Amazing Race to Bridge of the Gods
Photo © Wendy Bumgardner 2008
I was thrilled to learn that my favorite reality TV show, The Amazing Race was having its final leg and winner's mat in my neck of the woods. Previews for Sunday's finale show the finalists using a 2000-foot zip line from Bridge of the Gods to Thunder Island in the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, pictured above one month after the race. I've walked across Bridge of the Gods and drove across it in an ice storm last January. I have frequently circled Thunder Island as part of the Columbia Gorge walking weekends we have in June every-other year. Enjoy my photos of the area around the Bridge of the Gods in the Columbia River Gorge.
More Wordless Wednesday Photos
Can You Get Your Family to Walk?
The holiday season is one of the best excuses to get your family out for a walk. It's a time for excess holiday calories to burn off and lovely Christmas lights to see. You even have indoor options as well as outdoor options. You can stroll the mall or other indoor decorated areas, or visit neighborhoods and districts that are known for their holiday light displays. I got my husband out for a walk on Sunday o check out how the neighbors were decorating and get ideas for our house. For those who can carry a tune, some impromptu caroling will not only get you out walking, but you may score some nice cookies from the neighbors. Do you have any holiday walking traditions? Have you found a creative way to get your family walking during the holidays?Add Walking to Your Family Holiday Fun
Share Your Holiday Walking Tips
Photo © Wendy Bumgardner
Track Your December Walks
Yes, it's tough to find the time to exercise during the holiday season. We have tools for you to use to stay motivated. Recording your walks is the best way to maintain a walking schedule. We have online and offline tools you can use. We have free printable pages and a spreadsheet for charting your walks daily, weekly, or monthly.- December Walks Challenge: As a group, we count up our walks towards a total of 1200 walks for the month.
- December Minutes Challenge: Set your own monthly goal for minutes walked and post your total each day in our Walking Forum.
- December Miles Challenge: Set your own monthly goal for miles walked and post your total each day in our Walking Forum.
- Google Map Pedometer Online: Map, measure and save your walking routes online, free.
Best Comfort Shoes
Comfort shoes are designed to provide pain-relief and comfort for problem feet or extra cushion for those who must be on their feet all day when shopping, working, traveling or touring. Some of them look a bit odd, most of them look a bit boring. But if your feet are finally happy - who cares? Best Comfort ShoesFashion: If you're willing to sacrifice comfort for fashion's sake, visit our Shoes About.com site, she has a holiday shoe-buying guide.
Photo © Wendy Bumgardner
Shrimp on a Treadmill
Why is the shrimp on a treadmill? Researcher David Scholnick at Pacific University uses the treadmill to test the health of marine animals. He even makes them wear duct tape backpacks to stress them further. No slacking over the holidays, people, or the shrimp may be grilling YOU!
Black Friday Fitness Deals
Browse the Deals: BlackFriday.info has a Fitness category where you can browse deals from oodles of retailers offering Black Friday deals. I already have spotted some items at Costco I've wanted to test and review, although I'll have to get to the store in person for those. The site will keep lists updated as to what is available to buy online immediately as deadlines vary by retailer.
Big Box Sporting Goods Stores: Sports Authority stores will open at 5:30 a.m. on Friday and hand out "Bonus Bucks" discount cards to the first 100 people who enter each of its 435 stores. The "Bonus
Bucks" cards will be worth from $10-100 toward any purchase in the store from 5:30 a.m. until noon, that day only. If you prefer to shop them online, they have free shipping for all shoes.
Dick's Sporting Goods stores will open at 5 am, and their Black Friday deals have leaked.. They also have free shipping on shoes and on other qualifying orders.
Gym Specials: If you have been waiting to join a gym, 24 Hour Fitness will have membership specials starting on Black Friday. Gold's Gym locations will open the doors to all comers from Nov. 26-30 for free workouts and tips from their trainers.
I hate shopping with crowds, but some people find that energizing. I like to shop online or target what I want so I can make a clean in-and-out visit to a store. After all, I have walking I need to do!
Avoid Gift Cards: A word to the wise this holiday season in times of economic turmoil: Avoid giving gift cards and gift certificates. If you have any left over from previous gifting or receive any this year, spend them immediately. If a retailer goes bankrupt, the gift cards are generally not honored.
