Another Walking Goal Accomplished: The Motivation of Virtual Races

When it comes to exercising it's hard to find motivation. Well, at least for me.  Some of you may have no problem getting up and getting excited for another sweat session.  I, on the other hand, hang my head in dread.  Working on it!!!

Many years ago I discovered virtual races and some running clubs.  It's simple: Buy bling and when you finish the race it's shipped to you.  A tangible goal with physical results.  The 46 miles Mount Fuji  medal by The Conqueror is the latest I've received, and honestly the most gorgeous.  It's so beautiful in person.

After finishing Mount Fuji I immediately signed up for the Route 66 challenge, and then I realized, "What the freak did I just do??!!?!?!?!"  It's 2,280 miles and I'm determined to finish by the end of next year, but the good thing is biking miles count, and on my indoor pro-form bike I can do 5 miles in 30 minutes, which will improve over time.  I'm 105 miles into this, and about 5% in, so created a little buffer for next year.  This is my overall 2021 mile goal, so I can earn my 50 mile pins at the same time.  It works out to needing to do 44 miles a week.

Oh!  But for my 50 mile pins, and my mile month goals, 18 minutes on the bike or elliptical = 1 mile.  So 18 minute mile regardless of speed and resistance.  My 2020 year goal was 500, I needed 163 miles this month to finish.  I realized that I never counted miles for being at Disneyland for 3 days last February, and decided to count 10 miles from that, so my month goal is now 153.  I was so tired last Saturday!!  I needed a break.  I'm over 100 miles for the month (walking + 18 min machine miles), and only need 40 miles.  40 miles in 4 days!!  I'm going to be so overwhelmingly tired on Friday!!!

One of the things I love to do is put pins on the medal ribbons, but they have a value.  Each pin is 50 miles earned, so my kimono wearing Minnie Mouse from Tokyo DisneySea is worth more miles than the medal it's placed on.  And below are more pins I can place on the medal after earning another 50 miles.  It's a way to earn more miles and not crowd the medal hanger, or buy more medals.

One of my favorite things to do is collect pins when I travel, so being able to display my travel pins brings back so many memories. 

The Giverny France lily pin I bought at a gift shop after visiting Monet's Garden and Home in Giverny, just after walking over the actual bridge that is made famous in his paintings.  His home and gardens are so beautiful and so well maintained.

The Highway One pin I bought at a little shop at Ragged Point.  My Mom, Grandma A and I had just spent a few nights in a hotel next to Moonstone Beach in Cambria Ca.  We were going to start driving south to head home, but decided to go north instead.  Just to see more ocean and Hearst Castle on the hill.  But then we kept going, discovering Ragged Point, and then we're like, "Lets go to Monterey!!"  And so we did, all along Highway 1 through Big Sur with a little stop in Carmel By The Sea, before finding a hotel in Monterey, which was a little pricey, but so worth it.  Such a wonderful spontaneous trip, and one of my favorite memories with my Grandma.  Highway One is always a good idea.  Just breathtaking.

My medal hanger from the Hogwarts Running Club before rebranding to Potterhead Running Club.  I have more medals, but these are the ones I want to display, and it'll keep shifting around.  It's just a fun little hobby that helps me stay motivated.

 

Miles Managed!! :D

Virtual Sites worth checking out: Potterhead Running Club, Whovian Running Club, Yes.Fit, The Conqueror (fantastic online community), Virtual Running Club, RunDisney does virtual races (but they're really expensive, and they sell out fast, so I haven't done any), and many more.

Now to go get 10 miles.  0_0 (Which takes me 3.5 to 4 hours), and I'm doing this everyday for the next four days, but I'm going to make that 500 mile goal!!

 

 

An Easy Way to Measure Running Distance

Earlier this year, back when I was training for a 5k, I would run laps to help me prepare.  Since then I've found that I don't much care for running (bad knees), but I did "run" into a problem when I was training.  Keeping track of the laps.  Listening to music to help me stay focused, I would count the laps in my head, or on my fingers, only to lose track and question my distance.  I thought it would be cool if I could find some device with a clicker to do the thinking for me, but thought I wouldn't be able to find something like that.

Then one day at the craft store I was wondering the yarn section when I stumbled across an interesting device.  A knitting counter!  There's a few models, but I choose a model from Clover.  You can wear it as a pendant, which is nifty since you don't have to hold it, and mindlessly click it at the beginning of each lap.  Unfortuanly it doesn't come with a cord, but I was able to use a chain from a necklace I don't use.

Since buying it I've used the counter to measure the 4 mile distance I'm determined to walk, and it's wonderful.

Sarah       

Starting a 5K Running program

(Day 9 of the 365 day photo challenge)

I took this photo at the gym I go to this morning after a long Holiday brake.  It's a bike rack, though I have yet to use it, because who wants to bike home after a spinning class?  Maybe this Summer when I'm in better shape I'll be up to the challenge.

So one of my goals is to run in a 5k.  It seems daunting, and a little crazy, because even when I was a kid doing track and field I could never run a mile without stopping once.  And here I'm going to try for a full 3.3 miles without stopping, and all in a couple months!  There's quite a few programs online and in magazines that say, even if you're just starting out, you only need two months to prepare.  It seems a bit unrealistic, but Sparkpeople.com has a 5k your way rookie training program, and it seems plausible.

The first week all you have to do is walk four minutes then run a minute, repeat three times.  Next week the plan is to walk three minutes, run two, repeat four times, and so on for a full eight weeks. There's a couple races I'm looking at, one in three months, the other in four, and with this plan I should be running a full thirty minutes in no time, no stopping for breaths.

To help with my training I put together a playlist for my ipod, because it's a little hard keeping track of time and intervals, remembering if you're on the 2nd or 3rd repeat.  This way there's no thinking involved, just running and walking!  but when I put the playlist together I realized how there really isn't that many one minute songs.  

So this morning I was rocking it to Inside Outs "Never Tell a Lie," which is quiet silly, the "Finland/Fisch Schlapping Dance" from Monty Python's Spamalot, another out right silly song, and "Dance of the Bellossom" from Pokemon 2000 the movie: I actually wanted to just skip this song, but completed the interval regardless.  At least "Come On Get Happy" from the Partridge Family was only a minute.  It's a nice song to sprint to.  

So one workout down, many to go.  Mastering the 5k is this years goal, and thankfully Utah has so many races each month I can participate in.  Maybe next year I'll tackle a 10k, and get in fantastic shape in the process.

Good luck on all your goals!

Sarah