Over the last week or so, I've been walking in a mega-block around my house. I clocked it in the car and it's about 3.5 km. So, every time I walk I've been meaning to time myself then forget. I did it today and my time was 38 minutes. I think that is a big improvement even without knowing my earlier times because every other time I've done it I've got 3/4 of the way then died and had to drag myself home. This time I had a lovely - my goodness, I'm almost home - moment.

I noticed this in Boxercise the other day too. Usually I start watching the clock in any class about 5 minutes after it starts and pray for some time-space continuum thing to happen so I can get out alive but, on Thursday, the first I looked at the clock was 50 minutes into the class. Just before we started cool down. Woohoo! I don't know if that is a sign of increasing fitness or increasing senility but it makes things easy. I am rather over Boxercise after my second class - I have an injury, not from my own exercise by from sparring in pairs - the girl kept punching low down on the pad and I've jarred my arm. It is a real pain because I don't want to use it too much in case I make it worse.

So yeah, back to the walking. My goal at the moment is to keep walking that block until I get it under 30 minutes. When I do that, I want to add on another km then get that under 30 minutes. I think that is a good way to keep pushing myself and to keep it interesting. I know I have a tendency to slack off when exercising on my own so this might keep me honest. Having said that, I want to throw in a walk somewhere else at least once a week too - somewhere new and interesting each week, like a nice park or at the beach.

I also want to keep up the swimming. Tomorrow night they have "ladies night" at my pool so I'm going to give it a go. It is only $3 and, as well as use of the pool, they have swimming lessons (I do need to improve my swimming technique) and free aqua classes plus that includes use of the spa and sauna. I love a bargain.

Whoa, I'm long winded today but I have also been looking into gym memberships. At the moment I can't afford it, but I do go to one class a week and just pay the casual rate of $10. Hopefully, I will be working before the weather gets too bad to make regular walking impossible. I was looking at some of the chain gyms like Fitness First and Fernwood but then I thought about it.

My local gym, while a bit crumby, is run by the council (I think) so the memberships are just flat rate and openly advertised - take it or leave it. I like that. Some gyms, well let's just say they'd shame a used car salesman with their pushy sales techniques. I guess that can work in your favour if you are a good negotiator, I worked with a girl who used to work at a gym and she said NEVER pay the first price offered. She actually said to walk out a few times and you'll get a good price - sounds like shopping at the markets in Bali.

But my local is also within walking distance and pretty friendly and nice so I think if I join, I'll join there.