I finally got around to reading Barbara Lane's column "Book by walkers: a literary stroll," which alerted me to a book by Rebeccas Solnit, which I now have on Audible. I love to walk, as I think you do, but I don't think they (Barbara Lane and Rebeccas Solnit) understand that a treadmill doesn't preclude walks out in nature. Rebecca Solnit says that gyms "automobilized and suburbanized mind more comfortable in climate-controlled indoor space than outdoors, more comfortable with quantifiable and clearly defined activity than with seamless engagement of mind, body, and terrain to be found walking out of doors."
They're very different types of exercise. What I like most about being on the treadmill is that I have two guys I like a lot to talk with as we begin our day--though Jerry is now going through very intense treatment for his second bout of cancer, so he isn't on my left this month. I also like the fact that the treadmill gets me walking faster than I would on a walk outdoors, so it does more for the cardio-vascular.
Of course, there's no substitute for walking outdoors. They're just really two very different forms of exercise, and I know I exert myself more during my hour at the gym than I do when I'm taking a walk.
Thank God it's only for an hour and every OTHER day. I walk outdoors every day.
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