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A high quality 10k walk on the Virgin River and Middleton Wash trails this morning, as illustrated in the Google Earth clip above.  If you prefer traditional distances, it was 6.26 miles in 2:04:46 hours.  152 feet were climbed along the way.  Exhilarating!

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Walk today (November 14): 6.34 miles with 210 feet climbed in 1:54:47, a 18:07 minute per mile pace. HumanaFit averaged out the grade at 2.0% on 1.99 miles of the walk and rated it category 5. Tortoise Rating:  5.2.  I listened to the Sunday morning session of October 2012 General Conference on this walk, with President Monson just wrapping up his concluding remarks as I arrived home.

Eating: 1,542 calories today; 14,996 calories in the past 7 days. Please click on the line below to see a map and more:

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Walked after work today, again bundled up pretty well. I listened to the Priesthood Session of conference that we attended a few weeks ago, the first 4 1/2 talks through about half of President Eyring.  I had my phone in my pocket with a cord up to earphones, under earmuffs, under a hat that covered my ears.  Total awes!

I will let my map mostly describe my route, except to say that I walked like I was headed home from work, then at the last street before the bridge, turned and headed up the hill to return to work that way.

Stats: 4.86 miles with 236 feet climbed in 1:24:44, which is a 17:26 minute per mile pace. Course included a HumanaFit category 5 climb of 0.71 miles at 2.5% average grade. Tortoise Rating:  4.8. Eating today totalled 1,814 calories; the most recent 7 days totalled 15,874 calories. Please click on the line below to see the map:

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Finished work just before 6 today (November 8), had a meeting at Valley Academy at 7, so I walked to the meeting, then went as far as I could past there by 6:30, turned around returned to the meeting, paused the GPS app, resumed it at 9 when the meeting ended, and walked back to the office so I could drive home. It rained off and on before the meeting, then cleared up which made it cold and windy after the meeting. My trusted hoody helped me through all this ...

Stats; 4.27 miles walked in 1:17:11, an 18:05 minute per mile pace. There was 213 feet total elevation gain, including a 0.84 mile stretch at 2.7% average grade rated 4.8 tortoises. Eating: 2,508 calories; 15,650 in the most recent 7 days.

Please click on the line below for a map and more:

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I started this afternoon's walk  (November 7) by going to a meeting at Valley Academy by foot. When that ended, I went back to the office in time to drive home for our 12 step meeting, but not before taking a category 4 detour up East Cinder Knoll: 2.55 miles with 361 feet climbed in 56:38, which is a 22:14 minute per mile pace. Average grade while climbing: 5.5% (but the second part was much steeper than the first).  Overall tortoise rating: 3.4.

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Entertainment brought to you today (November 3) from the memory of Doug Jr ...



please click on the line below for information (one minute video, map) on the LaVerkin Scenic Loop Trail, which I did in full for the first time today.  Plus other tidbits for your reading pleasure:

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Welcome to this 34 second panoramic view of the top of today's walk with Joshua and Benjamin to Observation Point on the East Rim of Zion Canyon.  This walk is one of the reasons I enjoy having Angels Landing on my unbucket list ... this requires no chains to get to the top, and while it is longer and more strenuous than Angels Landing, the reward is a view so spectacular that it includes looking down on Angels Landing from above. :-)

Stats:  6.92 miles round trip, with a climb of 2336 feet to the top (elevation 6680).  Tortoise rating: -1.0. (HumanaFit notes two sections at their category 1, the tortoise rating is based on average grade of 12.8% the whole way up at average elevation of 5512.  There are some areas with 19% grade on this trail.)

Please click here for a map and several more pictures.

Cheerio!

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The Right Honorable Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
(yes, I remember the sincere tributes given him when he died)
http://www.wpclipart.com/famous/political/Churchill/Churchill.png.html

Walked after my last appointment of the day (October 20) ... not much daylight but I did get in 2.25 miles, with 256 feet climbed, on a short segment of the Pacific Crest Trail in 51:32, a 22:56 minute per mile pace.  Uphill half of walk before retracing my steps had a tortoise rating of 3.9.

