Just one foot in front of the other

I did something today that scared me :)  It probably won't sound like a big deal but it was to me.  For a while now, I've been driving to work and walking 1.5km from my car to the office and back again - it was free to park if I did this, and it gave me 3km of incidental exercise - because I had to get to work, and I had to get back to my car.

3 weeks ago I started a new job and I decided to 'up' the walking to 5km each way.  This is because this is the closest to the office that I can park for free, and of course, I would then get 10km of walking 'incidentally' a day!

I've been putting it off for 3 weeks....I get so nervous walking in public and this was the main reason that I, I'm sad to admit, made excuses for 3 weeks why I should drive to the office (and pay $8 to park there each day).

Well today I JFDI!  It went fine!  Exactly 5km each way.  Well, it was actually about 300m short of 5km, so when I got to work I walked around in circles until I reached 5km.  A guy from my office saw me and must be thinking that I was having second thoughts about going to work today, because I'd walk up to the door and then walk away....walk back....no, still not 5km, walk away... hahahaa :)

To make myself do it today, after my 2 boot camps day on Saturday, I drove straight to Big W and bought a backpack so I couldn't use the excuse of it being 'hard to walk carrying my handbag and lunch etc.'.  I love my new backpack by the way!  (Side note, I carried a few heavy things home from work- out of interest I weighed it when I got home and it weighed 9kg - probably helped me!)  So yes - I had my new backpack, my headphones and my shoes and I was off!

I was pretty nervous walking --- it was peak hour in Brisbane City....I walked around some of the busiest intersections....eeek!  But I listened to Mish's podcasts the entire way and that really helped.  (Side note: these podcasts have become my new music - I hardly listen to songs anymore!  I listen to them constantly.  In the car, walking, even at work.  I'm actually really unhappy in my new job :(  but I pop in my headphones and podcasts cheer me up!  Loving them).  Anyway I listened to them, and tried to focus and not worry.  I had a few moments where I got really anxious but I just kept putting one foot in front of the other.  I also took a lot of photos (of course). :)

I didn't manage to leave work this afternoon when I planned to, I stayed back for an hour so the sun set only 1km into my walk back to my car, so it was dark for most of my walk.  I don't want to make a habit of that as it's not entirely safe, but I was fine and walked back to my car for 5km.

Unfortunately I think my Polar HRM is broken :(  It fell off at boot camp the other day and has been playing up since.  My heart rate this morning was 110 then jumped to 210 and stayed there.  Then it wouldn't budge, then would drop as I walked up hills.  So I can't believe the calories it picked up unfortunately.  But I tracked the time and speed it took me (morning and night):

I wasn't trying to go fast, I was just testing the waters and I also had to work with a lot of pedestrian lights.  But in saying that I would like to try and improve on the time going forward.  5km is my magic number to run in Round 3 - also I'm doing my first 5km fun run/walk as my major milestone next week so it will help to do this twice a day.

I am planning on doing this every day apart from days where time wise I just can't fit it in.  I don't want that to become a regular excuse though.  It is though, about 2 hours extra in my day...when I thought of that tonight I did stop and think.  But that's the plan for now and I'll see how I go.  In a lot of ways it was nice to walk, I got some time for myself, I could update things on my phone and just chill out for an hour each way.  And some of the views on the way home were so pretty...check out this photo I took - just snapped with my iPhone.  I felt really lucky to see this view just by walking home :)

When I got to work this morning, I changed the desk calendar quote that a friend gave me - I choose a random one each day.  And I kind of liked today's quote.  It made me think of how much this is true - it's all within me, and these powers have been aroused :)  I'm feeling quite reflective this week, being Week 12 of my first 12WBT.  I'll write another post soon about my thoughts on this, as I have been thinking about it a lot.  But for now I just wanted to share with you my little 2x 5km journey that I started today. :)