Walking.....underestimated?

Back to my roots, walking…. I’ve been here in Hungary for 8 days now, wrapping up an eleven day stay and the one thing that I’ve done without fail is to walk everyday. I’m not talking about a 30 minute stroll while eating gelato, I’m talking about 1 ½ hours a day, minimum.

It started last week day one of RKC 1. I was too jet lagged to train kettlebells feeling a bit weak, and knowing I had my pick of the three days here at the Cert to train….no hurry. I also knew I was guest teaching two swing classes on Monday, so taking Friday off to recover and training a Sat/Mon split would be fine. I was not feeling my best for kettlebells but I knew I had to do something so I took off walking in one direction, with my cell phone and a few forints in my pocket I told Mark I’d be back in about 1 hour. It was a hot and muggy day and I didn’t have a clue where I was going or how long I’d be gone. As much as I love attending RKC’s I also love to work up a good sweat!

That was my first walk of the day…. I ended up walking only the residential streets around the high school Cert location, so later that day I decided to go off in the other direction….another hour, or so.

On my first walk I was feeling a bit guilty wondering if I was spending my time in a valuable way. Here I was in a far off country full of history and culture and I’m walking in some neighborhood that could be nearly the same as being at home. All by myself, the clock ticking away some of the short time I would spend here, shouldn’t I be doing something more productive, or at least more entertaining?

Day 2. When I got the Cert Sat morning Elena Lakatos told me about the Farmers Market going on just down the street…well, you know I high tailed it down there and hit the mother lode! But it was only a 30 minute walk and besides I had some swings to do. Finally a killer swing workout, and some decent snatching, I was able to design a couple of new routines, and then? Another walk, another direction, another hour (at least), another hot and muggy day.

Day 3. Sunday is testing day for all of the candidates…not much for me to do so I wonder what I could do? Take a walk? Mid morning I took off in yet another direction, and I’m sure I took another before the end of the day.

The point of this post is not to write a play by play of my walking schedule, but to share some of my thoughts I found myself having during the hours and hours of my “alone time”, putting one foot in front of the other.

I have had a lot of time to think about my life during the 8-12 hours of walking I’ve done this past week. Funny how when I'm at home I don’t have the patience to walk barely more than 30 minutes, and my thoughts would be completely different. My mind at home is always one step ahead (no pun intended) thinking of all the things I could, or should, be doing other that walking. But here, and now, I have no where to go other than where I am, and I have nothing to do, other than what I’m doing.

I thought I had many habits and behaviors that were just part of who I was, or who I’ve become, especially in these past few years but some of that stuff can get shot to crap the minute I step into an airport or onto a plane. The anxiety of not being in control of every bit of my life creates panic. Panic creates obsessing. Obsessing is over focusing, and when you over focus on not being in control then guess what? You become more and more not in control. Maybe it's that feeling of being trapped? A victim.

There may have been a few things that I felt not in control about, but the one thing I could control was walking. Walking puts you back into your body but it keeps you in your mind as well. Walking has saved me many times, and on this trip it was no acception. I'm so grateful for my two legs that have carried me so far. Mile after mile, thought after thought, year after year, walking is one of my best friends. I'll never underestimate it's power.