Fresh from the 2017 fat busting thread, a challenge:
A response:
And it sounds like at least @Juan_Raigada and @Petey might be interested in doing it too. So here is the thread! It’s for posting progress on the 1000 mile challenge or any fitness challenge in 2022. Feel free to share goals, encouragement, photos, tips, struggles, anything.
Some inspirational music:
And I’ll kick things off. I’m shooting for 1000 miles on foot in 2022. I’ll track jogging, walks, and hikes: any activity a mile or more in length done deliberately for fitness. Like I won’t track all the times I walk back and forth between my office and the lab in a typical day at work, but I will count the distance I walk cooling down after a run. 1000 miles in a year means I have to average 20 miles per week. A typical pm jog for me these days is about 4 miles+cooldown, and I’ll plan to do that 3-4 days per week (up from my 1-3 days per week that’s been more usual over the past year.) So I’ll need an extra 2-8 miles most weeks, which I think I can get with weekend hiking. (I do a 15-20 mile hike about once every 2-3 weeks.)
My inaugural jog on New Year’s Day was a 4 miler over one of my routes near my house: an out-and-back on a closed-to-vehicles service road that follows a canyon through the southeast corner of Mission Trails Regional Park here in San Diego.
I’ve logged a total 9 miles so far and am about to head out on a local 8 mile hike.
I’m happy to link up on Strava or whatever. I think we have to send e-mails to do that, so PM if interested.
I’m already 0.64% there! 3.2 miles on a treadmill on New Years Day. And then 3.2 miles this morning in a combination of slush and about an inch of fresh snow. That snow/slush was sort of like walking on a beach. Slows down your gait and you expend a bit more energy each step. The entire walk took about 10-15 minutes more than normal.
I don’t count walking around the house or Costco or anything like that. It’s just pure walking for fitness.
I do think I will increase it to 3.6 miles per day, six days a week. It’s just the snow is too taxing right now. But 3.6 versus 3.2 means 21.6 miles per week, as opposed to 19.2. That gives me an average of slightly more than 3 miles/day for the week.
If you’re going to do this, some tips.
Good shoes. Especially waterproof shoes in the non-summer months. Those are a must. You will also go through them fast. I went through about four pairs this past year.
The trick to stay warm and dry. Good sweatpants will do on cold dry days. But in rain, I’ve got some waterproof pants from Columbia, along with a good rain jacket from Mountain Hardwear. Then the trick is to layer. A nice warm upper base layer is usually all I need as your body heat will build up fast, but with the temperatures below 40 I add a fleece jacket underneath the raincoat. Also, waterproof gloves are a must. And don’t forget something to keep your head warm.
I walk at 7 AM each morning. That means it’s pretty darn dark in the winter. And I’m wearing all black. So I wear this (I changed the link because I linked to the wrong one originally. That one broke easily. This one doesn’t)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08TLPZ6DG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I’ve become a big fan of Spotify this past year. My walking time is my podcast time. So, make sure you have some good wireless earbuds.
Walked 1.5 on New Years Day to get my butt in gear. Around my neighborhood. Will be doing lots of treadmill the next 4 months with the PNW crap ass weather. My ankle held up well but I was actually winded after being bed ridden with Covid and ankle surgery…so out for about 3 months with no exercise at all. Old age for the win.
Will track walking, hiking, treadmill walking, biking. I used to mountain bike quite a bit and might get back into that.
My plan is to log just jogging/running miles.
Right now I do 6.2 miles (10k) about 2-3 times per week. But in April 24th I’m running a half marathon (current goal is to try for 1h45m, but it’s going to be pushing it), so I should be able to track more that the 18.5 miles I’m doing right now at the end of the month (when my mileage increases) to end up at 24 miles mid April, and then I’ll drop. So probably I’ll average 21 weekly miles or so by April’s end.
After that I think I’ll drop back to 18.5 again (unless I decide to do another long run later in the year -there’s a cool one in November- but I’m not counting on that yet), so I need to recover 48 total miles.
I do HIIT twice a week and we do about 2 miles per week of running on average there. I will track these, so this should recover the missing 48, plus another 48 to account for missing runs (covers me for 2 weeks and a half).
Biggest issue here are going to be holydays and missed days. I need to stay very focused, since it’s going to get real tight.
So far I’ve logged 6.2 miles and I’m going on another 6.2 run today. So will hit 1%!
That’s cool, I always wanted to try to train for a half marathon (a full marathon for me feels a bit too ambitious to be realistic) but I don’t know when I’d manage to do it. And I’m worried by the time I do, I’ll be too old to really be able to run a half marathon. But, I know folks much older than myself have done it, so I’m not giving up hope.
These are some tips, though I’m going to give some contextual counter advice. Not trying to undermine you; just providing a different perspective, largely because my climate is different than yours.
I get this advice, but I’ll confess that I hate waterproof shoes. My feet sweat no matter what, so waterproof shoes just make them into a stew that never goes away. I just got back from a 9 mile hike. Had to ford a stream in the first mile–shoes and socks utterly submerged and soaked through.
