Building Stamina…

With less than a month to go before we head out on our road trip, I thought it best to begin building up a little bit of muscle strength and stamina for our adventures. Ideally, we should have been working out months ago…alas, better late than never.

Spring in Michigan is unpredictable, one day it can be sunny and 70 degrees then next your waking up to frost and icy rain. Getting outside to walk has been a challenge. We did go to The Henry Ford and walk a few miles inside the museum in late winter-early spring so we were not totally sedentary. Nothing beats being outside however and we have finally started to receive some nice outdoor walking weather.

We do have a very walkable neighborhood, I enjoy passing by the homes, seeing the freshly mowed lawns and spring flowers in full bloom. It’s funny the things that catch my attention during our walks.

The influence of Henry Ford can be found all over the city; even in unusual places!

Our local neighborhood bakery. I didn’t realize they served breakfast & lunch items…will have to make this a destination after one of our longer walks.

Our local Farm Market looks so colorful…makes me excited for the fresh produce and the outdoor grilling season!

Poppy loves these longer walks too…after breakfast she now stares us down until we get out her harness and leash. At least she is keeping us accountable!

I’ve been using this app to track my walks for a few years now and I really like it. It’s easy to use and gives useful information. The app offers many different features, some are free some you have to pay for, I’ve only used the free features.

Last week we walked 5.8 miles in total; this week we’ve walked 6.8 miles so far and I hope to get in two more days of walking this week. One feature that I like about this app is that it shows you the route you’ve walked. I’ve used this during kayaking too and it is really fun to see where you’ve been. If you want to check out the app for yourself, here’s the link. MapMy — Track Runs, Rides & Walks – MapMyWalk

If we can continue to consistently walk and hopefully increase our daily mileage over the next three weeks, we should be in decent shape for the type of walking/hiking we plan on doing. We won’t be climbing any mountains!