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View of the valley as I head down the hill on the final stretch to work

Walked to work this morning.  3.01 miles with 192 feet climbed in 56:15 total elapsed time.  Average heart rate: 108.  Tortoise rating:  5.2.  Got a bonus walk in this evening, I walked from the house to the white city building and back to be one of the moderators at Meet The Candidates night.  0.72 miles with 49 feet climbed in 16:04 total elapsed time (including stops along the way to talk with Charles Gubler and Vernon Jaques -- the irrigation water is back on!)  Tortoise rating:  5.4.

Click here if you'd like to see details on eating and calories burned walking:

Cheerio!

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View of Cinder Knoll ahead as I begin my walk home

Tortoise has been enjoying the goodness of the bountiful food offerings all around.  Now it is time to move to the next level, starting with the weigh-in:  243.2.  We have work enough to do ...

Walked home today, 3.00 miles with 196 feet climbed in 59:46 minutes.  Tortoise rating:  5.2.   No world speed record tonight, to be honest, it was not an easy walk today.  Did it anyway.  Heart rate doesn't reflect it, ranged from 89 to 122 and averaged 109.  I think the heat, humidity, and putting some of the weight back on is the story.  One day at a time, the tortoise story ...

Click here if you'd like the details of my eating and calories burned on the walk today:

Cheerio!

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Sarah joined me on my walk this morning, very nice!

All my devices had no battery this morning, so you will have to picture in your minds eye the view she and I had and rely on my June 30, 2012 post for the stats, which are:  1.01 miles walked, 292 feet climbed, tortoise rating:  0.6.  We walked halfway to the L and back in 40 minutes, including the time we enjoyed the sunrise beginning over the majestic peaks of Zion to the east.

Footnote:  Miles walked since June 28 ... 46.00.

Cheerio!

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Walk 1 ... 0.64 miles with 20 feet climbed in 30:41 minutes total elapsed time to walk to the credit union (pictured above) and Lins to restock baking potatoes, cottage cheese, reduced fat triscuits, and bananas (go good with yogurt and oatmeal).  Tortoise rating:  5.8.

Was planning to walk to a meeting later, but the rains came, so excuses, excuses, walk 1 is it for today ...

Footnote:  No walk July 25.  Total miles since June 28 - 44.99.

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Can you see the bird high in the cell tower?

Walked to work this morning:  3.00 miles with 177 feet climbed in 54:03 minutes.

Following a suggestion from Doug Jr, the tortoise has adopted a rating system for his walks.  Today's path  is rated at 5.2 tortoises ... if you would like to see the rating system check the bottom of this blog below the posts.  The attempt is to have categories 1 through 4 reasonably correlate with the Tour de France system and categories 1 through 5 reasonably correlate with the HumanaFit categories.  Hopefully this rating system will become more relevant as there are more walks to compare it to, but to give you a couple comparisons, the walk from the Grotto to Scout Lookout is rated 1.0 tortoise and the Browns Point Trail is rated triple beyond tortoise, just short of the most strenuous categorization in the system.

Footnote:  No walk July 23.  Total miles since June 28 - 44.35.

Cheerio!

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Weigh-in today:  237.8.   0.5 mile walk (Tortoise rating:  7.0).

Footnote:  Total miles since June 28 - 41.35.

Cheerio!

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Walked 4.9 miles round trip, with 1177 feet climbed on a trail rated 0.3 tortoises, in 3:24:53 hours after working in Orem and Lindon earlier.  Heart averaged 124 and peaked at 144.  I carried a fairly full pack for practice, I'm guessing it was 25 pounds.  Included 5 pints of water, a couple boxes of nature valley bars, a bag of trail mix, a tent, a sweatshirt and other clothing items.  Tortoise is getting closer to being ready for overnight treks ...

If you'd like a map and more pictures, click here for the Garmin adventure: http://adventures.garmin.com/en-US/by/dougbeechersr/first-2-5-miles-of-timpooneke-trail/#poi-list

Footnote:  No walks July 17 or 18.  Total miles since June 28 - 40.85.

Cheerio!

