Regretting the Expenditure

Because gadgets that make me feel like a slacker suck.

I bought a Pedometer just after Christmas. Despite the fact that I have a really snazzy GarminForerunner 301 which works just fine (except for the download/online stuff, which I've never managed to be able to access), I wanted to see exactly how many steps I was taking each day--to see how close I was to the magical 10,000 steps mark.

Not. Very. Close.

I wore the pedometer every day last week, from the time I got up in the morning to the time I went to bed. I wanted the full day's worth of steps. Admittedly, there are limits to what the pedometer can measure--it only starts counting after like 4 consecutive seconds of walking, and erratic steps or moving too quickly or too slowly sometimes means it won't register your movements. Still. I figured I was in a pretty good position for 10-15k steps a day. Right?

Like most people, I grossly overestimated the number of steps I take on any given day. On days when I started out by walking 3-3.5 miles with the dogs, I came in only around 8-9k. Still short of the mark. On days that I didn't walk the dogs (I know, I know, for shame...), I came in around 3k. Miserable machine!

My one triumph was Wednesday, when I both walked the dogs in the morning (3.69miles), and went for a hike that evening (3.5 miles). Steps that day: 17,890! But let's be honest, the odds of me doing anything remotely like that on a regular basis are slim to none. I've taken to walking in place in the kitchen while making dinner, but I think it only serves to make me look ridiculous; I'm not sure the pedometer even "sees" those steps. le sigh.

Anyway, here's the breakdown for the week:

Day / Miles / Steps
Sunday / 8.57-bike / no ped yet
Monday / 3.02-walk / 9485
Tuesday / 0.00 / 3117
Wednesday / 7.19-walk / 17,890
Thursday / 0.0 / 3445
Friday / 3.47-walk / 8562
Saturday / 0.0 / forgot to wear the ped
TOTALS: 22.25 miles / 42,499 steps

I have no idea where that puts me for the month, because I forgot to look at my old post and I've been too lazy to write it down in my planner, where it really should go. It would save me a lot of time at the end/beginning of the week when I'm doing these recaps. There is a lot of button pushing and scrolling through workouts to get to the numbers. So perhaps I'll get on that.

The 'rents are coming in on Wednesday for a week's visit, weather allowing. Supposedly some big ice storm is set to hit their neck of the woods, just in time to make driving 2 hours to the airport a real fiasco. Here's hoping the weatherman is wrong this time too. All this is to say that, assuming my folks make their flight, chances are high that I *won't* be posting much this week.

That's funny. It implies that in other circumstances I might post 5 times a day or some such. lol.

You get my meaning. So that promised excursion to the summer of '08 will likely wait a little longer. But here are a couple photos from a hiking trip I took way back then (to Woods Canyon Lake), just to keep you interested:
It was so amazingly beautiful up there. Green. And green. With wind and water and vegetation that was green. /sigh

Giddy

I am thankful that I have a job that allowed me to watch streaming video of Today's Events. I was able to successfully complete my assigned tasks, but I will admit that there were a lot of breaks taken to oogle the massive display of hope and excitement and pride playing out on my computer screen.

I was stunned at the numbers of people who showed up for the event, and even more blown away by the amount of preparation that went into providing for them--the miles of chairs, 20 or so giant screens(I'm totally guessing here) that allowed the folks over a half mile away to see what was happening at the podium, the warming stations, the blankets that were handed out, the security, the transporation...it was mind blowing.

I was awed by the enormity of the occasion itself. The formality of it all really made me proud. We, as Americans, don't have a lot of real "culture" to call our own--it's all a mishmash of the immigrant communities that make us These United States--but oh, the ceremony of the day! The motorcades and the banners and flags, the military personnel stationed at every gateway and portal. . . And the millions of people clamoring for the tiniest view of the new president--the joy and hope on the faces as the cameras panned the crowd... It really felt like America.

I am not naive enough to think that things are going to change overnight. I am, however, giddy with the thought that we have finally come together as a country and spoken out about some changes that we'd *like* to see--that we *need* to see. I believe that we have chosen the administration to bring about some of those changes. It's not going to be painless, and in fact it's probably going to get worse before it gets better, but I believe that it will happen.

