Toronto pedestrian deaths

The first three pedestrians killed were shocking enough. But 14? In three weeks? Toronto streets are getting mean.
While there is no easy answer to why these deaths have occurred in such quick succession, my feeling is that if we are being mindful at all these days, it's only in yoga class. Even there, we are being mindful only of ourselves.
Our mindfulness needs to extend beyond our own chakras. We are all drivers, we are all walkers - we are all traffic. Maybe, no matter what the signs say, we just simply need to watch out for each other.

Beside the Bow River

According to Google maps, it is a 3212 kilometre, 25 day, 23 hour walk from my house to that of my brother, a proud Mountie, who is now stationed in Calgary, Alberta.

Twenty-five days and 23 hours to walk from Toronto to Calgary is an astonishing recommendation.

I have used Google maps when I am visiting a city to determine how long it will take me to get from the hotel to, say, a coffee shop or an art gallery. It is usually accurate within 10 minutes. Of course, for this purpose, I need neither pee breaks nor fuelling and hydration stops.

When I plunk in my address and that of my brother's, I assume Google is just relaying how many hours it would take to walk that distance without any breaks. Still, I am left with untold questions. Will I be walking on highways? Will I be walking on gravel shoulders? Is there any way to determine where I can get food? Where I can sleep? Most importantly, is this an accurate time prediction? Can a Google program that accurately predicts a 10 minute city-walk really estimate a cross country trek?

I feel a project coming on!

In any case, on Saturday, Air Canada helped me avoid the high risk of blistering and frostbite that such a walk surely would entail in winter. I flew to Calgary where I walked a mere 22 kilometres of the Bow River Trail (and visited aforementioned brother) in just under 3 hours - including a pee break under a bridge, a short detour near the Calgary Zoo to avoid ice, and a walk up the stairs beside Prince's Island Park to catch a glimpse of distant Rocky Mountains on the horizon.

I liked my walk. You can understand from the photos above - the first taken at the beginning as I headed east along the south side of the Bow River toward downtown and the second taken at the end after I had walked along the south trail out past Inglewood and returned back via the north trail, crossing again to the south side over one of many pedestrian-friendly bridges.

I haven't ruled out the long, scenic route to Calgary but for now this taste of Canada's Stampede town was magical.

It's all in the group

Nine days into January and the walking is superb. Cold but superb. Today tested our Canadian character with temperatures at our 7am class starting at -25 Celsius (-13 Fahrenheit). Predictably, with these cold temperatures comes SUN. Sun is good.

Class was filled with dedicated walkers who never complain about such a small inconvenience as having to wear 10 layers topped by Vaseline! These are veteran walkers who know that to walk a good event in February, March, or April cold weather training must happen. And it is true that misery loves company - oops - or should I say everything is better with friends.

Equally enthusiastic this morning was the group of Level 1 participants which met for the first class this morning at 10am. Those who arrived ready to walk may not fully understand the meaning of layering yet, and someone did mention that they thought they had signed up for a power talking class, but we had an impressive turnout for the first of winter.

Yes, the talking does help the walking. While we coaches often have to be the talk cops by reinforcing the "no talking" rule during interval training, there is a camaraderie of the group walking class that simply can not compare to solo training walks.

For more interesting info on why group exercise works check out Alex Hutchinson's excellent posting on www.sweatscience.com where you can find his Globe and Mail column from January 7 on the benefits of group exercise.

Because we always think of group exercise being indoors, here's a good place to share your insights on walking outdoors with a group.

New Year's Walk

Did you get out walking to see the Blue Moon last night? It was there - the faintest reverse shadow shining through hazy clouds. Now, I admit I was walking only from the restaurant to the car when I caught a glimpse but what a way to say goodbye to 2009.

This morning, walking along the lake with my IBBH (Infinitely Better Better Half - a much better description than "partner", don't you think?) was a different but entirely perfect welcome to 2010.

A blustery wind from the north was sideswiping snowflakes at our faces. Like a good slap that wakes you out of a faint, it brought us out of the semi-coma of holiday overindulgence.

Research undoubtedly supports my view that a brisk one hour walk in fresh air can undo a lot of damage caused by consumption of copious amounts of cheese and crackers, mashed potato and turkey stuffing, chocolate bark and chocolate truffles, Bordeaux and Merlot, shortbread and almond snowballs. To name a few of my favourite holiday things.

Since it is a holiday I am not going to seek out the academic citation that supports this belief although I'm standing by it from personal experience and the anecdotal evidence of the many cheery "Happy New Year's" greetings of other walkers out on the lakeside path this morning. I don't know if they had all overindulged in like manner but there was no question we were all much better for being outside.