I took another hour walk today. The best walk I take is the one up Kelly Drive to the grandstand and back, a little over an hour. I don't know what makes it different from the walk the other direction along the Schuylkill Riverbank, or the walk down through Center City to Penn's Landing, except perhaps that this one evokes old physical memories. When I trained for the Philadelphia Marathon in 1976, that was the direction I ran. On long runs, I'd do the whole 8-mile (plus change) loop up the East River Drive (now Kelly Drive) and down the West River Drive (now Martin Luther King Drive). I still remember shuffling along in my inimitable jog all by myself in the early morning, and walking along there with all the familiar landmarks brings back that feeling of being 25, asthmatic, slow, and nonetheless less than half my present age. However, I am definitely no longer by myself out there--1976 was around the early-adopter stage of the mass fitness movement, and now people are out there walking, running, biking, and roller-blading in huge numbers.

I need to figure out a way to get a long walk into my work-year schedule. I'm contemplating walking to Suburban Station from my house in the mornings; it takes 45 minutes to get there, which means I'd have to leave the house before 6:00 a.m. if I wanted to catch the 6:45. I could also walk to 30th Street Station, but I suspect (even though I live on the branch of 30th street that extends north on the other side of the river) that it would take longer. The down side is I would be short on sleep, and my first priority during the school year is getting enough sleep so I don't have a nervous breakdown. Another possibility is taking a later train, which would get me to school 15 minutes before the kids come in. That's not nearly early enough for everything I am used to doing in the morning, some of which is planning I really ought to do the day before but never do because I'm thick as a brick by the end of the school day. Of course, if I have a 45-minute walk, I might be able to get some thinking in. Long walks are really good for thinking things through. The question is whether I'd be able to get the lost-and-found sweep, the photocopying, and the writing on the board done when I got there.

In the middle of the day I went over to the health club for my yoga class. It was a fairly weird one (some "om"ing and a few odd postures) but at least I wasn't the only student there this time. It does make me feel marvelous. I have been doing one particular position from time to time at home just because it feels so good.

Speaking of feeling good, Monday I get my braces off.