The reason for going is probably split about 50/50: She very much likes and needs her walk in the morning, and I need to put in the miles as well. So every morning that is not frozen beyond measure (cold puppy paws) or dumping rain (A wet me is an unhappy me), I assemble my walking clothes, strap on my weight vest, pocket a bag for "duty", get the leash, and off we go.
Being in an urban area, the roads to walk are both well marked and limited in their novelty. I can make one loop which is about 1.25 miles or another loop that is about the same. I can make a full loop of my old running path for 3 miles. But these are all roads that I have walked and other than the occasional new landscaping or for sale/for rent signs, there is not a lot of newness to be seen.
I struggle with the best time to walk. I prefer to walk in the dark (morning or night), both because I simply find it more enjoyable (less people out) and the dark somehow makes it easier to ponder and think. That said, I struggle with getting my "morning routine" in before I walk, as if I do the sun has inevitably started to come up. I have not found a suitable compromise between "wanting to complete my routine" and "wanting to get out before the sun rise".
When I walk, I generally do so without headphones. I have worn them on occasion but in point of fact I am easily confused by doing two things at the same time; I cannot multi-task. As a result, I have come to view this time as thinking or meditative time: I think about things I might post on (this post, for example), argue through trends I see occurring, and generally just give myself 30 minutes to an hour to mull things over.
Poppy of course is wandering back and forth across the path: sniffing here and there, starting to bolt after the rabbit grabbing a last minute snack or a squirrel grabbing an early one, occasionally adding her contribution to those that have been there before, and the now-expected "squat", followed by me grumbling about the fact that I have to stop and pick things up (and then walk the rest of the way with a bag in my hand). She loves it and generally - after the first rush of being out, is generally a good companion under some level of moderate control.
The remarkable thing to me is how much I miss these walks when I cannot take them. I have come to value the ability to organize and manage my thoughts before the world comes crashing in. Of course, I have to manage such things appropriately: any urge to "see what the world is up to" has to be mercilessly put down lest that becomes the point of my morning constitutional.
I wish I could get better at it of course: I still spend too much time thinking on things that I have no ability to actually influence and can engage myself in rather heated imaginary conversations with myself or others. Like everything else, I suppose walking with the dog is a practice which it can take a lifetime to achieve balance in.
Poppy, of course, already seems to have achieved balance. But perhaps that is simply in a dog's nature.
So nice to know there's someone else in the world who can't multi-task! (Dan definitely knows better than to talk to me while I'm cooking :).
ReplyDeletePenultimate paragraph. I'm working on a blog post that is very much related to this and my own solution for learning to deal with my mental engagements. Interesting to find you're contemplating the same thing.
Leigh, I think it is honestly a struggle in the modern world to admit you cannot. The expectation of all is that everyone should be able to do it. Simply put, I cannot. Literally, I cannot have my cell phone within reach when working on the computer without being distracted.
DeleteGreat minds, eh? I read a presentation by Admiral Stockdale, on warrior stoicism that I really need to post on, which lead me to Epictetus the Stoic, which lead me to a lot more thinking.
When we had a dog, I generally preferred the early morning when it is hot outside. I generally shy away from heat and squinting into sun when I walked was distracting enough as it is.
ReplyDeleteI laughed when you talked about grumbling when dog had 'to go'. My dog often chose the most inopportune times to go, in full view of people I was having a conversation with for example. And yes, hard to project sophistication when walking with a bag of doody in your hand.
Anonymous - Where we are in New home, early morning or late evening is a must due to the heat (and frankly, the humidity).
DeleteI had not thought about the appearance but you are precisely right - the whole idea of thought and meditation seems destroyed by carrying a bag of unmentionable in your hand at the same time...
I like fair weather walking too and today I think will be my first long walk since sometime last fall. I generally like longer walks so I do take earbuds with me and catch up mostly on podcasts. I rarely listen to music. Also, because I live in a small town and take long walks, my walks can and do greatly vary. If I don't have obligations, I use an app in the background that breaks into my podcast whenever I've gone another mile to announce that fact and the time I've been at it. I know when I get several miles in that it is time to head back. I also have found that merely changing the direction of a loop that I'm familiar with is oddly pleasing to see things from a different direction or a different side of the street. On occasion, especially when sidewalks are treacherous during winter, we will take a short drive to use the river trail system which is typically maintained better since the city is doing it and not a patchwork of homeowners.
