Since our return from Italy, Don, Older Daughter, and I – and Mr. Darcy – have been engaged in walking for exercise. We could all stand to lose a few pounds (including Mr. Darcy), and since we're walking the dog morning and evening anyway, we chose the morning routine for "power walking."
To do this, we use the road that runs along the edge of our lower property.
This road slopes down, so it's the uphill climb that we've been turning into our daily power walk. Don calculated it out. We walk this section (down and up) three times. The length of each section is about 850 feet. Multiply that by six (up and down three times) for a total of about a mile. The slope is nearly four degrees. The change in elevation is 50 feet. For the three circuits, that's a rise of 150 feet.
Since this is Mr. Darcy's morning walk to encourage him to do his "business," what we do is walk downhill at the dog's pace, letting him sniff and explore. I have the leash at this stage.
When we hit the bottom, we turn around and power walk up the hill.
Don takes the leash at this stage and keeps Darcy at a heel so he doesn't get distracted by interesting smells.
When we get to the top of the hill, we turn around and let Darcy sniff and explore on the way down until we hit the bottom of the hill. Rinse and repeat. By the time we complete all three circuits, we're shedding our outerwear.
It's working. We're tackling three circuits without a problem and will probably add a fourth next week. Coupled with some light weightlifting and watching what we eat, we're all losing pounds.
Ah, the joys of getting older.
