The "Inside Track"

Most of my friends know that my chosen form of exercise is walking. Sometimes I walk on lunch or a break from work downtown, sometimes I walk in my home neighborhood. Or sometimes I walk to get somewhere.

When days are very busy it can be as difficult to find time to fit in my walk as it is to write on this blog! If I get home late and tired and haven't had my walk for the day, it's hard to motivate myself to go out in the cold and dark to take a walk.

I recently discovered an alternative that works pretty well and helps me get in my walks regularly. Walter and I live in a good sized apartment building. There are about 90 units on 3-1/2 floors. The first 3 floors have long hallways (see photo). At both ends of the hallways are stairs and elevators.

Our apartment building managers like to advertise our building's "amenities." They talk about the pool, the sauna and the weight room especially. We have lived in this building for 21 years and have not used any of these amenities. What they don't talk about is the indoor track!

You guessed it, I have found that I can turn the apartment hallways into my own personal walking track. I walk the full length of the first floor, then go up the stairs to the second floor and walk the full length of that hallway. Up the stairs to the third floor and down that hall. I use the elevator to return to the first floor and start all over again, but now I'm walking in the opposite direction from where I started. Rinse and repeat until I've logged the number of minutes I wanted to spend on my walk, and I'm done.

I personally prefer to go outdoors whenever it's possible. But the "inside track" is nice. The stairs make it a decent workout and I don't have to worry about my personal safety late at night or especially bad weather if I don't want to.

Please don't tell my landlords. I don't want them to think their apartments are worth more money because of this newly discovered amenity!