Some days you just know you're not going to be able to get much exercise in. Joy and I drove down to Athens, Georgia to attend her sister Esther's high school graduation. With the long drive looming in front of us, we both woke up early and cut our runs a little short to get on the road.
We had driven to my Dad's house outside of Charlottesville on Thursday night to make the drive a little shorter. In exchange for the free housing, I was charged with cutting the grass. So, after my hilly 8 mile run, I pushed the mower around for a while and racked up basically all of the steps that I would earn for the day.
I did get to add a little excitement into the morning before we headed off. The storms overnight had caused a bit of water to pool in my Dad's boat cover. I decided to be a nice son and empty it out. To do so I had to jump in the lake and that's when the fun started. In I went - PEDOMETER AND ALL! Whoops. Lucky for me, my trusty pedometer still worked when I got out. Or maybe it didn't...my step total for the day was nothing to brag about. But, sometimes you just have those days where other things take priority over getting in your exercise. I make sure not to make those days the norm.
5/28/2010 | Daily Step Total = 16255
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Hot Steppin'
We got a taste of summer the past two days. And boy do I love summer, but heat and humidity can make exercising outside difficult. It's harder to breathe in the thick air and you can get dehydrated very quickly. At least this time it was just a taste...
On Wednesday I woke up nice and early to meet Deborah at the AU track for a workout. She joined the Couch to 5k program at AU this past semester and has since fallen in love with running. I helped time her workout and got in a few steps for myself jogging across the track to give her splits. She's getting faster each week - a truly awesome progression to observe. One of the things that I love so much about running is that somebody like Deborah can go from not being a runner to running 3 to 4 miles at a time in as little as 8 or 9 weeks.
Running is an inexpensive form of exercise that presents you with the freedom to explore. DC has tons of places to see by foot - the mall, rock creek park, the canal toe path...I could go on and on. I encourage you to walk - or run - to a new site over the long weekend.
After Deborah's workout I hit the trails myself. I ran 11 miles down to Roosevelt Island (another great place to explore) and then back up to AU. I finished up my run by jogging a mile barefoot on the AU soccer field. The rest of the day was spent in the office, but I was able to get up from my desk to visit the Farmers' Market and the Weight Watchers at Work meeting on campus. Both trips added to my total for the day. In all, I was happy with the amount of time I spent on my feet on Wednesday.
5/26/2010 | Daily Step Total = 25151
Thursday was another hot one. A REALLY hot one. Even at 7:00 for my morning run it was close to 80 degrees out. I ran 5 miles at home and then headed up to the office making sure to keep my water bottle close by all morning. After a day at work spent in front of the computer, I headed down to the track for my own workout.
I'm a distance runner but a lot of my teammates are middle distance runners. This means that they run shorter and faster than I do. There are other distance runners on the Pacers team, but some of them have been taking a little down time. That leaves me to workout alone sometimes and Thursday was one of those days. Coach let me toy with a "speed" workout - something usually left to the middle distance runners and sprinters. I ran 2x200m (my times were 31 sec. and 29 sec.) and then 3x600m (coming through my 400m splits were 63.0, 64.7, 63.8). I felt great to be running FAST in the heat. I finished up my workout with a 5 mile run through the trails where it was nice and cool. A smokin' hot day turned into a smokin' fast day on the track and I loved it.
What did you do to get in your steps on these two HOT HOT HOT days?
5/27/2010 | Daily Step Total = 29929
On Wednesday I woke up nice and early to meet Deborah at the AU track for a workout. She joined the Couch to 5k program at AU this past semester and has since fallen in love with running. I helped time her workout and got in a few steps for myself jogging across the track to give her splits. She's getting faster each week - a truly awesome progression to observe. One of the things that I love so much about running is that somebody like Deborah can go from not being a runner to running 3 to 4 miles at a time in as little as 8 or 9 weeks.
Running is an inexpensive form of exercise that presents you with the freedom to explore. DC has tons of places to see by foot - the mall, rock creek park, the canal toe path...I could go on and on. I encourage you to walk - or run - to a new site over the long weekend.
After Deborah's workout I hit the trails myself. I ran 11 miles down to Roosevelt Island (another great place to explore) and then back up to AU. I finished up my run by jogging a mile barefoot on the AU soccer field. The rest of the day was spent in the office, but I was able to get up from my desk to visit the Farmers' Market and the Weight Watchers at Work meeting on campus. Both trips added to my total for the day. In all, I was happy with the amount of time I spent on my feet on Wednesday.