No worries; the shoes are breathable and socks are wool, so after a couple of miles it had all dried out and I was fine. Now granted, I’m not hiking in snow or slush and that makes a big difference. I’d prefer waterproof boots for those. But that’s not often an issue here in San Diego :) (I say that glibly, but it does actually snow in the mountains here. There is snow on the ground up on Mt. Laguna 45 minutes away.)
If I’m actually exerting myself I am comfortable in shorts and a long-sleeve shirt down to well below freezing if it’s dry. I usually do actually hike in pants and sun hoodie, but for sun protection, not for cold. Climate makes a big difference :)
Great idea! I wear mostly black too (because it’s harder to see sweat patches :P) I’m gonna have to pick one of those up. I turn on my phone’s flashlight when I want to be visible to cars, but just strapping a light to myself would be easier.
I can’t stand earbuds when exercising because I just hear my footfalls :) I like lightweight over-the-ear headphones like these.
I love your tips; just wanted to expand the knowledgebase :)
My whole family wears AfterShokz…love them and we all walk or run.
I think if you can run 10k in an hour you are just 3 months away from running a half marathon, training 3 days a week. It won’t feel great, but you’ll do it. At least in my experience if 10 is too gruelling, it’s better to build yourself up to 10k being a regular run and then go for the specific training plan. I am not a great runner (I weight too much to be efficient or go fast) but I do enjoy the exercise and pushing myself.
A marathon is completely different, in that it requires a very strict training regime (or being an exceptionally fit individual to start with). I’ve run 5 half marathons (it’s been like 5 years since the last time, though, and I’m 40 now), and once I looked at marathon training plans and realized I just didn’t have the time anymore (you are looking at 5+ hours of running weekly to start with).
Also, you need to be conscious about heart health before training endurance, especially as you age. I realized I was training at a significant higher heart rate than suggested (my suggested, for my age 153 BPM standard rate doesn’t even get me sweating, I have an aerobic threshold of 162 or so, it seems). So I just ran a full heart checkup (ECG, stress test, BP holter, blood work and eco). So far everything has come up great, specially the stress test (still need to do the eco), so if it holds it seems I can train up to 166 BPM without too much overstress (I can push higher, but until I talk to my cardiologist after all results are in I am restraining myself, since it might be unhealthy).
Yeah, that’s my main deterrent from even thinking about attempting a full marathon. Even if I had the determination to work up to it, I just don’t have the time for the training.
I’m not sure what foot mileage I’ll be able to do, because I’m trying to mix it up more than I did in the past to try and not injure myself. I’ve had bad luck with my feet and ankles over the past 3 years, along with various muscle strains.
My cardio exercise will be a mix of walking, running (I hope), hiking, biking, elliptical and rowing machine. Without the miles from the elliptical I’m not sure I can get to 1000. I don’t know if there is a fair way to convert them for the sake of comparison and making it to a goal.
Not sure if these numbers help with any type of conversion…
My easy elliptical pace is 15:00 min /mile.
My cardio elliptical pace is around 12:00-12:30 min mile.
My cardio walking pace is around 13:30-14:00 min mile.
My jogging pace was from 8:00-11:00 min / mile depending on long I go and if I’ve gotten into shape yet.
That’s what I have and love them. My ears don’t like having buds put in them.
I’ve wanted to do one of these too. When I started increasing my miles per run last time my foot started acting up. I’m not sure I can ever get to the point where I can run those miles again - kinda sad.
This is the view from my regular running / walking path so I’ve got good motivation to get outside! :-)
I doubt I’ll get to 1000 this year, but I’ll certainly try to hit the 600-ish that I get from doing 3-4 miles three or four times a week. And I look forward to seeing what y’all get up to on the longer distances!
My goal this year is 10.000 steps a day, which is about 5.5 miles a day, so I should easily reach a 1000 miles if I can keep that up! I will need to figure out how to incorporate badminton into this though, once the lockdown is lifted: doing 10000 steps a day and playing badminton for two to three hours / two or three times a week might be a bit much. Anyone happen to know if a simple step-counter wristwatch will also count the many little steps I take while playing badminton?
I would think so, but I guess I’m not sure. My watch seems to get my steps doing all the things I do. I guess test it out. Just take a dozen or so small steps like you would when playing, and see if it counts them.
Yeah, fair enough, I’ll do that (after I get the watch: I now use my phone, but I can’t play badminton with my phone on me…)
Gorgeous! Where is that? Looks like the eastern Sierra Nevada, but could be many other places as well.
Utah, along the Wasatch Range. I really love living near the mountains. I’ve wanted to every since I was 13 years old and we took a trip to Colorado and Wyoming. It’s so cool hopping on a trail within 10 minutes of my house and feeling like I’m in the middle of nowhere. Need to travel more to get some variety, but it’s nice having 5 or so trails within 15 minutes.
Here are some more pics from trails close to my house…
I love that area…traveled there quite often in my 20’s. Love the Utah canyon country also. Biked at Moab a few times, camped along the Escalante River.
I used to live in Vail and Bend,OR and also just loved being that close to just take off and be hiking or mountain biking within a few minutes.
Have tried to convince my wife that the quality of life is so nice and we can sell our house and move somewhere like those places but she is not a hiker, not a biker, not a camper. Guess I picked the wrong wife!