ReplyDeleteEd, I have tried podcasts as well and occasionally work one in - with the caveat that I tend to not do a full one at a time.
DeleteThe changing directions is a good one, and one that I have used to effect from time to time. I will need to get up my mileage as I have some hikes upcoming this year, so I will look for that app as it is an easier methodology than just wondering "How far have I come?"
I use an app by UnderArmor called Map My Walk. They had a better one that I used for years before but it became defunct and this was the replacement. I just use the free version.
DeleteThanks Ed. I have used their other version (Map My Run). The app was sort of clunky back when I used it, but I will give it a look.
DeleteI think that was the one I had previously too and I agree it was clunky. The Map My Walk is no different and it has at least another option you have to click all the time saying you aren't interested in the paid version so perhaps it is even clunkier.
DeleteThe price of a free app, I suppose.
DeleteOne of the reasons I selected the house I did was being two blocks away from an urban lake, three and a quarter mile circuit. Early on music was listened to... remember Walkman? Now for a number of years the ears are uncovered and not listening except for what may be around me, joggers and bicyclists. In winter the ice has to be watched for also. There're also the two-legged varmints to be needful of.
ReplyDeleteWalkmans Nylon12. You take me back as well.
DeleteThat sounds like a very sensible planning maneuver and result. In Old Home, I have at least three or four trails I can walk in the wild with almost no people and quite a few four-legged friends nearby - there are actually mountain and bear around, so walking at dusk/dawn is not generally recommended.
For more than a dozen years, I took morning walks with my dog Ralph. He was my analogy for God's mercies being "new every morning" because every morning he would wake excited for the day and our walk, jumping non-stop until I would finally open the door, and would walk as if he might never get to take another. Sadly, that day did come, but the memories of our walks will always be with me. You are using your morning time wisely, even if perhaps (if I might suggest) overthinking the routine just a bit. Enjoy the time, whenever it is. I assure you Poppy does.
ReplyDeleteBob - Dogs as analogy God's Mercies. I like it - and inevitable true. Poppy is always just so glad to see us every morning when we wake up. And I am sorry - for all, that day comes too soon.
DeletePerhaps it will not surprise you to know that I have been accused of overthinking things more than once...
Sandy, Bear, and Paco like to go out for the rounds. Paco, being an old Chihuahua, is a pain in the behind. His little legs get tired, and must occasionally be carried until he gets his courage back up to soldier on. Bear has short little legs too, but he's half Black Lab, and half Welsh Corgi, and has an yearning to wander. Sandy is a San Antonio River Dog, and would run all day long if you let her.
ReplyDelete45 minutes is just about right for all three. If we selfishly leave Paco at the house, we can get an hour to an hour and a half. The first 15 is just finding your rhythm, then the wife and I chat while the dogs sniff, investigate, and mark their territories. The best time is at dusk, when the world gets smaller and the thoughts get bigger.
We joined the 52 Hike Challenge years ago with plans to do the Big Hikes throughout the year. My father-in-law got sick and left this earth that year, so we didn't have the time for the Grande Adventures, but always made time for the daily walks. Driving rain or extreme cold puts the wife off, so those are out, but the rest of the days are always filled with walking, talking, thinking, dreaming, wandering, in the moments between the tasks and to-dos.
Just So - I cannot imagine walking more than one dog at a time. Congratulations for managing chaos.
DeleteTime is an interesting factor. A reasonable walk for Poppy is not less than 30 minutes, but probably not more than an hour at this point - I need to get in miles this year, so we will need to see how far we can stretch that limit.
Walking, talking, thinking, dreaming, wandering - what a wonderful way to go through the day.
I don't believe anyone can truly multi-task. (unless doing something that only requires muscle memory). The mind is always going to go to one thing above another.
