Pile on the Miles – Final Summation
Since I took a break from blogging for almost two weeks (yikes… was it really that long??) I kind of missed out on updating everyone on the end of the Pile on the Miles challenge. I didn’t give up on the challenge though! Today is the last day so I wanted to make sure I wrote a final summation.
Here are my recaps from weeks 1 and 2
I’m not going to go through my day by day breakdown since it’s been almost two weeks and that gets tedious! I’ll just give you a summation and some of my parting thoughts.
TOTAL MILES FOR PILE ON THE MILES CHALLENGE: 97 MILES
Not exactly as high as I originally aimed… but I think I really espoused the spirit of the challenge. The idea was to consciously add mileage and I definitely did that. I would say my running mileage stayed pretty consistent (I was maintaining up to the Philly Half and then I just started Marathon training officially this past week) but the walking was a big difference for me! I am not normally one to go out and “take a walk”. I have loved adding that into my life this month. My weight is the same, but weight loss wasn’t my goal. I did manage to maintain through the holiday though! I attribute that maybe partially to the challenge, but mostly to try to eat “intuitively” through the holiday. Here are some parting thoughts / lessons learned:
- Talking on the phone is a great time to take a walk. I sometimes don’t love to spend time on the phone because I feel like I’m not doing anything. But I love catching up with my mom, my bff Sarah, and my other long-distance besties like Elsa. This month, I started heading outside to take a walk and talk on the phone. Loved it.
- I love the idea of getting out for a walk in the middle of the work day. I did it a number of times during the challenge and I really liked it. Unfortunately, I can’t count on being able to do that every single work day. There are a lot of day where a lunch break just isn’t in the cards for me. That’s ok… but it’s nice to take advantage of getting outside when I can. I want to be more mindful to do that when I can.
- I didn’t miss the elliptical. I don’t spend a lot of time on the elliptical normally… but I occasionally use it for a little cardio warm up on my strength training days. During the challenge I decided not to waste any workout time on machines that didn’t count for the challenge (like the elliptical or the bike… I never bike though. I really don’t like it). I didn’t miss it at all. If I wasn’t in the mood to run, or thought my body needed time off, I just power walked and upped my incline to get my heart pumping. I realized that I really prefer “practical movements”… like running and walking.
I really enjoyed this on-going challenge too. As I was putting together my winter to do list this weekend (it’s almost that time again!) I decided I want to participate in more things like this!
Pile on the Miles – Week 2 Update
So I alluded to this last Friday… but this second (first full) week of Pile on the Miles totally sucked. I mean I ran / walked LESS than I do on a normal week. Obviously someone doesn’t understand the point of the challenge? Here’s a breakdown for you (of my complete and total breakdown… haha sweet pun!)
Sunday – Ran 6 miles in NYC!!!! BEST RUN OF THE WEEK.
Monday – Ran 5 Miles. This was just ok. I did it on the treadmill, which I hate but I just couldn’t face the outdoors in the early AM. I was too tired. My foot was still kind of bothering me from my weekend in NYC too so I took it pretty easy.
Tuesday – Walked 3 Miles. I normally strength train on Tuesdays so I did some tough inclined walking and hit the weights. Up until today… this week was totally on track. I was totally going to get my 40 mile goal at this rate.
Wednesday – Crash and Burn. Walked 1 freaking mile. My foot was hurting and I slept through my AM workout because I fell asleep on the couch watching election coverage and that always messes me up. After work, I decided to talk on the phone and lay in my bed instead of workout. Bleh Wednesday was bleh. But I figured I would take the day off for my foot and get back to it on Thursday.
Thursday – Slept through my AM workout again… no excuse this time. I was really mad at myself, but I brought my clothes thinking I would sneak out for a lunch time run. Work was crazy, couldn’t leave. Then I thought I would go quickly after work before meeting Mike and the running club for Happy Hour. Then I received devastating news (which I unfortunately will not share here… sorry!), and decided instead to walk 1 mile to pick up our packets for the LivingSocial Glow-in-the-Dark 5K and then drink beer / eat hamburgers for the rest of the night. We all cope in different ways.
Friday – Planned to run 3 miles before work, and then the 5K after work, but woke up with splitting headache. I am cursed by alcohol. Did not run in the AM. Still did the LivingSocial Glow-in-the-Dark 5K. So ran 3.1 miles. Post coming later this week about that!
Final Summation: Not a banner week. I totaled 19 miles… not even HALF of what I wanted to. BUT… this is another week. One of my biggest weaknesses is getting easily discouraged. I’m not the kind of person who immediately thinks “I’ll get em next time!”. My first initial thought is “Well that sucked. You’re fat and lazy. You might as well eat another cupcake.” I am insane just so we’re clear. BUT I’m trying to turn that around and stay positive. 19 miles is still nothing to scoff at! This Monday morning, I recommit.
This is my final week before marathon training starts too! I got up this morning and did 5.5 really awesome miles outside. I feel renewed! I also walked 2.5 miles at lunch while catching up with my mom on the phone! WOOHOO 8 Mile Monday!
