Draggin my feet

Apparently Amy finally caught the blogger bug and I lost it. Now she's making me look bad because of my lack of posting. Here's a quick post to catch you up on what I've been doing. My real excuse for not posting is that I still can't run because of my injury which frustrates me and it takes me a lot longer to convert steps from my cross training exploits than to just look at my pedometer and count the actual steps that I took while running. Hmm that was a long winded excuse. I apologize. I hope you're riding, swimming, running, jumping and everything else you can do to earn steps with a much better attitude than I am. It's tough when you can't do the exercise that you want to do, but keeping active helps us stay healthy so that's what I've been doing.

7/6/2010 | Daily Step Total = 31226
Rode the bike for an hour and 45 minutes. I don't know how those Tour de France riders do it!?!?

7/7/2010 | Daily Step Total = 25230
Rode the bike for 90 minutes...watch out Lance, here I come!

7/8/2010 | Daily Step Total = 26971
Rode the stationary bike for 97 minutes. That does not feel good...

7/9/2010 | Daily Step Total = 41443
Mega cross training day. 35 minutes of aqua jogging followed by 70 minutes on the stationary bike. Aqua jogging makes for great cross training when you're not forced into it by an injury. I finally feel like my achilles is getting a bit better. I should be able to run soon!

7/10/2010 | Daily Step Total = 20194
A day at the Lake with a wake board run, a water ski run, lots of leisurely swimming and for some reason treading water for 30 minutes while talking to my neighbors at the lake who floated on rafts....seemed a lot more relaxing to them.

7/11/2010 | Daily Step Total = 45039
A day at the Lake that started with 90 minutes of aqua jogging, then had some swimming, and wake boarding too.

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

The Pain Returns

Well, just when I thought I was in the clear with my heel, the pain came back. And it's worse this time. No running for the next few days. It's back to the bike. Actually, the doctor said that I can do some light barefoot jogging (10-15 minutes) to promote blood flow to the area, but no more than that. 10-15 minutes doesn't really fulfill my running needs, but it will have to suffice.

Here's my advice today. If it hurts, take care of it! Don't end up like me getting hurt all over again. Listening to your aches and pains and taking care of them is one of the best things you can do to keep yourself in top shape and ready for exercise everyday.

6/30/2010 | Daily Step Total = 19615

Cutdown

On Tuesday morning I ran a cutdown workout with some of my training buddies. These workouts are based on the simple principle of starting easy and slowly increasing the intensity of the run. We try to step down the pace each mile of our workout over 10-12 miles. For Tuesday's cutdown we started at 5:55 pace and over 10 miles cut down to 5:05 pace.

Cutdown runs model a very beneficial type of graded exercising that you can do on your own. Starting any activity easily will get your muscles warmed up. As you continue with the workout you can up the intensity to work your muscles more and more. This helps to not only build muscular endurance throughout your prolonged workout, but also adds strength as your muscles continue to work harder as they near their fatigue point.

6/29/2010 | Daily Step Total = 22065

Fast as Lightning

Yesterday afternoon we had some pretty serious thunderstorms blow through. This is a common occurrence in our area during the summer and something that we all need to be aware of. Planning your workouts for the morning can help you avoid having to miss scheduled outdoor exercise because of summer storms. Or, looking for indoor alternatives (Jacobs Fitness Center has great equipment and an indoor pool) can help you get your afternoon workout in if a storm pops up.

It's important to try and stay indoors if there is a storm or even a storm warning. If you do get caught outside in a thunderstorm try to find a building for shelter. If there are no buildings nearby, stay away from tall objects like trees and towers and also try to avoid being near anything made of metal.

Exercising outside during the summer can be great, but just make sure you are safe if a storm pops up.

6/28/2010 | Daily Step Total = 18130

Have Fun X All Weekend = Lots of Steps

Sometimes wearing this pedometer seems like a chore - I'll admit that. It can feel like I'm a slave to steps. Normal activities like running, walking to the water cooler, and going grocery shopping become part of the "challenge". I know some of you experience this too. But, that's not the point of wearing a pedometer. We're supposed ENJOY adding more physical activity into our lives. The pedometer gives us a reading on how much physical activity we are taking part in, and can motivate us to add more if we feel that we're under achieving. We shouldn't feel like it's adding stress to our lives because it's supposed to be a motivational tool. This weekend I decided to break free of my pedometer and essentially forgot about it. I went out, had fun, and let the steps talley up if they happened to do so. I really recommend that you do the same!

On Friday I ran a long run in the morning before work - 17 miles on the W&OD Trail. About a third of the way through the run I met a new friend. A high schooler riding his bike decided to tag along and chat with my during my run. Having somebody to talk to really made the run go by faster.

6/25/2010 | Daily Step Total = 24223

My weekend of fun began on Saturday. I had driven to my Dad's house on Lake Monticello on Friday evening. So, I woke up at the lake and went for a run. Then we spent the day swimming, waterskiing, tubing, wakeboarding, and of course watching some soccer. The US team's loss was disappointing, but we didn't let it ruin our fun weekend in the sun.

6/26/2010 | Daily Step Total = 30399

Sunday was a very similar day to Saturday. There was a little longer run, a trip around the lake on the water skis, all followed by a little more floating than actual swimming. What a beautiful day it was to be relaxing at the lake.

6/27/2010 | Daily Step Total = 28525

Feel the Burn

I admit it, I'm not the most disciplined when it comes to wearing sunscreen. If I go to the beach or the lake, sure I'll put some on. But, I run outside nearly everyday and very rarely put on sunscreen for that. After looking over some statistics and getting a slight sunburn on my scalp over the past few days I realize that I need to change my habits. Sunscreen is such a great form of protection from skin damage and cancer. Yeah it smells a little funny and makes us a bit slimy, but I think I'd rather deal with that than skin cancer. Here are some statistics from the Skin Cancer Foundation that may help you choose to put on a little sunscreen before you exercise outside today.

-About 90 percent of non-melanoma skin cancers are associated with exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.
-Up to 90 percent of the visible changes commonly attributed to aging are caused by the sun.
-Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. More than 3.5 million cases in two million people are diagnosed annually.
-One blistering sunburn in childhood or adolescence more than doubles a person's chances of developing melanoma later in life.
-A person's risk for melanoma doubles if he or she has had five or more sunburns at any age.

Let's all take a step towards prevention and lather up!

6/24/2010 | Daily Step Total = 18192