Run, WW, Run 11

Welcome back for yet another installment of Run, WW, Run my virtual cross country trek inspiring me to get fit. When last we met I was heading towards Williamsport, the local Little League team was winning and I was trying to be more consistent.

This week was another “Fitbit only” week. Day 1 was exactly what I was trying to avoid…a <2 mile day. Quiet day at work at dinner out with the kids. It was a nice night but we had a big day planned on Saturday so I was ok with my decision not to do too much. My virtual self continued on the same rod only passing a gun shop. That was fitting base don our Saturday plans.

An earlier installment of Run, WW, Run I said I would use the gun shop I passed (Strange how many of those I have seen along the way) as inspiration to take the boys to play paintball. That was Saturday a long day of trekking through woooded terrain and getting shot in the face in “Apocalypse City” (see the picture. It was a great day with lots of movement.  Virtual me ended at a random spot where I could see a great path to take my mountain bike. I need to get that into my routine but can’t seem to make it happen.

I’m lucky I moved at all on Sunday as we were all exhausted. The only movement was really to clean the house since my wife was returning from her girl’s weekend. I finish the day near a quirky little tavern, probably the only place to go in that small town. The menu for this place was simple but it looked like an interesting place with music and lots of people. (Lots for the rural location). This made me think about simplifying my menu and eating out a little less. Time for another trip to get some of my food.

The next leg was another of my No fit bit legs. I had it but had forgotten to charge it. I stagger a quarter of a mile form the tavern to an interesting little glass shop. My inspiration here is to get my creative juices flowing again. I have not used this blog in a while other than my Run, WW, Run updates. It was a creative outlet for me and I do find when I don’t do this, or some other creative thing I feel in a rut….and here I am.

My actual movement for that day was not a lot. I am realizing more and more that my recovery from active days is brutal. I have actually started to take some action here. I started doing some of my physical therapy exercises again to get my legs stretched out.

Back on the move (kind of) with another light day. The only thing near virtual me is a sporting good store….it is actually just a gun shop when you look closer. I think my shooting on Saturday was enough to capture two gun shops of inspiration. The welts still evident all over my body and the big one on my face remind me.

I finally do some real moving again on Wednesday with my soccer game. It was nasty hot but a great workout and a fun game. Where I end on the map is not what was interesting. What was interesting was the difference in the routes. The directions guided me south through the mountains with beautiful landscapes but not much around. A single house from time to time. Had I picked the northern route it would have brought me to a gated community complete with golf course, beautiful homes and an amazing lake. Split down the middle was the interstate…quick but boring. The philosophical side of me started thinking about choices. I need to make the real choice to be ready for my outdoor soccer season just 37 days away. That is plenty of time to get to a reasonable fitness level.

The choice needs to be to do it in a smarter way. I am tripping over workouts instead of planning them. This week I will plan them here. Tonight nothing..We are off to see Beauty and the Beast at the local playhouse. Tomorrow I will get on my bike. Sunday I already have a tee time to play golf.  I feel like Monday night I have something I am forgetting so I will plan an off day.  Tuesday 10k steps however I can manage. Wed soccer and Th will be another day off. Reading that doesn’t sound so scary.

I end the week with another lesson. I come into a little town that doesn’t look like much. Hidden in a little line of woods are the waterfalls shown. You would never know they were there if you didn’t stop to look. So friends, stop to look once in a while.

If I recap the week I got 2 real workouts in. That is not enough. I want to have 4 and accept 3.  I have a plan. I am still headed to Williamsport but off pace. The Melrose Little League team finally took a loss last night but if they win tonight they play Saturday for the Sectional title. The family will attend if they get there.

Run, WW, Run

Run, WW, Run 10

Welcome back for yet another installment of Run, WW, Run my virtual cross country trek inspiring me to get fit. When last we met I crossed into Pennsylvania and was finally getting some miles logged. Vacation can have that effect.

This week’s progress would all be made on foot and be tracked by fitbit (when I remembered to wear it).

Friday was a tough day. It was supposed to be a morning of golf but was rained out. I managed to go watch some curling (which was great) but my movement was limited. My virtual self ended near a fireworks store which was fitting as just a few days earlier we watched the 4th fireworks in Falmouth.

Saturday was decent movement, not as exercise specifically but overall we were busy having fun. Walking along the beach and a nice walk while we waited for dinner. It was a nice relaxing last full day of vacation. My virtual self saw the long day and ended at motel so I could get some rest. (More on the rest needed another day).

Sunday was travel day. We cleaned up and then spent a while packing and unpacking plus the time in the car. A workout was not in the cards as it was a long day. I would love to say good to be home but Cape Cod is great and I would rather still be there. Virtual me ends in the middle of nowhere which is fitting because the drive view is what I saw that day.

As I returned to work the distance drops. Monday was a catch-up day after 2 weeks off. Locked mostly in my office and conference rooms and quite honestly exhausted from working a full day left minimal movement at night. I end up near a quarry. The only link to this is a bit of exercise I id get over the weekend throwing a javelin ball with my son. He is training for his track team and I went out tossing this heavy ball with him. It was not easy but it was fun.

Sad to report I followed up with a missing fitbit day so I made almost no progress. The day itself was kind of an average work day. This is where I should have recovered with a workout but I didn’t.

Finally back to some real exercise, by way of my weekly soccer game. I got some real movement ending the day near the Shohola falls. A beautiful image makes we want to get out there and see some beautiful sites in person. Time to dust off the mountain bike again.

The final day ended again in the middle of a long road with not much to see. I had set no goal so I didn’t feel all that motivated to get out. The overall distance for the week was weak with only one real workout. There were some very active days but you can’t have a full week where only once do you move on purpose.

