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What are you up to? Mitzi Bault answers in miles and turns

Mitzi Bault is a family hero. She's a cancer survivor with a zest for life few others have. Keeping fit is a big part of her arsenal to defeat cancer. Walking is her first option for keeping physically fit. This article is a glimpse into her successful plan to accomplish fitness goals. It isn't meant to be the complete regimen. There are other aspects we hope she'll share later.
Next earlier What are You Up To?
story: Walk Adair!!! - Writer finds activity tracker helps her get in steps by Jelaine Harlow

By Ed Waggener
from an interview with Mitzi Bault

When the question was posed, if you knew the answer when one Adair Countian asks another, "What Are You Up To?" Mitzi Bault may give an answer in 'turns' or 'miles."

Her way is different from that of Jelaine Harlow's, who tracks her prescribed daily Walk-for-Health on an Activity Tracker and starts her day with before-work steps at the office.




Mitzi Bault's way is to go to Haven Hill Cemetery on Liberty Road, get fresh air, take in fantastic views, and try to get in the day's steps in one place. She's not a Luddite, but she prefers to have only as much technology as necessary for her safety. As with most walkers, she's very tolerant of other's ways, but she can almost be her grandfather, of whom, Mitzi's Dad said, "There's the right way, the wrong way, and E.P.'s way." Mitzi isn't as teutonic as E.P. Waggener was, but she'll give bullet points on why her way is best.
  • There are defined metrics for Haven Hill, metrics she's devised on her own, using an automobile odometer, for distances. Her goal is four miles, but she settles for whatever her endurance is that day.

  • There are up and down, gentle grades. She thinks that's better for conditioning.

  • Haven Hill is, relatively, very, very safe. It's safe because there is virtually no traffic. Someone knows she is there. There are few places for bad people to lurk. There are many neighbors she trusts to watch. Traffic comes by frequently and would know if she needs help or not. And she always has left word with one or more family members of her whereabouts.

  • Haven Hill is a calming walk. It's peaceful. Some walkers work for the 'highs' often wandering over into their manic side. While creative ideas come on a walk in Haven Hill, it is also a place to walk and enjoy the peace, to meditate and appreciate, to think of others - all a big part of Mitzi's life.

  • And finally, she says, it's a place to learn - things of particular interest to her. Mitzi is the genealogist of our family. She says that quite often, particularly if walking with a friend, they comment on the little capsule histories on the grave markers and, in so doing, appreciate all the more their own family and families of others.
The distances she's worked out are simple: Three turns around the outer paved lanes equal one mile. Her endurance usually limits her to eight or nine turns, but sometimes, she reaches 12 turns - four miles for the day.

She does have fallback walks. She has measured distances around her yard, as well as to and from her house to her mother's and to the mailbox at the end of her private road, McKinley Lane.

And, while Haven Hill remains her favorite walking venue, she's a huge advocate of sidewalks. "I hear so often that rights of way and easements are what's holding back the city, county, and school board from just getting the job done and pouring sidewalks. I'd love nothing better than to have safe sidewalks all the way to Lindsey Wilson and on to town," she said. "Why it is not already done is beyond me."


This story was posted on 2016-05-09 06:28:14
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