My Third Thing - FitBit Challange

Dig Deep.

This is actually from earlier in the year but I learned a lot from it, it happened inside 2016, I have documentable proof – AND it fits within my goals for the year.

There was a fitbit challenge that a bunch of Jason’s family had started. I got invited and got excited to try it out. I knew some of them were competitive but I have been doing better at getting to the gym regularly – so I figured I might as well give it a try. It was a ‘workweek challenge’ which meant whoever got the most ‘steps’ from Monday through Friday would win. Once I started my competitive streak really took over.

One of his cousins walks near 12 miles a day at work and my job straps me to a chair. So I had to go to the gym in the morning, try to get there at lunch and go back after work. I would try to put in as may trips around the building at work as I could but it never even came close. I had to get all of my steps inside of a 3-4 hour (total) window. Walking alone would have never been enough. I had to get my steps in quicker than that if I was going to win.

The only way to do this was to run.

I would wake up at 4:30am to be to gym by 5am and run for an hour or an hour and a half. I would get in 5-7 miles and then get ready for work. At work I would walk to the farthest bathrooms and coffee pot as often as I could. At lunch I would go to the gym in the plant and run for another 30 minutes and get in few more miles. Depending on what the totals looked liked for that day I would drag Jay to the gym and I would run another 5-7 miles there as well.

Long story short – I won the challenge.

It literally came down to the last day. On Friday afternoon I was in the gym trying to get in as many miles as I could.  I ran 14 miles that day.

I ran 54.89 miles in 7 days total.

I have not run that much in years.

And. I. Loved. It.

I haven’t run more than 2-4 miles at a time in the last few years. Before that I was running 6 miles a day. I don’t nee to go back to that because it is really hard on your knees – but I was finally able to find my zen while I was running. Because I had to push myself for the challenge I had to push past the time when I usually got tired, or bored, or antsy to go do something else in the gym. Forcing myself to stay on task helped me to remember that amazing feeling when I just zone out completely in the middle of a run.

So I think I got two things out of this challenge. I found my zen again and I realized that the time for me to get to the gym is there if I MAKE time for it. I knew both of these existed before but this helped me to find them again. It was a good feeling. J