5/26/2010 | Daily Step Total = 25151
Thursday was another hot one. A REALLY hot one. Even at 7:00 for my morning run it was close to 80 degrees out. I ran 5 miles at home and then headed up to the office making sure to keep my water bottle close by all morning. After a day at work spent in front of the computer, I headed down to the track for my own workout.
I'm a distance runner but a lot of my teammates are middle distance runners. This means that they run shorter and faster than I do. There are other distance runners on the Pacers team, but some of them have been taking a little down time. That leaves me to workout alone sometimes and Thursday was one of those days. Coach let me toy with a "speed" workout - something usually left to the middle distance runners and sprinters. I ran 2x200m (my times were 31 sec. and 29 sec.) and then 3x600m (coming through my 400m splits were 63.0, 64.7, 63.8). I felt great to be running FAST in the heat. I finished up my workout with a 5 mile run through the trails where it was nice and cool. A smokin' hot day turned into a smokin' fast day on the track and I loved it.
What did you do to get in your steps on these two HOT HOT HOT days?
5/27/2010 | Daily Step Total = 29929
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Big Tuesday
Tuesday is workout day. I like workout days. Compare that to Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays which are recovery days. I like recovery days too. Mind you, recovery days simply mean that I don't run as hard or as far as I do on workout days. Which brings me back to Tuesday.
Today I woke up early and went for a 5 mile run with my friend Eric. Eric is a triathlete. Biking is his strongest discipline - running is not. I like running with him because it forces me to slow down my pace a little and run more relaxed. Everybody gets tight and a little stressed when they do something over and over again - think job, driving, lifting weights, etc. The same thing happens to runners. Sometimes we can all use a reminder from a friend to take things easy and relax a little. That's what my weekly Tuesday morning runs with Eric are so great. Plus, having an exercise buddy is always a plus.
Tuesday was our last Health Screening event. I don't know where I'm going to get the number of steps that I did each day during these events. I had to walk between my office and the car and the screening event and my car and the office waaaaaaaay too many times. It sure did look good on the pedometer though.
In the afternoon it was time for my workout. I met up with a few of the guys from the team that I race for, the Pacers Racing Team (we're sponsored by Pacers Running Stores) at the AU track with our coach Matt Centrowitz (also the AU track and cross country coach). Since it was so hot Coach let us have a little bit of an easier than normal workout. We ran 8 400 meter repeats, with a 400 meter jog in between each interval. The average pace for our hard 400s was 66 seconds. A 400 is exactly 1 lap around the track. How fast do you think you can run one?
All of that running wore me out, but helped me tally a great step total for the day.
5/25/2010 | Daily Step Total = 33612
Today I woke up early and went for a 5 mile run with my friend Eric. Eric is a triathlete. Biking is his strongest discipline - running is not. I like running with him because it forces me to slow down my pace a little and run more relaxed. Everybody gets tight and a little stressed when they do something over and over again - think job, driving, lifting weights, etc. The same thing happens to runners. Sometimes we can all use a reminder from a friend to take things easy and relax a little. That's what my weekly Tuesday morning runs with Eric are so great. Plus, having an exercise buddy is always a plus.
Tuesday was our last Health Screening event. I don't know where I'm going to get the number of steps that I did each day during these events. I had to walk between my office and the car and the screening event and my car and the office waaaaaaaay too many times. It sure did look good on the pedometer though.
In the afternoon it was time for my workout. I met up with a few of the guys from the team that I race for, the Pacers Racing Team (we're sponsored by Pacers Running Stores) at the AU track with our coach Matt Centrowitz (also the AU track and cross country coach). Since it was so hot Coach let us have a little bit of an easier than normal workout. We ran 8 400 meter repeats, with a 400 meter jog in between each interval. The average pace for our hard 400s was 66 seconds. A 400 is exactly 1 lap around the track. How fast do you think you can run one?
All of that running wore me out, but helped me tally a great step total for the day.
5/25/2010 | Daily Step Total = 33612
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Already falling behind
Aaack. Well I was all fired up to record everything that I do on this blog and then the weekend happened. That's not to say that I wasn't stepping up a storm over the weekend, I just wasn't recording all of my endeavors for you. So, here's the brief recap of my Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday...
