone at the train and down load the weather for Caboolture. Great heavy rain. I cave – my face still red and message a friend for a pick up. She calls as I get on the train – “all good”. Guess the exercise routine is only one leg today.

No statistics today – just that dodgy step counter.