Eating today 1,820 calories; most recent 7 day total 13,616 calories. Please click on the line below to see a map and pictures of today's category 5 walk:

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Snuck in a walk (tortoise rating:  5.5) late tonight (October 15) after my last appointment on deadline day: 1.33 miles with 23 feet climbed in 20:49, which works out to a 15:36 minute per mile pace. Eating today: 1,581 calories; 13,704 calories in the most recent 7 days. My weigh-in yesterday was 234.7 pounds, down 2.5 pounds since my last weigh-in on October 10, and down 35.1 pounds total for chapter 3 -- my recommitment since May 1. I admit to being amazed, and thankful, at what has happened the last 3 weeks after being on a plateau for quite awhile before that!

Click on the line below for a map and more!

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Today's blog post is dedicated to the memory of one of my heroes. I hope you will take a moment to click on the link below her picture and read about her.

One of the tortoise's heroes:  Hulda Crooks (1896-1997)
See http://fermi.jhuapl.edu/states/trips/west97/97aug15/hulda_bio.html

My weigh-in today was 237.2 pounds, down 2.7 pounds since my last weigh-in on October 2, and down 32.6 pounds total for chapter 3 -- my recommitment since May 1.

Minimum 0.5 mile walk with 20 feet climbed in 12 minutes today.  Tortoise rating:  5.7.  Was lucky to get the phone off my ear to do that. Eating: 1,885 calories today; 14,606 in the past 7 days.

Calorie Goal: 2,326 Calories Consumed: 2,382 Calories Burned: 85 Net Calories: 2,297

Food Item	Servings	Cals	Fat	Cholest	Sodium	Carbs	Sugars	Fiber	Protein
Western Family Oatmeal Old Fashioned	1.50	225	4g	0mg	0mg	41g	0g	6g	8g
Mountain High Fat Free Plain Yogurt	1.00	120	0g	5mg	180mg	18g	17g	0g	12g
Banana, Medium	1.00	105	0g	0mg	1mg	27g	14g	3g	1g
Projoba Pollen Burst	1.00	50	0g	0mg	0mg	15g	10g	0g	0g
Renew Life Organic Triple Fiber	1.00	40	1g	0mg	0mg	5g	0g	4g	3g
All Bran Loaf	4.00	216	2g	0mg	40mg	52g	24g	6g	6g
Bar-S Foods Corn Dogs honey Batter	1.00	240	15g	50mg	620mg	23g	7g	0g	5g
Delicious Chicken Pot Pie	0.50	269	18g	7mg	558mg	23g	1g	2g	4g
Pumpkin Pie Filling	2.00	234	4g	0mg	379mg	49g	0g	0g	2g
Cascadian Farm Ancient Grains Granola	1.25	275	6g	0mg	113mg	51g	11g	6g	6g
Cascadian Farm Ancient Grains Granola	1.25	275	6g	0mg	113mg	51g	11g	6g	6g
G 1% Milk	1.00	111	3g	10mg	131mg	13g	12g	0g	9g
G 1% Milk	1.00	111	3g	10mg	131mg	13g	12g	0g	9g
G 1% Milk	1.00	111	3g	10mg	131mg	13g	12g	0g	9g
Fitness	Minutes	Cals Burned
Walk: 2.5 mph (24min/mi)	12.0	-85.0
Totals		Cals	Fat	Cholest	Sodium	Carbs	Sugars	Fiber	Protein
		2,297	64g	92mg	2,396mg	392g	133g	34g	81g

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/diary/who/#ixzz291OmUbPh

Today's last word ... from reading in Matthew 14 and 3 Nephi 26:

"And it came to pass that he did teach and minister unto the ^achildren of the multitude of whom hath been spoken, and he did ^bloose their ^ctongues, and they did speak unto their fathers great and marvelous things, even greater than he had revealed unto the people; and he loosed their tongues that they could utter."                                                                         -- 3 Nephi 26:14

Gives added meaning to the concept of "out of the mouths of babes ... "

Cheerio!