Goal for this week: 30 miles. My plan is my usual Monday / Wednesday / Friday 5 mile AM runs, but adding 2.5 mile walks on Monday and Wednesday. Then planning 3 miles on Tuesday / Thursday in addition to my strength training (maybe walking, maybe running … going to play that one by ear). Then Saturday I’m going to plan an at least 3 mile walk with Sarah while I am in Philly. The Philly Half Marathon is on Sunday, so a Saturday morning walk will be a good chance to loosen up a bit and have some girl time 🙂
Pile on the Miles – Week One Update
Hey Everyone!! As I mentioned last week, I am participating in Monica’s Pile on the Miles challenge this month. My goal is 140 miles for the month of November, but I’m feeling like that might have been a “safe” goal. I’m going to see if I can get it up over 150 miles. I updated my spreadsheet this morning for the first “week” of the challenge. Since November only started on Thursday and the weeks for the challenge run from Sunday – Saturday, it wasn’t exactly a big number.
Having Monday and Tuesday off from work TOTALLY threw off my week. I just couldn’t get back into it last week. I definitely slept through every single morning workout Wednesday – Friday… whoopsies. I got back on track this AM though with a workout before work 🙂
I managed to get 10 miles in Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of this week. I feel pretty good about that! Here’s what it looked like:
Thursday: Walked One Mile (pretty lame sauce but it was the first day of the challenge so I felt like I had to get SOMETHING)
Friday: “Urban Hiked” 3 Miles (I obviously slept through my AM workout, couldn’t get out of the office for a lunch time workout, and then got on a bus to NYC. By the time we arrived, I was dying for exercise. I carried our heavier backpack – even though Mike offered to – and we walked from Penn Station to my friend’s apartment on the Upper East Side. We could have easily gotten a cab or taken the subway, but I really wanted to walk)
Saturday: Walked 6 Miles (Originally, our NYC intention was to run on Saturday morning and go watch the marathon on Sunday. Obviously, the marathon didn’t happen. We then changed plans and decided to go running on Sunday morning. Mike’s ankle definitely wanted another day of rest and I didn’t exactly spring out of bed on Saturday morning after being out until after 2 am catching up with my friend Max. So we walked from the upper East Side across the park to my friend Bissie’s apartment near Columbia. We also walked several miles with Bissie around the Upper West Side on Saturday afternoon. The weather was PERFECT for walking around this weekend. I loved it)
Final Summation: I suppose I would’ve liked to post some running miles in the first couple days of the challenge, but it really did feel good to do this much walking! I live in an urban environment, so I normally walk a lot and don’t think much of it. I have been enjoying this more intentional walking 🙂 Also, this weekend kicked ass (post to follow later today) so I really wouldn’t have changed anything about it.
Goal for this week: My goal this week is 40 miles. I ran 6 on Sunday in NYC and I got up this morning for 5 miles, so that was a great start! Unfortunately, the arch of my right foot has really been bothering me (I walked all weekend in boots that probably weren’t supportive enough). I want to do a little yoga tonight and use my plantar massage balls to try and roll it out a little bit.
Remember – if you’re participating in Pile on the Miles go over to Run Eat Repeat or input your miles in this spreadsheet by midnight tonight!
Pile on the Miles
Woah two posts in one day?? I know right. One of my goals in regards to the blog is to try and link up more often with other people around the “blogging world”. I really want to become a little more involved and see what kind of cool experiences are out there. This month I decided to participate in Monica‘s Pile on the Miles Challenge!
There are lots of cool prizes and giveaway opportunities… but it’s also a great way to stave off a little bit of the holiday weight gain by challenging yourself to exercise more! Here are the rules (there are taken FROM Monica’s site):
Who: Everyone is invited to join
What: Online challenge to walk or run more during turkey month.
When: November 1 – December 1. Winners announced Dec 2nd.
Where: Sign up and Update your weekly mileage on the spreadsheet below
Why: To challenge yourself and encourage others to move more. This isn’t about weight loss or distance – it’s about doing a little extra this month.
The Rules:
1. Sign up on the Google Spreadsheet by October 31st.
There will be a place for your name, blog address and twitter handle. You must put in a name, but the other entries are optional. If you have a blog please add it so we can create the most epic blogroll ever!
2. Set a goal at the beginning of the challenge to WALK or RUN x amount of miles. These could be miles on the treadmill OR outside/inside walking OR running. No biking or elliptical miles don’t count.
3. We will be using calendar weeks Sun-Sat, but the first week is Thur-Sat. It’s clearly marked on the spreadsheet. Please update your miles for the previous week by Monday.
4. Optional: Leave a comment on RER Nov 1 and 5, 12, 19, 26 with your Mileage Goal for that week. All comments on those posts will be entered into a giveaway.
Use this spreadsheet to sign up by Oct 31st at midnight:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ArBkv0LjyfmxdDA5dUdLTXlGT3ZoUnpxcWp4cDFfNXc
I signed up!! I have my goal as 140 miles in November (I am pretty sure you’re supposed to put your TOTAL mileage goal in to sign up and then you update your weekly mileage every Monday? I wasn’t 100% sure, but that seemed right). In addition to my normal running (which will easily put me over 100 miles for the month) I want to start adding walking miles too! My goal is to add 3 miles of walking every day I don’t run.
christinazimm
Pennies on the Run 