Day 3 - Elliptical (10.96 miles total)

Three days in a row! Yes!

When I woke up this morning, I still had the blisters from yesterday (which my friends Jen and Elli say means that I need different shoes, but I haven't had time to remedy that yet). So I coated the balls of my feet with anti-chafing balm, slapped bandaids over the blisters, and headed off to the gym with Mark.

We were a few minutes late leaving the house this morning, and I was a bit freaked out about my ability to get 2.74 miles done in the time we had. I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it. And I kept remembering how my shins ached from jogging yesterday. So I decided to try something different and use the elliptical machine instead of the treadmill.

I've never used the elliptical machine for any extended period of time before. It's a bit of a weird sensation to get used to because it really moves my legs in a bigger range of motion than I was used to on the treadmill. But there were 2 distinct advantages to using the elliptical.

The first is that, because my feet were always on the pedals, I didn't feel any rubbing against my blisters at all. Not a rub. Not a hot spot. NOTHING! It was very nice. And because I didn't have the impact of my feet hitting the floor, I didn't feel sharp pains in my shins either. So the lessened pain was a very nice advantage.

The second is that apparently I go twice as fast on an elliptical as I do on a treadmill. Seriously. Not sure how. Maybe the greater range of motion equates to travelling a longer distance. I blazed past 2.74 miles in about 23 minutes. That's half the time it takes me on the treadmill! So. . . call me crazy. . . but I decided to keep going. I really don't think I'm going to be able to make it to the gym tomorrow due to my schedule, so I figured I should at least TRY to make up for it today instead of just skipping a day of walking tomorrow.

The only negative from today (well, aside from sore hips, which I've come to expect at this point) was that I had to do math. Yes, math. Before 7am.

I'm not quite sure what buttons I hit when I started what I thought was the manual setting on the elliptical trainer, but after 4 miles the machine decided it was time for me to cool down, and it started counting down from a minute. I wasn't sure what was going to happen, but I figured I should keep an eye on my distance just in case. 4.02 . . . 4.04 . . . 4.05 and the screen went dark. So I just kept moving and hit the "quick start" button again. Sure enough, I had been knocked back to 0 distance. So I kept moving kept moving kept moving and tried to make my brain work: "ok... my original goal was 2.74... But I'm doubling that today... So my new goal is... 2.74 times 2... crap, what's 2.74 times 2?... 8. . . carry the one... 5.48... 5.48 is my final goal... minus 4.05... wait, what was the number again?... 5.48, that's right... 5.48 minus 4.05... that's 1.43... ok, so I have to go 1.43 more miles!" And by the time I figured it out, I was on my way to the finish line!

Day 3: 5.48 miles (10.96 miles total)

Day 2 - Blisters (5.48 miles total)

(photo from http://www.strongperformancesystems.com/)

I made it to day 2! Yes!

That's quite an accomplishment. When I got done with yesterday's walk I could feel some hot spots on my feet at the same points I usually get blisters. I silently cursed myself for not putting anti-chafing balm on my feet beforehand, and tried to stop the blisters by putting anti-blister bandaids on my feet. Of course, I only had 1 of those blister bandaids left, so it went on the left foot while a regular old bandaid went on the right foot. By the end of the day, I seemed to be in the clear.

This morning I wanted to start things off right. Unfortunately, I woke up at 4am and had problems falling back asleep. By the time my alarm went off at 5:50am I was exhausted, but had to make it through day 2. Determined to avoid blisters again, I applied some Friction Block to the balls of my feet before I went to the gym this morning.

One of the nice things about going to the gym at 6am is that you can actually find a place to park (which is tough if you know anything about the Cary St Gym). Once again I was on a tight schedule: trying to make it back from the gym before plumbers arrived at my house this morning. So I managed another walk/jog to make it out in an hour. My shins hurt. My hips hurt. And, you guessed it. . . blisters. Back to the bandaid drawer as soon as I got home. And some preemptive tylenol.

My goal was to make it through 2.74 miles every day for 1 week, but I'm already afraid that I may have set myself up for failure. I have an early work day on Thursday, and then a contractor coming to my house, so I'm afraid I won't be able to find an hour to get away to the gym that day. I'll be off to my job before the gym opens, so we'll have to see how the day plays out.

Day 2: 2.74 miles (5.48 total)

Day 1 - 2.74 miles

Monday, Aug 29, 2011

Noah said. . .


So, what if I walk instead of make?

The other day Noah posted about a guy who's running 3 miles a day for 365 days. I've never done anything like that. I'm not a runner. I'm barely a walker. But I thought to myself, "Geez, he'll have gone well over 1000 miles after a year!" And then I thought, "How many miles would you have to walk per day to reach 1000 miles?" So I grabbed my calculator, did the math, and came up with 2.7397.

I've walked 3 miles before, so I know I can do 2.74. At this point, I can't imagine walking this much every day for a year. I can't imaging myself doing ANYTHING every day for a year. So I'll start small. I will walk every day for 1 week.

I weigh more than I would like. According to official statistics, I'm about 70 pounds over my "ideal" weight. I haven't been in that "ideal weight" range since I was about 15. I don't know that I ever will, but I'd be really stoked if I could lose about 25lbs.

I went to the gym with Mark this morning. I used the treadmill and listened to WRIR on my smartphone. I had just under 1 hour to do it. So I started walking. And a few times I actually jogged for a few seconds (due to my innate desire to walk to the tempo of what I'm listening to). I was determined to get the entire distance in in the time I had, and I just made it.

2.74 miles. Day one.