Yes, It Can.

A note on mileages

So I slacked off a bit last week, and I'm going to call it the fault of my allergies, which started kicking my BUTT on Sunday. I simply could not drag my sorry self out of bed early enough to get any exercise in for the next three days.

However, I did really well the previous week, and I've gotten this week off to a good start, so I'm not calling my Resolution a bust.

Here's what I have so far:
Week ending / Miles:
Jan 3 / 8.29(w)
Jan 10 / 6.71(w) 20.13(b)
Jan 17 / 8.63
Jan 24 / 8.57(b)

TOTAL: 52.33

Which means I've averaged 2.9 miles a day--barely over my goal, but beating it nonetheless. I'm feeling manky again today after my ride this morning, but I've managed to get some allergy meds down my gullet, so hopefully I'll get some decent sleep and be up and at 'em in the morning.

Oh, and the pedometer I ordered after Christmas has finally come in, so I'm going to play with that this week and see if I even get close to the magical 10,000 step mark.

Later this week: More on the joys of Wii Fit and my sundry hikes during my Summer of Freedom and Gloom 08. Woo.

I'd better get this done. . .

Before another day goes by and I'm a full week without posting. Oh. The Horror.

So yeah, in real life, I rode my bike Saturday morning. TWENTY MILES. /flex

To be honest, I was not planning this. If someone had said to me before hand "we're going to ride about 2o miles today", I would have laughed nervously and suddenly remembered that I had a broken leg, or that I had to give birth later in the day and couldn't possibly work a ride that long into my schedule. As it was, we intended to ride about 10-12 miles....and just kept going.

It was a ride I joined via Meetup.com, so I didn't know the people (turned out a couple people bailed so it was just me and one other gal) I was riding with, and I was barely familiar with where we'd be riding (along the canals in Scottsdale, which was an enabler to the length of the ride--they are very fast and easy riding). As it turned out, though, the ride leader and I got along just fine, and ended up riding well past where we thought we'd end up. We also stopped at a groovy little farmers' market along the way and sampled some of Sam The Chocolate Guy's goods (mayan chocolate--yum!).

Unfortunately, I presumed that since I had ridden 20 miles that morning on my bike, I could eat anything I wanted in whatever quantity I deemed desireable. This turned out to be not such a good idea, as by Sunday morning I had not only gained back any previously lost poundage (truth be known, I'm chalking it up to muscle gain!! that's my story, and I'm stickin to it!), but also felt quite sick.

I really need to start jumping on the Wii Fit every morning again. There is nothing like a sweet little electronic voice "tsk tsking" at you to shore up your willpower against naughty things like cookies and sweet sweet coffee drinks.

At this point, though, I've gained back nearly all the weight I lost last summer, and I am loathe to climb aboard and watch the graph line shoot through the top of the telly. And I really don't think I can bear to hear the disappointment in my Wii trainer's voice. So the plan is to lose a bit more on my own before I go back to the balance board. I might just have to suck it up though, because if last Saturday was any indication, I'm pretty full of fail on the whole "do it yourself" mode of fitness.

Besides, I better get serious if I'm going to spend 6 months on an Australian island. (hahaha, I know the link is broken--I don't think they really anticipated the response. Fairly naive, I feel, if you're advertising to pay someone $100k to spend 6 months vacationing and blogging about their experiences.)

Link-o-Licious!
<3

Hump Day!

Whenever I hear that phrase, I actually envision the week as a giant surly camel, with Wednesday teetering precariously on its hump (it's always a dromedary, because Wednesday is so big that it would simply sit across the humps of a bactrian camel. . . the single hump is key). True story.

Not only is it Wednesday, but it's also the 7th of January. Date-wise, we're a week into the New Year. Here are my totals so far:

8.34 miles last week
6.85 miles so far this week

Which makes for a grand total of 15.19 miles over the course of 7 days. Just over 2 miles a day; it appears that I'm barely ekeing by! Thing is, I've been doing a fair amount of non-linear exercising as well--I just don't know how to translate that into mileage.

