Sunday, June 5, 2011

Unintentional Learning - Junethon Day 1

Image and video hosting by TinyPic
So, yeah, I decided to join my dear friend Kirsty over at Gone Bananas in the Juneathon (If you are wondering about it - click on the image above, it'll direct you to the site and more info) - the gist of it is to walk/run/jog and log your info and blog about it and cheer others along the way for the month of June - so I thought - this sounds easy enough and fun.

I wasn't able to start at the beginning of the month because a) I didn't know about it until I read Kirsty's Day 1 & 2 post and b) I had my period (TMI? Really? Like you don't have your own every month or have a wife that does so you're used to the word and concept by now) so I decided to start today.

It was a gorgeous day out and I was not ready to do my homework or the housework so I thought to myself, what better distraction than to go out and go for a quick run/jog/walk?

So I got ready and headed out to the park. Families were gathered and having a grand ol' time - there were jet skis in the water and boats pulling along the banana floats while children screamed and cheered. It was a gorgeous day. Since I wanted to see a bit more of the park I decided to go the other way on the path opposite of the one that I usually take - so I started my run/walk sequence. Since I have just recently begun exercising I didn't want to push it - also because the last time I went running, I hurt my knee and I didn't want to damage it anymore.

So after 18 minutes of interchanging walking and running I was feeling tired and decided it was time to stop and so I stopped the Runkeeper on my phone and listened to the lovely lady tell me my stats for the activity:

Distance: 1.33 miles
Time: 18 minutes, 38 seconds
Pace: 14.03 minutes per mile
Speed: 4.27 mph

I decided since it was still early and I had a ways to go to my car, I would just take the scenic route to my car because the little bridge didn't look that far away and it would just suck to turn around and go the same way I started - I thought, why not take advantage and just look at the rest of the park? So I did and I decided to set the Runkeeper for a walk activity to see how I did.

The walk was nice and every five minutes I would hear the lovely lady tell me my achievements for the activity. After about 30 minutes I realized that the little bridge was no where near my line of sight and that I had completely miscalculated the distance - so I decided okay, maybe a bit more and there will be a little pathway over the lake and that will lead me to the connection of the other path and on my way to my car. So when I came to said pathway I walked to it and realized all it did was go in a circle around some picnic tables and I had to either go back the way I came or keep going.

By this time the lovely lady was starting to piss me off counting off the minutes that I had been walking and the distance - I really wanted to hit her.

I decided to turn and go back the way I came.

That was the longest walk back to my car ever!!! By the time I reached my car and completed my goal of shutting up the lovely bitch lady on my Runkeeper these were my stats:

Distance: 4.18 miles (WTF?!?!)
Duration:  1 hour, 26 minutes, 33 seconds (FML!!!)
Pace:  20 minutes per mile (Who the fuck cares?!)
Speed:  2.9 mph (I bet a turtle could pass me but I don't give a rats ass)

Can you sense the hostility? Yeah, I was and still am THAT exhausted. My legs hurt, my groin hurts, my right knee is about to pack its bags and leave me for good this time.

I do have to admit though that in the whole 4 mile trek, I did not stop once - did not pause once - I just kept going. I didn't give up - even when my body was telling me that I was insane and should just crawl into a hole and die.

I was enjoying my music (Duffy), the scenery, and the fact that I was working my way to my goals of losing weight and getting in shape - even if it kills me!!  =D

So today was my unintentional learning experience (can you tell this is what I am learning about in my Psychology of Learning class now? I have to put it to good use) - stick with the path that you know because if not, you will be a wandering idiot with knee pain and a desire to throw yourself into a lake where everyone is jet skiing and boating in the hopes of ending your misery because you were too stupid to stick to your usual routine!

Here, enjoy some of the pictures I took along the way...

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

As you can see, it is a rather large lake - and there is WAAAYYYY more to it - Click here to see how large the park is!!! I started where it says park entrances all the way at the top of the map and I turned around where it says McMillen Island. If I wanted to really go around the park to get to my car - I never would have made it!!  (The walkway is the dotted line...yeah - uh huh... smart choice to turn around right?)

So much for a quick trip to the park right?

1 comment:

  1. It seems like a nice walk but I've been outside all weekend in the FL heat so I feel your pain. It's grueling (nice work!).

    ReplyDelete

Leave a comment, leave a message, leave me something!! I'm needy!!! Please make sure though that however you comment that I can reply back to you via email...otherwise you'll have to come and visit again for your reply :-)