Run the Year . . .
Like I said a few days ago, it's all about me this year.
To that end, I've found an app that is similar to a former version of a popular points counting program, and I'm using my old points calculator and my old program materials to get my food going in a way that is sustainable for me over the long-haul.
I'm avoiding added sugar again in a very big way - I'm too young to have constant joint pain.
And I found a program called Run the Year: 2017 in 2017. You didn't have to run, you could walk! In theory, it sounded amazing, and I was going to sign right up. And then I did the math . . . 2017 rolls out to about 5.5 miles DAILY. For the entire year. I'm not a runner so I realized pretty quickly that not only is it not realistic for me to think I could do that, it's not reasonable. And it's probably dangerous. For sure I would get injured somehow, and that's not in the plan for 2017. I'm choosing to remain injury-free this year :-)
5.5 miles daily equates - for me - to approximately 16,000 steps. DAILY. Since I've been working on getting 10,000 most weekdays I thought I might be OK because you know they say 10,000 steps is about 5 miles . . . Except not for me. 10,000 steps for me is about 3.5 miles. Still I was hopeful (if crazed ;-D) and then, a couple of days before Christmas, I had a 13,000+ step day and it about wiped me out. I knew right then that 16,000 steps/day was not going to happen - at least not this year. You could join the Run the Year program as a team of up to four people, but no one I know was particularly interested in participating - and so I let it go.
My trainer is helping me with my strength training - I still meet with him once a week at the club, and he's created a program for me with a list of strength work so I can do another workout during the week, and a core workout at home. Based on what we do at our normal workout on Thursdays, he chooses what other exercises I need to accomplish before I see him again the next week. It means one more day in the gym at the club, and also some core and leg work at home. Every week. This is great and I'm really excited about it.
I had an extra session with him on December 31st so we could finish going over all the exercises on the sheet and could figure out which ones I could do on my own, which ones I needed his help with, and which wouldn't work at all because of my torn meniscus. Then, while we were walking on the track, I mentioned the Run the Year 2017 in 2017 program to him and how I thought it would be cool, but that I knew I couldn't do it myself and no one else wanted to do it. With no hesitation, he looked me right in the eye and said, "I'll do it with you."
==:-O
We decided to do it on our own rather than signing up for it on the official site. We are splitting the miles, and since we are customizing it to fit us, we decided that ALL cardio should count - not just running and walking. So for me, that's walking, biking, and swimming. He could easily make the 2017 on his own - he's a runner - but we're splitting it. That means that I'm responsible for 1,008.5 miles on my own this year. That breaks out to 2.76 miles/a day. I rounded it up to be safe, and am shooting for 3 miles a day for the rest of the year.
The first week or so has been a bit of a wakeup call. Yes, I often get in about 3 miles a day in my general walking around and getting to/from work, but I don't get it every day, and on weekends I generally don't get that many steps in on either day. Plus, I need one rest day a week where I don't do much of anything (remember, I'm staying injury-free this year :-) ). I made my goals last week and I used my recumbent bike to get some additional miles in on Friday so I could have Saturday off as my rest day. Biking is faster than walking, but it still takes me about five minutes to peddle a mile, so it's a minimum of 20 minutes or so to get at least four miles in. My tailbone doesn't last much longer than that on the bike (at least not right now).
I'm trying to bank some miles in advance for those days where things conspire against me, or I get sick, or any number of other reasons why I might not get my mileage in. But I'm very cognizant of it because if I miss a day, then all of a sudden it's not 3 miles - it's 6, and that's tough on my mind to catch back up. 3 miles/day seems completely doable in my mind. 6, not so much.
There's a new page on the blog called 2017 Run the Year. I'm going to chronicle there if you'd like to follow along. I have a mile ticker there (it wouldn't fit in the sidebar and still be legible :-D).
Updates will be on Thursdays :-)
To that end, I've found an app that is similar to a former version of a popular points counting program, and I'm using my old points calculator and my old program materials to get my food going in a way that is sustainable for me over the long-haul.
I'm avoiding added sugar again in a very big way - I'm too young to have constant joint pain.
And I found a program called Run the Year: 2017 in 2017. You didn't have to run, you could walk! In theory, it sounded amazing, and I was going to sign right up. And then I did the math . . . 2017 rolls out to about 5.5 miles DAILY. For the entire year. I'm not a runner so I realized pretty quickly that not only is it not realistic for me to think I could do that, it's not reasonable. And it's probably dangerous. For sure I would get injured somehow, and that's not in the plan for 2017. I'm choosing to remain injury-free this year :-)
5.5 miles daily equates - for me - to approximately 16,000 steps. DAILY. Since I've been working on getting 10,000 most weekdays I thought I might be OK because you know they say 10,000 steps is about 5 miles . . . Except not for me. 10,000 steps for me is about 3.5 miles. Still I was hopeful (if crazed ;-D) and then, a couple of days before Christmas, I had a 13,000+ step day and it about wiped me out. I knew right then that 16,000 steps/day was not going to happen - at least not this year. You could join the Run the Year program as a team of up to four people, but no one I know was particularly interested in participating - and so I let it go.
My trainer is helping me with my strength training - I still meet with him once a week at the club, and he's created a program for me with a list of strength work so I can do another workout during the week, and a core workout at home. Based on what we do at our normal workout on Thursdays, he chooses what other exercises I need to accomplish before I see him again the next week. It means one more day in the gym at the club, and also some core and leg work at home. Every week. This is great and I'm really excited about it.
I had an extra session with him on December 31st so we could finish going over all the exercises on the sheet and could figure out which ones I could do on my own, which ones I needed his help with, and which wouldn't work at all because of my torn meniscus. Then, while we were walking on the track, I mentioned the Run the Year 2017 in 2017 program to him and how I thought it would be cool, but that I knew I couldn't do it myself and no one else wanted to do it. With no hesitation, he looked me right in the eye and said, "I'll do it with you."
==:-O
We decided to do it on our own rather than signing up for it on the official site. We are splitting the miles, and since we are customizing it to fit us, we decided that ALL cardio should count - not just running and walking. So for me, that's walking, biking, and swimming. He could easily make the 2017 on his own - he's a runner - but we're splitting it. That means that I'm responsible for 1,008.5 miles on my own this year. That breaks out to 2.76 miles/a day. I rounded it up to be safe, and am shooting for 3 miles a day for the rest of the year.
The first week or so has been a bit of a wakeup call. Yes, I often get in about 3 miles a day in my general walking around and getting to/from work, but I don't get it every day, and on weekends I generally don't get that many steps in on either day. Plus, I need one rest day a week where I don't do much of anything (remember, I'm staying injury-free this year :-) ). I made my goals last week and I used my recumbent bike to get some additional miles in on Friday so I could have Saturday off as my rest day. Biking is faster than walking, but it still takes me about five minutes to peddle a mile, so it's a minimum of 20 minutes or so to get at least four miles in. My tailbone doesn't last much longer than that on the bike (at least not right now).
I'm trying to bank some miles in advance for those days where things conspire against me, or I get sick, or any number of other reasons why I might not get my mileage in. But I'm very cognizant of it because if I miss a day, then all of a sudden it's not 3 miles - it's 6, and that's tough on my mind to catch back up. 3 miles/day seems completely doable in my mind. 6, not so much.
There's a new page on the blog called 2017 Run the Year. I'm going to chronicle there if you'd like to follow along. I have a mile ticker there (it wouldn't fit in the sidebar and still be legible :-D).
Updates will be on Thursdays :-)
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