Friday
I woke up and ran an easy 10 miles. My plan was to not get too tired because I'd be running a 5k race on Saturday morning. After my run I really had a pretty low key day. Most of my time at work on campus I was sitting at my desk so I didn't tally up too many steps. I did go on a walk in the evening with my wife, Joy, but besides that Friday was a lazy day for me.
5/21/2010 | Daily Step Total = 18258
Saturday
Well, Saturday morning set me up for what I thought was going to be a huge stepping weekend for me. In reality, all of my running in the morning wore me out for the rest of the weekend resulting in some lower than expected step totals. Saturday morning was beautiful. I woke up early and drove to Reston to race in the We've Got Your Back 5k. I warmed up with an easy three miles before the start. I ended up running a pretty decent race finishing 3rd overall in 15:27. I went out with the leaders and hung on as long as I could. It was so awesome to be running fast on such a great morning. Joy ran all the way to Reston from our house in Falls Church to watch me race. So, after the race I decided to match her effort and run home. I had jogged 2 miles immediately following the race with one of my old running buddies from high school. After the award ceremony I ran the 9.75 miles home from Reston to Falls Church on the W&OD trail. My morning mileage total was nearly 18 miles - a great morning if I haven't said so before.
After the race, Joy went to a baby shower, so I was a lazy bum and sat around watching TV all afternoon. In the evening we watched a movie and went to a local burger joint for dinner. It's safe to say that 90% of my steps from Saturday came before 11am.
5/22/2010 | Daily Step Total = 27044
Sunday
Sunday morning Joy and I slept in. We got up and went to church and then went to the grocery store. Both of these activities require more walking than one would think. Joy and I attend McLean Bible Church - walking through that mega building definitely adds to your step total. We also like to go through every single aisle in the grocery store. Sure it's Trader Joe's, but that's still a lot of steps (I backtrack a lot too...oops).
As some of you know I'm a graduate student at AU, working towards my MS in Health Promotion Management. Summer classes mean a lot of work in a little bit of time and also mean that most Sunday afternoons are spent in front of the computer doing research or writing papers. This Sunday was no different, but I was able to escape to the Providence Rec Center in Falls Church to do a little cross training on the stationary bike. I rode for 60 minutes at a pretty hard clip - I think the woman next to me was a little frightened by how sweaty I got. She didn't stay on the bike for too long...
5/23/2010 | Daily Step Total = 16750
Monday
(longest blog post ever!!! Sorry)
This week we finish up with our Know Your Numbers Health Assessment and Screening Events. That means only a few more days of waking up super early to get in my run and make it to work on time to set up for the events. Today I was up at 5:30 and out the door by 6:00 for a 10 mile run. My legs were surprisingly still tired from all of the weekend exercise so I considered cutting my run off early more than once. In the end I trekked through 10 miles in about 69 minutes and then scooted through the house to get to campus.
Our screening events require a lot of packing, hiking across campus, and then unpacking. All activities that look good on the pedometer! In the evening I finished up that pesky paper from Sunday evening, ate dinner with Joy, and then we went on a 20 minute walk because it looked so beautiful outside. Also, I wanted to check on the garden so I had to make up an excuse for us to go outside.
5/24/2010 | Daily Step Total = 22261
THE END - That teaches me to wait 5 days between blog posts!
Friday
I woke up and ran an easy 10 miles. My plan was to not get too tired because I'd be running a 5k race on Saturday morning. After my run I really had a pretty low key day. Most of my time at work on campus I was sitting at my desk so I didn't tally up too many steps. I did go on a walk in the evening with my wife, Joy, but besides that Friday was a lazy day for me.
5/21/2010 | Daily Step Total = 18258
Saturday
Well, Saturday morning set me up for what I thought was going to be a huge stepping weekend for me. In reality, all of my running in the morning wore me out for the rest of the weekend resulting in some lower than expected step totals. Saturday morning was beautiful. I woke up early and drove to Reston to race in the We've Got Your Back 5k. I warmed up with an easy three miles before the start. I ended up running a pretty decent race finishing 3rd overall in 15:27. I went out with the leaders and hung on as long as I could. It was so awesome to be running fast on such a great morning. Joy ran all the way to Reston from our house in Falls Church to watch me race. So, after the race I decided to match her effort and run home. I had jogged 2 miles immediately following the race with one of my old running buddies from high school. After the award ceremony I ran the 9.75 miles home from Reston to Falls Church on the W&OD trail. My morning mileage total was nearly 18 miles - a great morning if I haven't said so before.
