Two very different walks

Yesterday I was meeting a buddy for coffee in Britannia. Yes, it was a Starbucks. So my friend has deplorable taste in coffee. I had hot chocolate. It's on the way home from dropping Linda at work so I got there early. That's ok. I went for a walk around the neighbourhood.

Now, keep in mind a couple things. This is pre-dawn, and it's foggy out. Really foggy, again, which is really unusual for Calgary. This is also a seriously nice neighbourhood, developed in the late 50's as very upper middle class up to medium rich. This was when if money didn't bring taste, it brought the sense to rent it from someone. There are very few ugly houses here, and I have to say, a whole bunch that I'd like to live in. Even the newer, more architecturally modern homes are what I think of as very nice. It's also a small neighbourhood, fewer than 1000 residents, and an average household income well north of $120K.

I walked along Britannia Dr right from 49 ave all the way to Elbow Dr and snaked back through the streets, taking about 45 minutes. During the day there is a great view toward the west, but it was just a wall of fog. Some of the homes have landscaped night lighting to increase the visual interest. There's a few places where they're doing serious work and there is construction stuff to be aware of. 

After coffee I got home, and waited for it to finish clearing up. About noon I headed out for another walk to get warmed up for my run. I took 30 minutes, gradually building speed, and paying attention to my pace. Then as I passed the driveway I broke into an easy run and headed out on my 5 K route. I didn't quite get back to the house, maybe 100 m short of it by the prescribed 35 minutes. My average heart rate was 132. For the first 20 minutes it was typically between 125 and 130, then about the 20 minute mark it picked up to the mid 130's and briefly even higher, and never really came back down again. Up till then I'd been running easily and lightly, and then felt heavy.

Walked another 15 minutes to cool down, and stretched a bit. Later that evening we went to yoga class, which was full of good stuff for 1.25 hours. There was a shoulder stand where you tuck a bolster under your butt and roll back onto your shoulders, then bring your knees up, and extend your feet. Very relaxing, and very good for the legs, I think. I'll have to do this one more.

Today was a 90 min spin, with lots of cadence work. It went by really quick, even though I wasn't feeling particularly secure on my bike. Everything was set up right, once I shoved a newspaper under one of the legs of my trainer. Why it rocked today and not the other day is beyond me. Even then it seemed like I was rocking back and forth a bit. Did a bit of a longer warm up than usual trying to get my spin dialed in; it wasn't as smooth as usual.

Then 45 minutes of core, with a new record of, (wait for it) 11 whole pushups! Yes I know, many of you could have someone sitting on your back and still crank out the pushups till the cows come home. But you go indulge yourself in sloth, gluttony, and indolence for 25 years like I did, and see how many push ups you can do when you come back.