Anyway.

Quickly, very quickly, as my computer cutoff for the evening is about to strike, let me jump back a month or so ago when I was telling stories of a trip to the Midwest.

You'll recall that I first hit the Casa De Parentals, and then zoomed up to KC to visit My Best Friend in the Whole World Even England. I was supposed to have left for home after visiting with her and her family for a few days, but I was compelled to go back and spend some more time in the boonies with no cable and intermittent DSL. So I called Southwest and switched my flight to a week later (hey, I was unemployed--what I lacked in money I more than made up for in Free Time), and back to the 'rents' I went.

I knitted some more, probably worked in the yard some more, surely played a lot of solitaire on the computer because there is only so much network television I can take (Honestly, I don't know how they do it. I'm SO showing them the glory of Hulu when they come visit!). It was a lovely lovely time, but eventually I had to come back to the reality of unemployment in Phoenix.

Fortunately, I had in my pocket a gift--or rather the promise of a gift. A gift that would distract me, entertain me, and enable me to get some exercise during the Months in Which I Do Not Leave The House. I had in my pocket a Wii Fit (well not *really*...more like a gift card...a LOT like a check in my name so that I could pick it up when I got back to Phoenix. Happy Birthday!).

Arbitrary Restart

I'm a bit dubious of New Year's Resolutions. It's a great tradition and all, but it seems a bit callow to make a bunch of 180 degree turns in your personality and mannerisms just because of specific date on a calendar.

That said, I always make a couple. I guess I'm hopeful that some strange twist of fate or alignment of the stars will actually enable me to make things stick this time around--to help me make the changes that I'm apparently incapable of making on my own at any point in the year.

I like to leave my New Year's Resolutions kind of loose, so if I fail, it will be harder to pin it down as an absolute miss of the mark. I don't like to Resolve to lose 15 lbs. I prefer to say that I'll get in better shape. Nor will I say "I will no longer eat candy and consistently od on sugars." Rather, I say "I'll eat more healthfully."

This year I abandoned that tack, for the most part. I have made the obligatory promises to treat my body better--to exercise more and eat more veggies and whatnot--I would feel that I was letting down the Gods of Tradition if I left those out. But I have also made the following, quantitative, resolutions:

I will log, whether on foot or on bike (or swimming if it comes up), 60 miles a month. Sounds like a lot, but it's a paltry amount, really--and sadly more than I've managed to accumulate in recent memory. And I'm not talking about the distant that might be racked up in my numerous trips to see if anything nommable has suddenly appeared in the fridge. I'm talking about purposeful travel. Walking the dogs, hiking, going for a bike ride. Actual exercise.

I also originally thought that I might resolve to write three times a week here. But that seems, really, to be setting myself (and you?) up for disappointment. Once a week seems a better goal, given my propensity for getting wildly distracted and then overwhelmed with my own thoughts to the point of speechlessness.

Yes. Two *real* resolutions. I think it's about all I can handle. And so far I've done fairly well with them. I've logged 11.5 miles this year so far (so I can sit on my butt for a couple now??), and have written twice in three days.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go play on the computer for the next 35 minutes so I can shut it down by 8pm. (It's another unspoken goal I've given myself, but I'm pretty sure it won't last, so I'm not going to mention it now.) Getting a full night of sleep has proven quite satisfying to me for the past couple nights, although I'm not sure what the dogs or the man make of me waking up before 6am on my own.

Today

Today is the first day of the rest of this year. Profundity at its best, ladies and gents.

I had big plans for a big blowout of a post, to bring attention to the fact that I have resolved--yet again--to do better at this. To write more. To post more photos.

But the fact of the matter is, after a beautiful hike this morning at Pinnacle Peak Park:
I am pooped and have a whopping headache to boot. (yes, that's a house nestled at the foot of that mountain that I just hiked over. must suck for those people to have to live out here in the middle of a beautiful nature area, with all those trails out their back door. I feel sorry for them.)

So. Welcome to 2009. Welcome to my blog. When I shake this headache and get some rest, I'll be back!