I thought vacation was supposed to be relaxing...

Sorry for the big gap in posts. I went away for a long weekend with my family to Lake Monticello, just outside of Charlottesville, VA. I love going to the Lake spending time in the water and the sun. For most of my life I've thought of vacations at the Lake as being relaxing and low-key. Little did I realize that my idea of vacation was packed full of movement and physical activity. As those of you that follow my blog know, I'm a little bit injured again so I haven't been able to run recently. Well, this long weekend at the Lake saw some of my highest step totals ever even though I couldn't run.

Being in the water is apparently a great place to tally up steps. I recommend that you head to the pool and try it out for yourself. There are 4 strokes you can use to swim laps if you want some traditional dedicated exercise. But, normal pool games and treading water even add up as steps. Water provides natural resistance for our bodies, so any movement we do in the water requires more energy. Simply walking in a pool works our heart and muscles more than it does on land because of this added resistance. So, beat the heat, jump in the pool (or lake, or ocean), and earn yourself some steps!

Thursday I was still on campus and managed to walk around a bit. On top of that I rode the bike for 90 minutes.

7/1/2010 | Daily Step Total = 35779

Friday I was at the Lake. I was in the water for a lot of the day, only taking breaks to watch some soccer games. A pull on the wakeboard helped boost my steps today.

7/2/2010 | Daily Step Total = 24656

Saturday saw a lot more swimming, a lot more wakeboarding, and a lot more walking around in general. That was all followed up by some awesome fireworks being shot from one of the beaches at the Lake. We watch them from our boat in the middle of the Lake.

7/3/2010 | Daily Step Total = 35727

Sunday was more of the same. Swimming, wakeboarding, and more swimming. Today I did do an "official" workout with some aquajogging.

7/4/2010 | Daily Step Total = 30656

Monday looked a lot like Sunday except I started out with 30 minutes of swimming up and down our cove and then aquajogged with Joy, who also has a hurt achilles (we were meant for each other!).

7/5/2010 | Daily Step Total = 37904