One of the things I'm doing this year is more walking. I use Nike+ iPod to document my walks/runs. Last year I walked/ran a total of 239.17 miles. Here's my chart:
My goal this year is to double my total. I want to get in at least 480 miles for 2010. Now you may think that is pretty aggressive and a high number to attain, but it is not if you break it down (which, of course I've done). Here's how I see it:
- 480 miles equates to 40 miles per month, 10 miles per week, or 1.2 miles per day. Now, I know that I can't walk every day of the year, for various reasons, but when it is broken down as such, it is doable.
- I set a goal to complete 40 miles in 4 weeks on Nike+ during the month of January. As of yesterday, I'm 8 miles away from those 40 miles. Have I walked/ran each day? Not at all. I mean, we had a really extreme cold spell for about a week! So nothing happened on those days, but I'm almost there.
- When I looked at my chart for 2009, I noticed a dip during the summer months. Though I love the heat, it does get really hot and a person is drenched after a mile or two. To combat that dip, I've signed up for several 5Ks and 10Ks over the next few months. Since I'm training for those, my mileage should increase somewhat so that dip will not hurt me later on in the year.
- I also wear a pedometer just about every day. I aim to get in 10,000 steps each day, but I don't always make it. I park at the far end of any parking structure, I take the stairs, I purposely go the long way when doing a task at work, etc. I force myself to move.move.move.
- Public accountability is important. I post the number of steps I take at the end of each day on Facebook. Some days it is well over 10K, and others it may be less than 3,000. It varies, but I post it no matter what (and generally w/o comment). When I don't wear the pedometer (due to a dress that I really don't have anywhere to hook it to), I state that.
- I also have my Nike+ account broadcasting to Facebook and Twitter.
2 comments:
mom gave me a free pedometer but it'd now broken. :( (it was free!) I liked wearing it just because I pace so much when I teach I was curious about how many steps I took. Wearing one makes you realize how much/little you do, even if you think you're doing "a lot."
I like your updates, and I know I'm not the only one who finds it inspiring (especially the water, it reminds me to see how much water I've had). The chart is pretty cool! Keep it up!
I totally agree about the pedometer telling how little walking one does. I definitely do more walking M-Th when I work a full 8 hours. Since I work half-days on Fridays, my numbers drop off on that day and Sat/Sun offer really low numbers.
I've always wondered if people think I'm bragging about my exercise or water consumption, when I'm not. It's just public accountability for me. I now know that people don't think I'm bragging due to the number of persons that comment or e-mail privately about the inspiration they get from my postings. I'm hoping that inspiration leads to more movement by people though (for that's my goal!).
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