Holy hamstrings!
I awoke this morning to hamstrings that were super tight and sore. Apparently yesterday’s leg workout was seriously legit. One hundred squats is no joke!
I wasn’t sure whether or not I’d even be able to run when Ryan and I got to the gym, so I began my time on the treadmill with some fast walking. Walking fast actually made my hamstrings feel worse, so I picked up my pace and started running. After about five minutes, they loosed up a bit and didn’t bother me much for the remainder of my five-mile run.
I made sure to spend a good 10 minutes stretching them out after my run which hurt so good.
And now I am walking like a duck.
Breakfast
Today’s breakfast was awesome.
I made myself a wafflewich by topping two toasted whole wheat waffles with muenster cheese and two fried eggs. Turkey bacon rounded out the meal.
I love using waffles as the bread of a sandwich. For some reason they make breakfast sandwiches much more fun.
Most Walkable Cities
The other day I stumbled upon an article about the most walkable cities in the Unites States.
The article defined “walkability” as the ability to walk to the grocery store, restaurants and other amenities like the post office.
The most walkable cities in America include:
- New York City
- San Francisco
- Boston
- Chicago
- Philadelphia
- Seattle
- Washington, D.C.
- Miami
- Minneapolis
- Oakland
You may search for your city’s walkability score on this website.
My former hometown of Orlando pulled in a score of 74 out of 100, earning it the title of “Very Walkable.”
When I typed in my current zip code, the location of our new home earned a score of zero, deeming it “Car Dependent.”
I definitely miss the conveniences of Orlando. It was so nice to live in such close proximity to everything I needed but Ocala has a lot more trees, greenery and the stars shine extra bright at night. That counts for something, right?
Question of the Morning
- What score did your hometown receive on the walkability scale?
- Do you think it’s important to live somewhere extremely walkable?
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If you define “walkability” by convenience…Ocala may not do well…but what about defining “walkability” by the QUALITY of the walk? For example, walking through lush greenery and looking up at brilliant stars sure beats looking at buildings! It may not be convenient to walk to PLACES, but walking for pleasure/exercise may be a different story. 🙂
i love that definition! we have 10x more trail walking opportunities in ocala which is wonderful! i’m really hoping to go hiking on sunday, actually!
See! You found the silver lining! 🙂 Trails beat out sidewalks any day of the week!!! Have fun hiking!
Hey Jules!
Your wafflewich looks DELICIOUS! That is such a clever idea for breakfast. Out of curiosity, what brand of waffles do you use? Funny fact: When I was little, one of my favorite foods was Ego waffles. However, I preferred them frozen and remember eating 1 frozen waffle and 1 microwaved one every morning for breakfast. I admit that I still like frozen foods–straight out of the freezer! :p
i use van’s waffles. i LOVE them. i also grew up on eggo waffles! 🙂
do you remember the mini waffles where there would be four waffles attached to each other?
i DEFINITELY ate those ones frozen. cinnamon-y and delicious!
I’m going to buy Van’s waffles next time I go to the store. Which specific kind did you buy?
Our neighborhood got an 83. I believe it — we walk and bike everywhere!
And yes, Dan and I have talked about how we don’t think we could ever live somewhere that wasn’t walkable/bikeable
Mine got a 92! Woohoo!
dang! that’s amazing!
I live in Hoboken – so it’s a square mile. Everything is so close and only 1/2 the people around here own a car.
OMG, I have been to Hoboken. One of my college friends lives there and I went up to NYC and stayed with her. I feel like it is a popular NJ city.
When my legs are sore, I find running actually less painful than walking- funny how that works! I definitely think walkability is important! It’s actually the main thing I miss about London after moving to Mumbai. Everything here is so vehicle-oriented because of the poor road infrastructure and crap (literally) on the ground However my gym is only like 8 minutes away so I make it a point to walk there and back in the mornings! Walking was always such a pleasure for me, I miss that freedom!
me too! i feel like i’m going to be running everywhere today or sitting. walking hurts!