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Can you see the "D" on the knoll 20 miles away?

Walked to work this morning after getting a cavity filled by Dr. Howard.  3.00 miles with 186 feet climbed in 52:09 minutes.  Heart averaged 130, with a peak of 146.

Footnote:  Total miles since June 28 - 35.95.

Here's another nice long heart pumping walking tune for you ... of course we like the instrumental segments the best ...



Cheerio!

13-196

Approaching Main Street on Hurricane's 600 North

Walked home tonight, enjoyed the cool of an 88 degree somewhat humid evening.  It's deciding if it wants to rain some more ... we've been praying for it!

3.00 miles with 183 feet climbed in 52:24 minutes total time, including 15 seconds stopped to catch that picture above.  Heart averaged 121 and peaked at 136, so Dr.Carter will be a little happier with me.  Of course, it has been ridiculously hot too ...

Footnote:  Total miles since June 28 - 32.95.

Here was my favorite song from tonight's walk, just to give you a little variety here in terreeeblayland ...




 Cheerio!

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Sunrise over Zion in the distance

Three walks today ... home from work, back to work, and then home again.  The mileages vary slightly, one time the Garmin took a block or so to start working, another time I did a little extra meandering along the way.  Here's how it worked out:

Walk 1:  3.0 miles with 172 feet climbed in 58:44 minutes.  Heart beat maxed out at 116 and averaged 104.

Walk 2: 2.8 miles with 218 feet climbed in 54:50 minutes.  Heart beat maxed out at 127 and averaged 109.

Walk 3:  3.1 miles with 198 feet climbed in 1:00:12 hours.  Heart beat maxed out at 117 and averaged 106.

Totals:  8.9 miles with 588 feet climbed in 2:53:46 hours.  Footnote:  Total miles since June 28 - 29.95.

I like the way I feel inside.  If salads feel like scrubbers, this level of walking feels like double scrubbers!  But after 13 miles in the past 2 days, I am sore from head to toe and everywhere in between.  A good sore, but sore.

Cheerio!

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Tortoise is wondering as he walks if he can beat the rain storm to work.  He can!

Walked to work this morning, then later in the day made a round trip to Valley Academy.  Totals:  4.3 miles with 280 feet climbed in 1 hour 20 minutes.

Footnote:  No walks July 10 or 11.  Total miles since June 28 - 21.05.

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3 smiling ladies start their way up Walters Wiggles to finish today's climb

Special treat today for the tortoise, he took the Zion Park Shuttle to the Grotto and then walked with all three of his daughters, Becca, Rachel, and Sarah, to Scout Lookout.  4.0 miles with 1000 feet climbed in 2 hours 15 minutes.  This path is rated 1.0 tortoises ... Yes, they all walked faster than me ... I am the tortoise, and they have each been preparing.  We pretty much stayed together the whole way and it was great fun ... thank you!

Footnote:  Total miles since June 28 - 16.75.

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Tortoise had two fabulous walking companions today, Rachel and Becca.  We did the Confluence Park loop early this morning, taking LaVerkin city streets to the trailhead at 560 North, connecting with the Confluence Trail at the park center.  We were blessed with shade most of the way.

Walk totalled 4.57 miles with 268 feet climbed in 1:51:42 hours on a path rated 4.8 tortoises, including lots of stops for Tortoise to tell stories about side trails, history, and more.  Becca and Rachel were good sports to listen to all that :-)

Please click below to see a map of our adventures ...

Cheerio!

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Walked 2 miles in Confluence Park today.  It is a special place, I find peace there.  For more pictures, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

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Walked a mile pulling the famous red wagon with my grandchildren and Willyne in the La Verkin July 4 parade.  Such fun!  Footnote:  Total miles since June 28:  6.18, no walks July 2 or 3.

Cheerio!

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Today's walk was easily over a mile, including several trips loading the car for the return trip to the airport, up and down 4 flights of stairs each time, and walking with grandchildren at the Baton Rouge and Houston Intercontinental airports to keep them happy.  Footnote:  Total miles since June 28:  5.18.

Cheerio!