Merry Christmas all

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. I only ran once over the long weekend and walked a couple of times but at least I didn't move down appreciably in the Nike+ Beginners Challenge. Still in 13th place and still have a goal of getting into the top 10.

Can't wait for Spring

For the first time since I moved to Fairbanks 25 years ago, I'm looking forward to Spring. Not because the winter weather or darkness is getting to me, but I picked up a motorcycle. The original driver was high fuel prices but after taking the MSF class last summer, I'm really looking forward to riding. It is a 1983 BMW R100RT which seems to be in very good condition for being 24 years old. I remember looking at these when they were new and now they are considered "classics". Sigh, must be getting old. I really like the simplicity of the design i.e. air cooled, carbureted, push rods, 2 valves per cylinder and shaft drive. No fancy electronics or gadgets but still suitable for touring. It came with side mounted bags and a top case. Now I need to get protective gear and wait for Spring then start practicing.

Slacking off, Again!

After pushing myself fairly hard (at least for this time of the year) to win that last challenge, I was pretty well run out and haven't ran since. I did manage to get into the top 10 of the other beginner challenge and have just passed 300 miles since I got this gadget.

12/20/2007 - I thought about walking to the lower campus this morning to mail a package but the -38F temperature just wasn't very welcoming, so I took the shuttle bus. I haven't walked on the treadmill for several days due to kids needing to be run around here and there but that is just a handy excuse for the lack of motivation. I've slipped to 13th place in the other challenge after working my way up to 9th place (out of 900) so I'm still in the running so to speak. I guess everyone is slowing down this time of year even those in warmer climates. Maybe it's the holidays.

I finally did walk on the treadmill this evening for a couple of miles but I'm coming down with a cold and that's making it difficult to breath properly. So no jogging for a while I guess. I hope it passes quickly as I'm loosing sleep.

More Obsessive Behaviour

Finally finished the one Nike+ beginner challenge. I walked/jogged for over 5 miles per day for the last four days just to catch up on the leaders. After uploading my runs to the Nike+ site this morning, I was still three miles short of winning so I went for a walk to lower campus via Ballaine Lake and College Road. Not the most direct route but it did get me the miles needed to finish and get the little trophy image...

Still chugging along

I'm still working on some of the Nike+ challenges. Right now, there is a beginner challenge to run 50 miles before Christmas. It is difficult to actually run but I am managing to run about 3-4 miles at a time about every other day followed by walking until I hit 5 miles. This is ensuring that I get at least 11k steps per day even without the pedometer to remind me. I think I am barely in 1st place in the challenge as there are others within a mile of me. I've entered another beginner challenge that was to run 100k before Jan 31. Many of the participants are well beyond 100k and I think that I am in 14th place out of 800 with over 180 miles. First place has almost 400 miles in (I think it started at the beginning of November). I am striving to get into the top 10 but I am really going to push myself a bit to get there. This still isn't the same as "competing" against others around the university but at least it is keeping me going. I wonder if the new StartWalking program is still on track to start next month?

When it rains, it pours

It seems as if I have been continually recuperating from something over the last couple of weeks. Must be me getting old or something (at least that is what I'm told). This has made it much more difficult to exercise on anything approaching a regular basis. I had entered a beginners challenge on the Nike+ site which should have been easy... 100 miles in 30 days. In the StartWalking days, that would've been an easy week but now it took almost 3 weeks to reach that goal. Walking has become a source of aches and pains that weren't there a few months ago. A month ago, I reported being able to run for an hour. Now, I'm out of breath in under 15 minutes. Getting sick really sucks... I was invited to participate in a challenge to run 50 miles before Christmas. Now that I'm feeling better, time to try and win this one (I'm over 12 miles behind the leader.)

Quite a gap since the last post...

I haven't posted for quite a while since I've been somewhat under the weather. Overall steps have dropped significantly since the end of September. I've been trying to stay active in the Nike+ site but it isn't quite the same counting miles as counting steps. There is no conversion and only actual "runs" are counted not all of the other running around many of us do in the course of the day. I'm looking forward to the rebirth of the walking program.