Expected Exercise Delight

I've been trying to work exercise into my schedule and have taken a weekday errand that could easily be an unusable period of time and injected some quality exercise into it.

My son has a class that he takes at the Windsor Regional Children's Centre and it's not far from our home but since it's only an hour long and the traffic is heavy along the various routes home, it makes better sense just to stay close by.

I could sit in the waiting room and read a magazine, watch various children's videos, or try to complete a stationary task. With the weather being nice, however, I opted to get an outdoor workout in.

This past week it was exceptionally warm so I left my doggie at home because I didn't trust her to last very long in the heat and in case I decided to head indoors to climb the nearby hospital's stairs, I didn't want to leave her in a suffocatingly, hot car.

I began with a walk/jog that took me blocks away to a wonderful paved trail that parellels some railway tracks. I love that the route is open and safe even though the neighborhood could be viewed as questionable in some parts.

After 30 minutes I was overheating so I headed to the Windsor Regional Western Hospital to try out those stairs. I was a little apprehensive. Would I be stopped by a volunteer or staff member because I didn't have a legitimate reason to visit the hospital premises?

I was pleasantly pleased to find that wasn't the case. In fact, once I entered the West side entrance, there was a welcoming poster that beakoned me to take the stairs!

"Well this is nice", I thought to myself.

I began the accent and was even more pleased to find encouraging posters on each level of the stairway. It seems the hospital was promoting stair climbing (most likely for it's staff, but I was happy to oblige). Each poster talked about the benefits of using the stairs in calorie burning, muscle and cardio health. At the top, I was instructed to celebrate by dancing like Rocky Balboa! I didn't have the energy to but it made me smile.

After 20 minutes of that, I was done. I was still overheated and it was time to head back to pick up Trysten. In my stair travels I noticed the basement door and saw a sign pointing to a hallway that lead to a nearby building. I recalled having used the basement hallway before with a friend who was going to a diabetic clinic. Hmmm....secret, air-conditioned tunnel. This could be fun!

I decided to go for it. It would be far more pleasant to walk underground to my destination that go back out in the beating sun.

Again I was pleasantly surprised. The hallway was clearly marked as a 400 meter journey for "Hall Walkers". The atmosphere was pleasant and definitely made to encourage exercisers in their journey.

When I emerged from the continuing care Malden Park building, I was just a short distance from where Trysten was waiting. Very convenient.

Kudos to Windsor Regional Western & the Malden Park facility for creating a fitness-friendly environment for their staff, volunteers and for happen-stance visitors. It was a terrific, unexpected adventure that I will repeat again.