Dancing All the Way

This morning, I did my first 2-mile walk, since Sunday, 07/13/08. I stopped walking so that I could experiment with ways to keep myself healthy (see my blog "Clearing the Hurdle"). I'm trying to track what works best by eliminating past procedures, and tracking each new procedure as it is added. For the past couple of days, my back has been in good condition. I say "good" because there is still a slight ache that I am attributing to my stubborness about getting my composting material into the ground in a timely manner (healthy eating generates a lot of fruit and vegetable scraps).

When I left the house, I walked 3 blocks to the St. Anthony track. When I got there, I could feel the slightest heaviness across the upper portion of my gluts, probably from walking the uneven, pebbly, construction-scarred streets from my house to the track. So, I'm thinking that I will do only 1 mile. Once on the almost smooth, but slightly tilting track, I walked maybe 2/10 of a mile, still feeling the heaviness, when I remembered how bouyed up I used to feel when I incorporated music into my past walks. So, I put in my earplugs, and pulled up my playlist "St. Anthony Walk", one of my compilations of songs that I feel are good for walking. I put the playlist together, test it on a walk, and edit as needed (part of my "Health" hobby). I decided that I would start the playlist, and monitor how each song made me feel as I walked.

The first song on the playlist is Al Green's "L-O-V-E". As I walked, I matched my gait to the music, letting my left foot fall at each strike of the cymbal (where a person would clap, if clapping to the song). My movements created a rhythmic flow to my hips, and a certain length and pace to my stride. And, the pain immediately subsided. I held my abdominal muscles in, and my posture stayed erect, but I imagined letting my upper body give in to a slight forward pull. I listened to this song maybe 4 times, then went on to Bob Marley, but couldn't duplicate the previous feel with his first 3 songs, so I skipped to his "Waiting In Vain". I kinda did a modified reggae bounce, that also got my hands involved. I don't know so much that I matched my stride to his rhythm, as I just lifted my whole body off my skeleton, so to speak, and continued down the track, without the ache. Brian Jack's "Zydeco Boogaloo" had me moving my shoulders in an upwards bounce peculiar to some zydeco dance steps, and Chaka Khan's "Foolish Fool" allowed me to match my movements to her various exclamations throughout the song. Her next song on the list didn't help, so I skipped it. The last song, Dave Grusin's "Mountain Dance" allowed me to match my gait again, but at a much faster pace, so I was literally dancing down the track.

BTW, I walked the whole two miles. Once I left the track, I removed the earplugs to walk the 3 blocks back home; the slight heaviness/ache came back, but with even less intensity.

So, if you ever see me on St. Anthony's walking track, and I'm moving a little out of sync with everyone else, just smile with me, and know that I may be listening to a different drummer, and dancing all the way down the track.