I will not......

In the month of July I stumbled upon a challenge that really held appeal for me.  It was/is called the Move you’re a$$ challenge.  It is a monthly challenge in which each participant sets their own goals.  It is a mileage goal (ok, to be fair to countries that use the metric system) and there are some people that have insanely high monthly goals.  Seriously, there is one person that has a 1000 mile goal (well, maybe it’s a km goal…which makes it a little less daunting now that I think about it).   There are some people on there that only aim for 20 or 30 miles for the month.  So this challenge is individually tailored by each person.  WE decide what our goal is.  Then you just periodically post how many miles you have completed to date and they update a Google spreadsheet that we can all see. So this way you can see where you stack with everyone else.  If you post your miles daily, that’s good.  If you post a week worth of miles at once it’s all good.  No stress no nothing.  Pretty easy challenge I’d have to say.

 

In the month of July I set a goal for myself. I decided that I could attain 150 miles.  Sadly, I got sick and missed a whole week of riding….ouch!  The month started winding down and I was short on completed miles.  Not too bad, I just had to ride 3 out of 5 days.  Not too bad.   I pushed myself to get out there and ride and run.  I squeaked it but I managed to get my 150 miles in.  Knowing that I had done 150 miles but in essence had missed at least a week of exercise, I was a bit more ambitious when I set my August goal.  I decided that I could swing 200 miles. 

 

And here is where we have a problem.  I kind of fiddled around the beginning of the month.  Kind of?   OK, I did.   I did thankfully put 20-30 miles into the books each week….but since I’m reasonably sure that August only has 4 weeks and not 8-10 weeks I have to admit that I didn’t do enough to reach a 200 mile goal.   I’m still only consistently riding 10-15 miles on my road bike at anyone time (and usually toward the lower number…darn hills get me!) so it’s not a simple thing of just riding once or twice to complete all the miles.

 

So where exactly am I?   As of this exact moment I’m 89.15 miles into my goal.  The bad part?  I’ve only got 9 days left to knock out roughly 111 miles.   That is 12.3 miles a day.  Quite doable.  My normal morning ride is 10.5 miles….so one extra loop in the north end of the  park (the Antietam battlefield) would add the extra miles if I were only riding that day.  If I just did my short 10.5 route I would need to pair it with a run.  EVERY DAY.

 

I have a couple things up my sleeve that I may pull out to help me add some mileage. 

 

• the exercise bike-  indoor equipment bores me…but if I hop on that while watching tv in the evening there is a cool 10-15 miles.  (So basically, while I’m watching Dexter on Sunday night, I need to be riding…..and when I’m watching my tivo’d Breaking bad on Monday night…ride).  One additional ride (basically ride outside and then ride inside) would set me up ahead of the game and get me a little bit out of the hole.
• Of course I’m trying to run…so if I run once or twice to round this week out and run my 3-4 times next week I can expect anywhere between 12-18 miles from that.  
• Sherry and I are walking tonight and will probably walk at least once next week…so there is between 3-8 miles
• Lunch time walks.  It doesn’t net much but each time I walk on my lunch break and do the circle around town I earn about 1.5 miles.  Not much…but every little bit counts!
• My ace in the hole, but one I hesitate because I’d be pretty much by myself and I would rather not go up there and ride by myself…..The final day of the month is on a Saturday.  I get off work at noon.   I can take my bike up to the WM rail trail and ride. It’s flat and since it’s the hills that do me in on my road bike, I should be able to knock out some significant mileage.   Ohhh …for that matter maybe THIS weekend I can take my trek out and ride on the canal…..ride from Sharpsburg down to Harpers Ferry or some such ride…..and knock out some serious mileage on a nice FLAT terrain.  Knocking out 20 miles on one or two days would be SPECTACULAR. (and I don’t feel as iffy about riding here…probably because it’s so local to me.)  I still wouldn’t be out of the woods, but I’d be in better shape for actually accomplishing my goal in this challenge.

 

And I swear….next month I will NOT be scrambling at the end of the month!!!!! (And yes,  I’m choosing 200 again!  This time I will ROCK it!)