Exercise Exploration & The "Big Hike"

The thing I think I love the most about running is that it's a purposeful athletic sport. What I mean is that when I'm outside running, there's life going on down the roads I'm running, I can see the people, the pets, the cars, houses, birds, the trees, the plants, the SUN, the mist, the clouds or whatever. It's there, it's happening and I'm a part of it. It is MUCH different from running indoors or on a treadmill, not just in intensity, but in every aspect of the sport. Running (and biking which I'm starting to try to love for the same reasons) provides an entirely different enjoyment to exercise. It's hard, or at least it's as hard as you want it to be, you can play against yourself, you can take your dog with you and get a great cardiovascular, good old fashioned, heart pumping, sweat making, calorie burning exercise.

The treadmill is just not the same. The elliptical is just not the same. The stationary bike is just not the same. And really, I enjoy it much more than regular biking too. I don't really know why other than it makes me feel good. Isn't that why we should be doing exercise, because of how it makes us feel and not how many calories it's burning? At least that's why I want to be doing it.

I love where I live because it's outskirt from the city (although a 20 mins drive away) and it feels like we're near the country and when I'm outside running, I get to see the trees and the landscape change the farther I push and that becomes a reward in itself. Yesterday I explored a new part of my neighbourhood that I had never even been to before in my sub-division. I never had any reason to drive there because it's out of the way to my house. That of course meant there would be new "other" dogs around to get Lucy all rattled up, but still, I likely never would have ever gone there had I not taken the purposeful time to go for a run there.

Walking provides some of the same enjoyments, but so far I just haven't been able to get walking to match the feeling I get from running. This is why it's disheartening when people suggest to me alternative forms of exercise like swimming, biking, walking, elliptical, etc. Yeah sure those are great exercises, but like I said, I have yet to have any of those things match the same feeling I get from running. Now if I had a pool in my back yard and could dive in and do some hard core swimming any time I wanted to, maybe I'd be able to better attest to that, but I don't and if I want to do that, it takes a lot of planning and time to get to the pool to do it.

Now one thing that I have always enjoyed possibly just as much as running is hiking! And to be perfectly honest I haven't really had that many opportunities to do it, but a few of us have made plans to hike Cape Split and I couldn't be more excited. It's going to be challenging, but I think it's going to be such a great way to spend a day getting some serious physical activity with a bunch of girls. The hike itself up and back can take anywhere from 4-6 hours I think and is about 16 kms in total. That's not something to fluff off! We'll take a snack break to enjoy the scenery at the top, but when we're all done, we're heading for a victory lunch/supper at the Port Pub whenever our hiney's end up there afterward. I'm sure we'll all have a well earned declicious meal after that!

I'm all excited ladies! We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful place! I can't wait to take pictures to post!