And so I must set a real goal. As luck would have it my town’s Little League team keeps winning and I noticed that Williamsport was on my virtual map. It is too far to get to in a week but using my average distance I can make it there with a week to spare before the tournament. My goal is to beat that. Williamsport in 3 weeks gives me a goal of 5.8 mi per day. If I can avoid the <2 mi days and get on the bike a bit I should have no issue. The point of this is to get me moving not track my lousy stats. Let’s hope the local team gets there for real.

Run, WW, Run

 

Run, WW, Run 9

Welcome back for yet another installment of Run, WW, Run my virtual cross country trek inspiring me to get fit. When last we met I was struggling to get moving with my virtual in a rural area of NY state. I am happy to report that this entry logging the second week of my vacation took a turn for the better. I am a bit late on the update but I am back at work today so that should become more consistent again. Ok.. here we go.

The week starts with a light day ending at yet another random residential spot. The messy brush reminds me of the yard work I had to do to start my vacation. The miles there were logged in the last update but it is a firm reminder that movement can come from more than just planned workouts. I need to keep that in mind.

Day 2 is a much longer stretch thanks to some golfing. I am amazed how much you walk even when you take a cart. It was a tough day as I really missed my Dad but fun overall. Virtually I ended nowhere significant but I did pass a water park. We didn’t get that in during our vacation but we did discuss it on the ride home yesterday. We will plan a day at Water Wizz the next time down the Cape. This also reminds me that I need to track my “I need to do this” better. I have a few others from previous weeks I still owe.

Next I find myself after a quiet day of movement at a home. I notice the boat in the background. Although I didn’t specifically ride a boat my sons and I had a great time fishing at the Marina in a spot I went to all the time when I was a kid. It was one of those moments that I hope the boys will remember for a long time.

At this point I finally start to log some mileage on the bike. Falmouth is an amazing town to take an early morning ride. This first one was later in the day and actually came from me needing to blow off some steam. I ended the day at a car dealership. As chance would have it there was a lot of discussion this week about buying my “midlife crisis” car. I have always wanted to buy a 1972 Corvette Stingray. My wife is on board and I have started to do some searching. My big issue is I have a small garage and driveway and no great place to store it. We’ll see but it sure would be fun.

Finally we get to the 4th of July (Happy belated 4th to all my readers). I celebrated the 4th with a triathalon of sorts.  It started with a morning bike ride with my brother to Woods Hole. One of a couple of rides that were truly the highlights of my trip. Spending a few hours alone with my brother who lives in Colorado just chatting and seeing the sights along the bike paths. As the day progressed getting my steps in scrambling for the BBQ later I took some time to head to the beach. I know tough choice…right? Instead of sitting with my toes in the sand I actually swam the length of the beach and back. It took forever but in the end was about a half mile of swimming. So there it was bike, steps and a swim. It made me feel much better about the feasting and drinking that would come. I ended the day near an airport…I did end up at Logan yesterday helping my brother head home so fitting I suppose.

Wednesday was a more quiet day. My virtual self ended at scenic spot along the river but instead I added the Nobska lighthouse from along my Th bike ride. Another long ride with my brother and amazingly having set a 60 mile target for the week I made it. I have now virtually entered into Pennsylvania. The first week in several where I hit my target.

It got me thinking about how I have set my targets. I need to do some analysis of what is realistic. Here I was on vacation with Bike trails and time. As I get home I need to figure out how to target something achievable but not too easy. This needs to be a driver not just a log of where I end up. So for this week I will hold off on setting a new target. I will simply trek West and spend sometime figuring out what is next. The good news is I am moving much more consistently and need to keep up that momentum. Now with restaurant eating halting I can put some more focus back on the food again.

Run, WW, Run

 

Run, WW, Run Update

Welcome back for yet another installment of Run, WW, Run my virtual cross country trek inspiring me to get fit. When last we met I was working my way across CT struggling with short distance days.  Today acts as a bit of a catch up. I am overdue for 2 updates but will keep this one short for a few reasons. During the 2 weeks I was gone I got some workouts in but have struggled to get myself moving. I hope today’s entry will help get me back on track because I assure you I am using the term WW very loosely right now.

 

My hope in this leg was to make it to the Hudson River, in a week and I fell short of that in the two. I also wanted to try to get 10k steps/day but that too was not meant to be. Let’s see what I did get done.

The first week was leading up to my 2 week vacation. There were many nights of playoff youth baseball and other excuses. I was reasonably OK with it since once I got to Cape Cod I would be biking like crazy. Today is day 8 down here and I still haven’t been out.

Along my path I passed a Camp for boys which seems fitting since I do have my boys away fro a 2 week vacation filled with water activity, sports in the yard and wandering around town.  As I mapped my progress through rural CT I passed many golf courses which I did manage to get a round in. I would be finishing up my second 18 right now but I passed because the first trip around the links was a bit too hard on the knee. fun though.

I did finally manage to get to Bull’s bridge and into New York. The road is laced with many farms. We had planned to go to a local farm here to buy a pepper so my son could try one of the hottest peppers in the world. The local place was almost never open and would not have fresh peppers to purchase until later in the fall. For now you could only buy sauces and hot candies. Instead we ordered some Scotch Bonnet dried peppers online and last night each burned our mouths pretty well even only sampling. we will not be going for the full pepper. It was fun though.

I ended the weeks with just a couple of decent numbers logged. A soccer game, a day of gardening. Overall, I was surprised how little I moved in week one of my vacation. I need to fix that because the eating has been terrible. Actually it has been wonderful eating at some amazing restaurants with my brothers and their families in town but as a WW it has been off the rails.

And so I type once again picking myself up. I will try to lower the intake but with the 4th tomorrow that will be a tough way to restart. I will, however, use this entry to re-motivate the movement and see if I can’t log some real miles while I am here.

Run, WW, Run