Lacie Lyons (Consumer Participant)

For my first blog post I wasn’t sure what to write, there are so many things I want to share!

Accomplishing my 10,000 steps each day has not been as easy as it was before marathon training.  Shocking, I know.  Oh my average steps work out to 10,000 a day or more, however, Mondays and Thursdays tend to be less.  These days I do cross training, whether its a boot camp workout, strength training or swimming. Obviously with swimming, I can’t wear my pedometer (I’ve heard they don’t like water a lot and I really don’t want to test it personally), boot camp and strength training is a lot of stationary work concentrating on muscle strengthening. At first I was really frustrated that I wasn’t reaching my step goal every day, however, I have come to realize that an hour and a half of laps or a strength training workout of an hour that leaves me hurting for days more than equals out any steps that do not get measured, and fortunately, walkingspree has an area in our personal account to record any other physical activity in our day!!

With the marathon only 16 weeks away, the long walk/runs are VERY important! This weekend, my training schedule had me set for a 16km path… pretty daunting!  Planning and preparing for this approximately 3 hour journey was challenging to say the least.  I don’t have one of those fancy smartphones that have a GPS application on them to track your distance for you so I had to map it out on a program online. Because I really wanted to be sure, I used to different plans to figure out my route, plan it out so I would walk by a bathroom at least every half hour (just in case! it is a 3 hour walk after all) and get it set.  Double checking, the route seemed overwhelming and long, but I knew I could do it… and out I set.  Sunday was a hot, humid afternoon, but I didn’t want it to slow me down (I am, after all, planning on doing the marathon in Hawaii… hot and humid is a great possibility).. I kept my pace up, working hard at a good clip, but since this was a new route, I wasn’t sure where the kilometer markers were and I had to estimate every 11 or 12 minutes would be one kilometer.  After 2 hours I reach a point that was approximately 3/4 of the way to my scheduled turn around point.  Concerned that I was walking too slow (I expected it only to take me 3 hours) but already exhausted from the heat, I decided the smart plan was to stop and turn around.  Another 2 hours later I walked in my front door, exhausted and disappointed I hadn’t done the whole walk.  Whipped out my pedometer to upload my steps, it said I had walked 28,000 steps, and the mileage that it recorded was 12.87 miles…. 20.7km!!  I was shocked… was it right?? I immediately emailed my trainer with the details of my route.  She confirmed (using her GPS program) that indeed I had walked almost 21kms (half a marathon!!!).  The moral of the story? Remember to set your stride length properly in your pedometer! It can track your distance even better than a website that claims to be accurate! You can enjoy a real sense of pride sitting back and checking your mileage at the end of the day, even on days you didn’t “exercise”.

Until next week… happy stepping!