Friday Epiphany

Sometimes walking the dog is just walking the dog. And this is not a euphemism for anything.

It is just something I have been thinking about a lot lately. For the past year or so, I have made the morning dog walks into training sessions for me as well. I worked through the couch to 5K program with them. I would get up every morning, dress, put on the Garmin and be out the door. I pushed to get in an appropriate distance before heading home to shower and be off to work. Morning after morning I would do this routine. Now there were times that we did not go out, weather issues, oversleeping. whatever the reason but there wasn't a time that we didn't go out for a walk without looking as a time to push myself, walking or jogging. Lately, I finally decided enough was enough and I start to just walk the dogs just to walk the dogs.

In May of 2011, I went to a spa and it was the first time I ever heard that you could actually do more harm by not giving yourself time to rest. At the time, I was working out for an hour in the morning and an hour plus in the evening, almost every day. I wasn't losing weight but I was working out. I was releasing mental stress but probably stressing my body a bit more than I should have.

Last week my trainer chastised me for not resting enough and she talked to me about it again this week. I realized that a symptom of my "not wanting to rest" was that I couldn't just walk the dogs to walk them. I had to make it into a workout for me as well. I started to resent this time. I couldn't just relax about it. BUT no more. Now, I will just walk the dogs. When I do the Couch to 5K program again (yeah, I am still going to do it again but I am going to wait for more light in the morning), I will take them but on off days, we will just walk, long or short. BECAUSE sometimes walking the dog is just walking the dog.