After the race, Joy went to a baby shower, so I was a lazy bum and sat around watching TV all afternoon. In the evening we watched a movie and went to a local burger joint for dinner. It's safe to say that 90% of my steps from Saturday came before 11am.
5/22/2010 | Daily Step Total = 27044
Sunday
Sunday morning Joy and I slept in. We got up and went to church and then went to the grocery store. Both of these activities require more walking than one would think. Joy and I attend McLean Bible Church - walking through that mega building definitely adds to your step total. We also like to go through every single aisle in the grocery store. Sure it's Trader Joe's, but that's still a lot of steps (I backtrack a lot too...oops).
As some of you know I'm a graduate student at AU, working towards my MS in Health Promotion Management. Summer classes mean a lot of work in a little bit of time and also mean that most Sunday afternoons are spent in front of the computer doing research or writing papers. This Sunday was no different, but I was able to escape to the Providence Rec Center in Falls Church to do a little cross training on the stationary bike. I rode for 60 minutes at a pretty hard clip - I think the woman next to me was a little frightened by how sweaty I got. She didn't stay on the bike for too long...
5/23/2010 | Daily Step Total = 16750
Monday
(longest blog post ever!!! Sorry)
This week we finish up with our Know Your Numbers Health Assessment and Screening Events. That means only a few more days of waking up super early to get in my run and make it to work on time to set up for the events. Today I was up at 5:30 and out the door by 6:00 for a 10 mile run. My legs were surprisingly still tired from all of the weekend exercise so I considered cutting my run off early more than once. In the end I trekked through 10 miles in about 69 minutes and then scooted through the house to get to campus.
Our screening events require a lot of packing, hiking across campus, and then unpacking. All activities that look good on the pedometer! In the evening I finished up that pesky paper from Sunday evening, ate dinner with Joy, and then we went on a 20 minute walk because it looked so beautiful outside. Also, I wanted to check on the garden so I had to make up an excuse for us to go outside.
5/24/2010 | Daily Step Total = 22261
THE END - That teaches me to wait 5 days between blog posts!
Friday, May 21, 2010
Day 1
Yesterday was the start of the 2010 Steps to AhealthyU Pedometer Challenge. As part of the challenge, Team AhealthyU, Amy and I, will be blogging about our experiences throughout the 8-week program. You'll get to see what types of activities that we do each day to boost our step totals. As a special bonus, anybody that beats our team step total average will be entered into a drawing for one of three Nike Sportsbands. I wish you all the best during the Challenge!
Amy and I will not be taking our physical activity lightly over these 8 weeks. Amy is beginning to train for fitness/figure competitions. As many of you know, I am a marathon runner. The summer marks the beginning of my buildup to a Fall marathon. So, please don't be shocked or frightened by the number of miles that I run. I probably run farther than you drive your car - but I know some of you out there take just as many steps as I do each day.
May 20, the first day of the Challenge, was a busy day for Amy and I. AhealthyU hosted the Know Your Numbers Complete Wellness Assessment and Screening Event as a part of Staff Appreciation week at AU. We arrived on campus at 7:30am for set up. That meant that I was up at 5:30 for a 5 mile run. When I got to campus we were moving all around setting up the Screening Event. When the event ended I went to the track and ran a track workout with my training partners. I totaled 10 miles of running at my workout. A little bit of walking here and there for the rest of the evening added to my daily total.
5/20/2010 | Daily Step Total = 35,738
Amy and I will not be taking our physical activity lightly over these 8 weeks. Amy is beginning to train for fitness/figure competitions. As many of you know, I am a marathon runner. The summer marks the beginning of my buildup to a Fall marathon. So, please don't be shocked or frightened by the number of miles that I run. I probably run farther than you drive your car - but I know some of you out there take just as many steps as I do each day.
May 20, the first day of the Challenge, was a busy day for Amy and I. AhealthyU hosted the Know Your Numbers Complete Wellness Assessment and Screening Event as a part of Staff Appreciation week at AU. We arrived on campus at 7:30am for set up. That meant that I was up at 5:30 for a 5 mile run. When I got to campus we were moving all around setting up the Screening Event. When the event ended I went to the track and ran a track workout with my training partners. I totaled 10 miles of running at my workout. A little bit of walking here and there for the rest of the evening added to my daily total.
5/20/2010 | Daily Step Total = 35,738
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