City Livin': Exercise

One of the aspects of moving back to the city that I've been looking forward to is the ability to walk more. As a carless resident of Chicago, I relied on public transit and my own two feet for transportation much of the time. In Laramie, we often drove to our destinations in town, though we also walked a fair bit to the cafes and restaurants in the historic downtown district near our home.

In moving to our new neighborhood in Philadelphia, I was curious about the area's walkability. According to Walk Score, our neighborhood gets a score of 92 out of 100 -- a veritable "Walker's Paradise"! In comparison, our old neighborhood in Wyoming got a "Somewhat Walkable" Walk Score of 52.

Yesterday I ran a bunch of errands around town, and after I came home I used one of my favorite websites for planning training runs, Map My Run, to estimate how far I had walked -- and was actually a bit surprised to find that I had walked over four miles (though admittedly my feet were quite aware of the mileage, particularly since I wasn't wearing the most walk-friendly shoes). Over the past week I have done a fair bit of walking -- in one epic early morning walk D and I schlepped across town to get our PA drivers licenses. (While it took me two years to switch my IL license to a WY one, it only took four days for me to switch over to a PA license, mainly due to all the paperwork and things we need to complete to get a parking permit for our neighborhood.) Our close proximity to cafes (er, Starbucks, though yes, there are a lot of independent cafes in our neighborhood that I must explore) means that I can easily get out of the house and change my office scenery during the workday.

I haven't quite figured out an exercise routine yet -- I definitely miss the twice-weekly Body Shock class at the Laramie Recreation Center (not to mention the uber-inexpensive membership fees) -- but in the meantime, hopefully walking around town will keep me in check. And once the winter time temps become a little less brisk, I am so looking forward to hitting up the Schuylkill River Trail for daily runs. Perhaps the Philadelphia Marathon is in my future? We shall see!