Second Month

One of the things that I don't like about Hallowe'en is that DW often buys too much candy to hand out to the trick-or-treaters. That's not always the case—there have been a couple of times where we had more costumed visitors than we expected—but by and large, we tend to have leftovers.

I don't have the willpower to ignore the chocolatey treats that remain in the large bowl that DW fills. As soon as 8:00 strikes, DW brings the outdoor decorations in, covers the window at the front of the house, and turns off the lights, effectively closing up shop.

That's when I come out of hiding. I no longer care for Hallowe'en, so I head up to our bedroom and watch TV, whilst DW answers the door. And as soon as I hear her shut off the festive music, I know I can come out of hiding.

This year, I learned that we had less than half of the number of kids come to our door, and toward the end, DW was just grabbing handfuls of the Smarties, Kit Kats, Aero bars, and Caramilks to get rid of as much of the treats as she could. And yet, the bowl was still almost half full.

As I said, I lack the strength to resist the leftover chocolate. Caramilk and Coffee Crisp are the two bars that I go for, first, but I'll eat everything that we have.

I don't need this stuff and want it gone from the house. Unfortunately, it usually exits by passing through my mouth.

I'm in training. I'm building up strength for our upcoming Camino Portugués trip, where we will be hiking about 250 or so kilometres from Portugal to Spain, and have been walking several times a week since the beginning of October.

I'm now into my second month, having ended the first month by mowing down on so much chocolate that I almost made myself sick.

The day after Hallowe'en, DW and I did two walks. We were meeting my parents for breakfast in Centretown, so we got there ahead of our reservation time and did a 3K walk around Ottawa's Golden Triangle. It helped work off some of those calories I consumed the night before.

After breakfast, DW and I drove up to the Gatineau Park, where we parked along Notch Road, near a trail that would take us to Pink Lake. The Gatineau Parkway is now closed to automobiles for the season, so we couldn't drive to the Pink Lake parking lot.

It was a little more than a kilometre to the trailhead for the loop that takes you around this rare meromictic lake, and about three kilometres gets you around the lake, when we walked back to where we left our car.

(I'll share some photos of Pink Lake, tomorrow, for Wordless Wednesday.)

In all, this hike, which had us doing a lot of climbing, added five kilometres to our day's total of 8K.

The second month was off to a good start.

This was also the first time that I wore my new trail shoes, which I bought for the Camino. I've worn them around the house but haven't really tested them until these two walks. And I'm happy to say that they felt really good.

Now, I'm going to have to take them on a longer hike, which I'll do tomorrow.

As if training for the Camino wasn't enough incentive to keep walking, I've added another carrot to keep me motivated: points.

Decathlon logo

When DW and I went shopping for backpacks for this trip, we ended up at Decathlon, out on St. Laurent Boulevard. I had my doubts because we've purchased items from this store in the past, and while they're inexpensive, they also didn't last.

I've had face-mask snorkels that broke after a couple of uses and t-shirts that have shrunk, even when I hung them up to dry. I didn't think that I'd find a worthwhile backpack in this store.

But I learned that if you sign up for a free membership to the store, the backpack would come with a 10-year warranty. And they actually had a backpack that fit well on me (I loaded up one and walked around the store for almost an hour).

As a member, you also earn points that can go toward gift cards, so signing up was a no-brainer.

But the points that you earn aren't just from shopping at the store, and this is where the added incentive for training comes in: if you synchronize your fitness app with your Decathlon membership, you can earn 100 points each week for every week that you complete three hours of activity. The week runs from midnight, on a Monday, until 11:59, Sunday night.

Already, I've earned $15 in voucher points. Now, the vast majority of the points that I've earned came from purchases, but the extra 200 points, since I synched my Garmin watch to my Decathlon membership.

As I enter my second month of training, hiking will start to become more of a challenge. Snow can't be far away, but I plan to trade my trail shoes for snowshoes. On days when I won't be able to go outside, I'll get back on my spin bike.

Wish me luck in my training. At least the Hallowe'en candy is gone.

Happy Tuesday!