Fitness on Your Smart Phone
Do you use any fitness apps on your iPhone, Blackberry, or other smart phone? Do you track your walks, workouts, or diet via your cell phone?
I've been using AllSportGPS for my Blackberry and I love it. Not only do I get real time readouts of my speed, distance, and calories, I can view my walk on a street map and even check the hill profile. It all gets uploaded to the Trimble Outdoors web site and I can choose to share my routes with others or keep them private. I can add photos and commentary. It currently has a free 7-day trial if you would like to test it out.
iPhone users have a couple of similar choices -- probably with more on the way. Both of these are currently free downloads. RunKeeper tracks your speed and distance, and automatically uploads to the web where you can view your map. Laura Moncur at Starling Fitness reviews the RunKeeper. It is currently a free download.
iMapMyRunfor the iPhone has more features than RunKeeper, such as calories burned, real-time mapping on the phone, saving and sharing features, integration with Twitter, etc. I also appreciate that Walk is highlighted as a choice for the kind of workout.
If you are on the go and want a readout on calories, use our own Calorie Count to find the nutrition information on just about any food and many restaurant items.
What do you use?
Photo © Wendy Bumgardner
Recipes for a Healthy Thanksgiving
Walking Recipe Number One: Put the turkey in the oven and lace up your walking shoes. Grab any willing relative or friend and go for a walk on Thanksgiving morning. The idea is to pre-burn some of the calories you are going to be enjoying at the feast. Even if it's cold and wet outside, that will make it just so much cozier when you return home. My tradition is to join friends for a two-hour walk.Walking Recipe Number Two: After you have stuffed yourself at the feast, do a reality check with the Thanksgiving Calorie Calculator and round up anybody not in a food coma to go for a walk with you. You'll probably be strolling a lot slower, but a nice easy walk is good for the digestion. And the time together will be well spent in conversation.
Holiday Dish Recipes
- Rum-Whipped Sweet Potatoes: my family begs for these.
- Healthier Stuffing : The first time I made stuffing from a recipe in a cookbook, I was shocked at how much butter the recipe called for. I use my mom's stuffing recipe that is much lighter.
- Brining Your Turkey: As far as I'm concerned, this is the only way to prepare a turkey. My birds have turned out juicy and delicious since I started using our BBQ Guide's brining technique.
A Bridge to Somewhere
Photos of the Vancouver Land Bridge
Pedestrian bridges are usually ugly steel and concrete utilitarian structures built by the lowest bidder. Rarely are they a work of art that celebrates the land and the people they connect. The Vancouver Land Bridge in Vancouver, Washington, USA was designed by Maya Lin (designer of the Vietnam Memorial in DC) and landscape artist Johnpaul Jones as part of the Confluence Project. This is a pedestrian bridge worth building your whole day's walk around crossing.
I listen to too much talk radio where this would be maligned as a waste of taxpayer money. But I look to the local parks and historic highways that benefited from the work of artisans in the WPA during the Great Depression. They improved trails and built shelters and lodges that we still use and enjoy today. If we are headed into tough economic times, we may think about improving our infrastructure to make it inviting, beautiful, and memorable rather than simply cheap and utilitarian. The city of Vancouver sorely needed a pedestrian bridge to link the lovely river pathway with the historic area and neighborhoods on the other side of the highway. What they received is a beautiful pathway that takes you on a meaningful journey. Many people don't even realize there is a Vancouver in the the USA, located just across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon. But it was the West's first neighborhood, with Fort Vancouver established by Hudson's Bay Company and becoming one of the endpoints of the Oregon Trail. It was also once named one of the most walkable cities in America. Vancouver continues to build trails and improve its walking environment for the future.
Photo © Wendy Bumgardner
Don't Be Invisible
Unless I want to walk only during the work day or on the weekends, I have to walk in the dark this time of year. Since I tend to wear a lot of black, that means I'm invisible to traffic unless I am wearing something reflective or a flashing light. You can add reflective elements to your existing walking gear with See-Me-Run iron-on reflective transfers. I ironed-on running girl transfers to my Camelbak pack and my Portland to Coast rucksack and I ironed on another design to each side of my Sub 4 Hat. The iron-on transfers are an inexpensive option to add reflective elements to your existing gear.
Photo © Wendy Bumgardner 2008