Oh my gosh- the waffle sandwich looks delicious! I definitely need to try it.
Oviedo, 63/100…somewhat walkable….I’d say it is more like bikeable. 🙂
Based on where I live in my city now, it’s a 37; but the place I was living at (in the same city) was a 57! Ironically enough, though, the neighborhood with the higher score was actually where I walked less because it was quite a bit more shady and I didn’t always feel comfortable out walking.
I live in Boston, so #3! I love that everything is within walking distance and you don’t NEED a car. I love everything about Boston, but of course, I am biased!
My city (a suburb of Chicago) got a 23!! Car dependent. While we can’t walk to the grocery store or restaurants, we still love just to walk outside for the fun and fitness of it.
I would love to live somewhere where I could walk everywhere.
The first thing I loved about moving to VA Beach from South Jersey was that I could actually WALK places! There are sidewalks everywhere here and it’s an especially great city for runners. I love being able to go out for some drinks at night and walk home. It only earned a 41 on the scale but it’s also such a HUGE city with some parts that may not be as walkable as where I am. 🙂
OH my address got an 82! I knew it was better than a 41. 😀
My city got a 46, but the little neighborhood I’m in is super walkable. Within a mile there’s a grocery store, banks, laundromats, restaurants, bars, a post office, drug store, and a doctor.
And I think walkability is important if for no other reason than because it helps me sneak in a little extra exercise. I had to walk to two banks and Starbucks yesterday, which added about 30 minutes of extra movement to my day.
that article actually said that the people who lived in citites that ranked more walkable weighed, on average, 10 lbs. less than those who lived in cities that weren’t as walkable. makes sense!
My neighborhood is definitely not walkable- when I want to go running I always have to drive somewhere to do it. But in the end, we chose where we live for other reasons so they outweigh that convenience factor.
woohoo! #5 on the walkability scale! (although maybe they should have included an asterisk saying something like, “you might get shot walking around philly late at night…” HA! i would love to live somewhere that is plenty walkable, but doesn’t feel like a big city. does that make sense? somewhere with cool shops and restaurants and close proximity to things, but not filled with high rises and bustling city streets.
My walkability was like a 65 which I thought was surprising.. especially since it seems like nobody really walks anywhere around here. One issue I have is I live right on the border to another state so it was pulling up places on the other side of the river haha if I could walk on water that would be perfect!
Hi Julie. I’ve been reading a while but never commented. I l-o-v-e your blog, so positive and fun but also full of good tips. I recently moved too, and my husband and I have no friends here in Knoxville, TN yet either 🙁 It’s a 12 which I guess is better than a 0! (We moved from Miami; my neighborhood there was a 52 but maybe downtown is where is gets its Top 10 rating from???)
we can be internet friends! 😀
I’ve lived in four of the cities listed–NYC, Boston, Washington DC, and Miami.
I’m a total city girl which is probably why I end up in these places, lol. I agree with all of them especially NYC and Boston, but Miami?! You definitely need a car there. If the miles of walking doesn’t kill you, the heat surely would!
woah, totally meant to do a new comment, my bad!
Kendra, I’m from Knoxville! Let me know if you need suggestions for places to go and things to do! And healthy places to eat 🙂
Um yes please! How do we exchange contact info (I’m not blog savvy at all)?
Ummm I don’t know? I don’t mind giving you my email, but I don’t want to post it publicly!! Julie, can you help us?! 🙂
Elizabeth … I’m going to cut/paste this “conversation” and email it to Julie (since maybe she doesn’t have time to read every comment/detail here?) and maybe she can help. I’d be happy to share my email too, just not with the entire internet 🙂
I WISH I lived somewhere walkable. That is SUCH a luxery in my opinion. When Fabian and I moved into our new house, I about flipped out that there was a gas station in walking distance with a Blimpie and Godfather’s pizza. Of course, nothing else for miles.