ReplyDeleteI walk on our property five mornings a week, anywhere from 1.5 to 2 miles a day. It's "off-road", though, so that makes it more challenging. I try to make it a time to pray, but often find myself having those imaginary heated discussions you speak of. I'm constantly trying to rein in my mind and focus!
It might depend on what the tasks are, Kelly. I can do two or three low level tasks at once with reasonable efficiency... but as more tasks get piled on, or their complexity goes up... things start falling off my plate...
DeleteKelly, I am not sure if I have gotten worse over the years or I was just never very good at it. At least now, it literally is one thing at a time - best, if I keep that one thing alone in my line of site.
DeleteI have had difficulty praying when I walk - not sure if that is focus or I am just not a "walk and pray" person.
Glen - The question I have had to ask myself is if I can really even do more than one task well at a time. I am discovering - maybe rediscovering? - that my best work is when I am focused on that alone. It makes it hard as I have built that habit of always doing two things at once under the mistaken premise it makes me more "effective".
DeleteMy daily dogwalk is therapeutic on many levels. One idea I always reinforce is that what she sees, hears, and smells, is so alien to my own perceptions that we may as well be on different planets. And if I get impatient at some particular sniffing spot and tug on the leash, I get that look: "Just whose walk is this anyhow?"
ReplyDeleteAs for earphones, NO, NO, a thousand times NO! I did years ago, until I realized that my ears are a substitute for rear view mirrors. Situational awareness demands that I know what is approaching us long before we get blindsided by someone or something equally oblivious, or of mal intent. Condition white is for children who have someone else watching out for them. I am condition yellow whenever outside, and in the woods I am now armed as well.
Greg, I am very well familiar with that look, or the "Really? We need to leave now?"
DeleteThe security aspects of the headphones are quite correct. Perhaps I am lulled into a false sense of security by my quiet little suburban neighborhood. And given the world today, yellow is probably just the right condition to always operate in.
Good post and comments.
ReplyDeleteYou have come to value time to think. Nothing wrong with that, TB.
You all be safe and God bless.
Thanks Linda - and I do so have the best commenters!
DeleteI am working on valuing my time. Still not as far along as I should be.
This post and the comments have gotten my mind all over the place. 1) imagining picking up a fresh "doody", as Anon put it, makes me rethink ever having a dog again, 2) Bob's and your comments about how happy dogs are for a new day, and to simply see you each new morning, makes me think owning a house dog might be the greatest thing. 3) Do I multitask? Depending on where I'm walking, I will often pop in earphones and listen to a podcast, but I can't even listen to music and type or read or hardly carry on a conversation at the same time (socializing over dinner in a restaurant is the worst for me). And then I think... just last night I was preparing some food to take somewhere today, while I was also doing laundry (which means changing loads in the machines and taking clean dry items to their storage places). Laundry and cooking obviously can't physically be done simultaneously, but I do these things going back and forth between them, switching the activity as it works to do so.
ReplyDeleteI think many of my days are spent multitasking in that sense - often popping up from one task to attend to another, then back again to the first thing - hopefully. I say hopefully because I also can become distracted and completely forget the original thing - until I see it still undone hours later - or the next day, even. Which takes me back to... Do I really multitask? Do I do it well when I do it? Or maybe the question is... What really IS multitasking?
Becki, we have had two dogs during our marriage, and I had two growing up. I love and have loved our dogs, but I am not primarily a dog person - although I have to admit they are by far the most joyful animals one will ever meet.
DeleteMultitasking? I think the definition would be "performing two actions or tasks at the same time" - as opposed to your example, which is doing one task then moving to another then back to the original task. I suppose - from my work experience - the cleanest example I can have of multitasking is being in a meeting virtually and writing e-mails and working on a project plan literally all at the same time, because if I am in a meeting I am not a contributor to, that effectively is blocked time I can use. The reality is that I do none of those effectively if I am doing all of them.
I also often have the habit of going away from something without the first thing being finished. That may be considered a risk of multi-tasking? Or maybe a reason to stay at the task until done?