Tag Archives: highway star

My Daily Walk

Posted on by
Reply

This week I started my new regimen of trying to get up earlier and to take a walk to wake my body up and get going, prior to showering and breakfasting, just to try and start the day off right, and ideally be more productive.   I know that lying in bed, then getting up, grabbing a bit to eat, checking the internet etc, has led to it being close to lunchtime before I really achieve anything, which isn’t very good when you are struggling to write and establish an online presence to earn a living.

So this morning I managed to wake up just before 7:30am, quickly checked my email, and was out the door for my walk about 8:15am.

Monday I managed a really fast walk, covering the 2 1/4 miles around the block in 35 minutes.  I developed a small blister on the side of my big toe, so I thought for yesterday I would just wear a pair of open sandals that I have walked in before to give my toe a break.  Bad move!  By the time I got halfway around the block I had a blister starting under the ball of my right foot, and by the time I got back a matching one on the left foot.

I can usually walk a long way without developing blisters, but it’s the speed that does it, so today I wore socks and sneakers (as one should) and decided to take things at a slower pace, which worked out perfect.  It still only took 4 minutes longer in total, but of course walking a bit slower doesn’t burn quite as many calories.  Hopefully I can take another walk tonight as well to double my efforts, as well as a swim this afternoon.

Well when I walk alone I usually take my trusty MP3 player with me, loaded with my favorite tracks, and it’s set to play them randomly, so I never know what to expect.  Normally, every time I power my MP3 player on it starts at the same track, but if I hit the forward button it locates something new each time.  Well today I got Deja Vu when it immediately started playing “Highway Star” by Deep Purple., the same starting track as yesterday.  I said to myself “ok, this is a good driving rhythm to start me off even if it is two days in a row” and off I set.  The next song was a slow Country song, “She’s In Love” by Mark Wills, followed by more Deja Vu and another track from yesterday “No Se Tu” by Luis Miguel from the album Romance.   This was followed by another favorite of mine, “News Of The World” by The Jam, a great Brit-Rock band that you don’t hear too much about now, other than the lead singer Paul Weller doing covers on his solo concerts.   Next a song I really like, but little known, “The Mystic Journey” by Arlo Guthrie (remember him from Alice’s Restaurant?).  That was nice and mellow, but then another rock classic, “Love Reign O’er Me” by The Who from the album Quadrophenia.  Absolutely the best Who album musically, aside from Who’s Next which has all the singles that you still hear as themes to television shows like CSI etc.   This took me to the final leg, and the music switched again to Country with another favorite of mine, “My Next Thirty Years” by Tim McGraw.  This often has me thinking back at my life, and what the next years are going to bring.  And finally just as I rounded the side of the building, a long track that I would have to cut short unfortunately.  This is really little known except to Progressive Music fans who like PFM, “River Of Life” from their Live In Japan 2002 double CD.  You can learn more about PFM on my Squidoo lens about them.  It has a a number of video clips, including the full version of this song.

I added below a list of the track that I have on my MP3 player right now in case you are interested.  I think youwill agree that I have a very varied musical taste.

Getting back home I was feeling rather peckish, not really in the mood for Oatmeal, which although it’s healthy wasn’t going to hit the spot today, so I cooked Cheese And Beans On Toast, and English classic meal that works equally well for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Well this post is dragging on and so is time.  I have had so many interruptions today it’s unbelievable.  I hoped to have this complete by 11am, it’s now close to 3pm Eek! and time for my daily workout in the pool.

I hope you enjoy the music (most of the links have previews behind them) and I am interested to know what you think of the blog, the postings, or if you have a blog too and would like to swap links.

My MP3 Playlist

An Early Morning Walk

Posted on by
1

I decided (see my last post) that as from today I need to start getting out of bed earlier, and to take a good walk first thing to get me moving and to start the day off right.

So I arranged for Debbie to wake me up around 7am this morning with a phone call, however I woke up on my own around 6:45am instead of my usual 8am.  Do you find too that if you need to wake up early, you don’t always need to set the alarm, your body somehow wakes you up at the right time?

I chatted with Debbie for a while on the webcam before she headed out for an afternoon appointment (remember she is in the UK), then checked some of my emails and Tagfoot messages, and headed off for my “hopefully” daily walk around the lake, golf course and nice homes where I live.  It’s a 2 1/4 mile route around the block, with 6 flights of stairs down and then up at the end, which takes about 35-40 minutes if I “hoof” it and make it a brisk walk.

Well I spent a bit too long chatting and messaging, so it was 8:30am by the time I left, but it was an almost perfect day, partly cloudy, a nice breeze, and about 70 degrees.

When I walk alone I always take my trusty MP3 player with me.  It’s about 3 years old, doubles as a flash drive and only has 512mb of memory, but it’s enough for me, since when I mostly use it, I am either walking or flying, and for both I really enjoy listening to a selection of my favorite tracks.  I have it set to play songs randomly, and although it always starts on the same song, flipping to the next I never know what it might play.

This morning I did pretty well, the MP3 player selecting for me a good driving track to start the walk off right, “Highway Star” by Deep Purple.  That saw me setting off to a good pace (I tend to change my walk pattern to match the music), and it was followed by a slower track that I love, “No Se Tu” by Luis Miguel from the album Romance.  Some of you might remember it as the featured love song from the movie “Speechless” with Geena Davis and Michael Keeton (Romance is a great album of love songs by the way, remade hits of the 50′s-70′s in the style of Nat King Cole, but in Spanish).   Then one of my all time favourite songs, “Cinema Show” by Genesis, from the album Selling England By The Pound.  They use a section of this on their medley of “really old songs” in concert, but this was the original, and has one of the best Genesis instrumental sections ever.  By this time I was 2/3rds of the way around the circuit, and the next random track was also a good one, “China Girl” by David Bowie.  Today I recalled the duet of this between Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler in The Wedding Singer – a great movie.   Finally, for the last leg, my trusty music machine kicked out “Kill The King” by Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow, which saw me along the straight, across the road, and up the stairs to the front door.

Home, I took a cool shower, made some Green Tea With Lime for later, and grabbed a bowl of Oatmeal for breakfast.

So how did you start your morning today, and what would be on your listening selection if you were taking a walk before breakfast?