I love that Boston is so walkable. I spent 4 years in NYC and now almost a year in Boston, I havent had a car in 5 years & its wonderful. I miss it on occasion but I love that I can get everywhere I need to go without it.
I live in Baltimore- my neighborhood got an 85! I can totally see that- I walk (or bike) everywhere. It’s the reason I wanted to live downtown. But I do sacrifice things like a yard and easy access to trails. Pros and cons to both lifestyles fo sho.
Pittsburgh got a 64.1 – the city itself is pretty walkable, but all of the areas leading in to it (since it sits between two rivers) aren’t too walker friendly.
I loved living in Baltimore city for this exact reason—I could walk almost everywhere (bars, restaurants, grocery store, gym, etc). I live out in the ‘burbs now, and it has it’s perks (easy parking, trees, etc.), but I do miss the convenience (and extra exercise!) that a walkable neighborhood gave me!
Yay! Love that Philly made it to #5 on that list!! 🙂
my city got an 83.. love it 🙂 I avoid using my car as much as possible!
My neighborhood in Milan has a score of 71, while Milan itself has a score of 85. Big cities will probably get high scores because everything is jam-packed, so I don’t think a high score is necessarily a good thing. Milan is one of the most polluted cities of the EU…I’d much rather live somewhere cleaner and greener!
i agree! walkability is great, but sometimes it comes at a cost (read: lack of greenery).
Where we live is not walkable for sure, maybe if you lived downtown, but very few people do. When I have visited San Fran and Seattle I am a little envious of this factor for sure! Also, our weather 70% of the year would not be enjoyable to walk in here!
I just moved from NYC to Columbus, OH. I work from home now so we decided not to get a 2nd car. While Columbus isn’t nearly as walkable as NYC, I can get around to most things with my feet or my bike. While I miss NYC like crazy, I now live in a 3 bedroom house that is less than my rent for a studio apartment in the city, and we live a block away from river running and biking trails. Oh, and the only sounds we hear at night are crickets as opposed to city busses and garbage trucks. That’s pretty nice too 🙂
this sounds so crazy—was it hard to get used to sleeping with no buses or trains or anything blaring? ive been lulled to sleep by city noises my entire life, i find street tranquility so unsettling.
I am an extremely light sleeper, so I used to sleep with earplugs in my last city apartment that was particularly loud. So I don’t miss that. But sometimes I find the silence eerie here…
honestly, the town where I grew up earned a big fat “2” on the scale. so, because that’s what I’ve always been used to, it doesn’t bother me so much that where I live now only gets a 22.
it’s all what you’re used to. 🙂
My city got 45 which I am not surprised about — the closest grocery store is 3 miles away, so not bad but that is not convenient for walking. I so wish we could walk more but it would take so long!
NUMBER 1 NUMBER 1 NUMBER 1!!! LOL. Yes, I walk just about everywhere and it’s awesome!!
I love walking places….but where I live now, not so much. But it IS green!!
I love waffles! wheeeee 🙂
I live in Chicago, which is definitely super walkable. I don’t even own a car. It’s nice to have my gym, coffee shops, restaurants, stores, dog parks, etc. all just a short walk away. I grew up in Iowa, though where you have to drive everywhere and gotta say I sometimes miss the openness!
Welp, since I grew up in the middle of nowhere, my walkability would have been a zero. It was at least five minute drive to the closest convenience store!
But I wish I still lived there. I lived on a lake and basically in a forest, so I agree with the first commenter who said that it is about the quality of the walk 🙂 there was nothing like it, and I miss it so much. And yes, my house had the BEST stars!!!
I didn’t think I’d be able to get my current walkability, since I live in Canada…but I just tried and it’s a 68! Not too shabby.
My current city’s score is 62, and my hometown (Edmonton) is apparently 100!! I wouldn’t have expected that though, because it’s so huge – but I suppose there are a lot of parks and trails. I think it is important to live in a walkable city… I wonder how these scores would compare to obesity/overweight and disease stats. Interesting!
