Great Weekend!

So despite going to a very fun party for Kos on Friday night (and maybe getting a doner on the way home), I still managed to walk to Esslingen on Saturday. I think I did fairly well, although I cannot say the same for the GPS on my Blackberry. It did not work for a very good portion of the walk, and it started working around mile 6 (only after a hard restart, man I hate Blackberry's sometimes). Anyways, if you really the lowdown, here is all the info but I found out my mile is about 19:45, which is what I thought. It was not that hard, my back felt a little 'meh' though with my pack but I think with some back exercises I can fix that. Also most importantly, I felt fine the next morning, and my feet were not in pain walking around in Ulm. All in all, about 3.5 hours for 10 miles, including stopping and shooting some photos, which you can see here.

Today I went to Ulm and climbed the World's tallest church steeple, which is a 768 step workout, (1536 steps if you count going down) which I completely negated with the beer I had for dinner... never mind, sometimes you have to treat yourself :) FYI the gemusestrudel in Ulm is -amazing- and I highly suggest it.

Oh and thanks to Wikipedia I found out its the birthplace of Albert Einstein. Awesome!

Working hard.... is it Necessary?

So I figure it seems smart to train for this almost 2-week trek of non-stop walking. I don't think any of the days I am walking are considered 'difficult' but when you combine the days I am sure it becomes tiring on the body (and soul!) So I decided now time is better than now to start. Sadly I do not look like the lovely lady on the right, nor do I have batons with pink pom poms on them... I wonder if I am doomed to failure??

For a while I have been trying to do P90X workouts, and, forgive me Mr. Horton, I do not do them every day. Nor do I subscribe to your newsletter/RSS feed of recovery drinks and snack bars. Also, jeez, the nutrition guide requires me to amass a small fortune to eat for a week. Breakfast is supposed to have 4 egg whites... 4, so a whole carton only lasts 3 days. And apparently if I was going for muscle gain, it would be 6 egg whites... holy moley! Chickens would tremble at my approach!

Despite this, I really like the workouts. I can do them at home with not a lot of equipment (I have bands and a yoga mat), or I can do them at the gym if I so choose. However, I figure I need to spice it up a bit more, so I am incorporating spinning, running.. and of course walking. FYI spinning is like my favorite thing in the world and I suggest everyone tries it once.

So for my walk this week I am unsure if I will traipse thru the Schwarzwald (thats the Black Forest) or save some Euros and simply walk along the Neckar to Esslingen. According to vvs.de radrouteplanner (maps you biking/walking routes around Stuttgart) its 10 miles to Esslingen from the Bahnhof. Then if I'm feeling spry, there are walking path up in the hilly vineyards. (Esslingen is one of the stops along the Weinstrasse, which is over 500 km long.. I am not walking that, that's a bike trip) I think 10 miles is a good start. I was also thinking about walking to/from work (but may wait till it gets a tad warmer).

I have GPS on my phone but I am wary of it sucking all my battery power, as a fall back I got my Nike+, but I definitely want to record my progress.

Photo of Awesome Lady: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/breath-body-balance/2009/11/an-homage-to-get-in-shape-girl.html
Photo of Esslingen: http://www.neckarkiesel.de/mittlerer_neckar/esslingen_neckar.html