I live in New York and I honestly don’t know how I could live in a city any less walkable. It seems such a hassle to me to have to take a car everywhere and anywhere. There’s so much freedom in being able to walk everywhere!
But I guess walkability is also part how much the people make the effort to get out and walk. You sure could live in New York and end up driving everywhere, it’s more the people than the place. 🙂
It’s weird that my neighborhood has a score of 58 because I walk everywhere! To restaurants, to the grocery store, to parks… downtown Orlando is only like 2-3 miles away from me and I’d consider that a long walk? Weird. My old neighborhood in New Orleans got a 94… that was a (hot hot) paradise 🙂
I live in Miami. I guess it’s walkable but I guess they didn’t factor in the unbearable heat 10 months of the year.
NYC is definitely walkable…but its SO large. To walk to stores in your neighborhood is so easy, driving a car is almost impossible. But without their ridiculously amazing subway system it would NOT be okay! Central Park alone is something like 8 square miles!
There is something to be said to having access to a car – especially for thins like grocery shopping, moving and getting out of the city on the weekends!
Philly–#5!!! My address pulled a 92. When I lived in Delaware, I couldn’t walk anywhere convenient (although we had some nice parks & areas you could walk for exercise/pleasure).
I love that in Philly you have the opportunity to walk to run errands/do entertaining things AND you’re never far from a park or a walk on the river!
Public transportation, yes please! I’m a city girl through and through!
Yay Boston!! I love walking around the city. If I can, I walk instead of taking the T (although sometimes that results in horrible blisters because, let’s face it, walking in wedge sandals isn’t always the best idea).
I actually live outside of Boston…both my hometown and current town scored a 54. I can see that. There’s a grocery store, a gym, and a couple of restaurants/bars within walking distance of my condo, but I don’t walk all that often.
I have to question the accuracy of that test- it said Worcester,MA (the city I just moved to for a joB) is a 98?! People can’t walk anywhere- it’s an industrial city, and there are virtually no sidewalks! Weird.
very bizarre! did you type in your exact zip code?
when I plugged in my exact address, it went down to a 34. Makes more sense- haha 🙂
I loved walking around in NYC! No wonder its no 1 🙂
It’s VERY walkable where I live now…of course, it’s Europe , so that’s expected. But coming from a place where you had to drive everywhere (WNY), it’s refreshing! (Although I might not be saying that in the winter, haha)
I’ve seen this walkability score before. If I remember correctly where I live got like a 14 or something. Suburbs = plenty of trees, farms, rivers and natural beauty but, no convenience 🙁
I definitely appreciate Orlando’s walkability – last night I hooved the three whole blocks from my place to Ethos to grab pizza for dinner 🙂
I’ve lived in four of the cities listed–NYC, Boston, Washington DC, and Miami.
I’m a total city girl which is probably why I end up in these places, lol. I agree with all of them especially NYC and Boston, but Miami?! You definitely need a car there. If the miles of walking doesn’t kill you, the heat surely would!
I’m a 43, and totally car-dependent. Luckily, I think it’s less about distance and more about safety because most the places I need to get to are within 5-10 minutes of where I live! That being said, there are MANY places in Durham, NC that I wouldn’t wanna walk around in, so it works out kinda nicely.
Walking is a great way to see a city! Yay for minneapolis making the list!
Ha where I live scored 65. Yeah that’s only somewhat walkable. There is so many major roads and what not I’d deem it car dependent for sure. That’s a really nifty website though!
Yay my address got a 97: walker’s paradise! I don’t live in a big city at all, but it’s the biggest city in my state. I love how walkable the city is. I can walk 5-10 minutes to get to campus or downtown.
I live in Hoboken, NJ – a walker’s paradise!
I have to agree with the 92 rating. Most residents don’t own cars and those that do typically use them to get to work outside of Hoboken. You would rarely drive from one part of the city to another because parking is a nightmare. The quality is there too – there’s a long stretch of path which runs along the waterfront with the prettiest views of NYC.