Friday, June 04, 2010

Yay me!

With one final three-mile run last night, I met the final requirements for a President's Fitness Challenge Gold Medal.

I started this in October, 2008, just a week before I ran the Army Ten-Miler for the first time. Since then, I've kept track of time spent running, swimming, weight training, martial arts, cardio work and even walking. It's simple: Do the exercise then log in and plug in what you did and for how long. It keeps a tally and eventually you can earn awards. It's a great way to track your progress and at least in my case, it motivates me to get out there because I feel slack if I don't log some work every few days or so.

My proudest achievement: Per the records, since starting, I've logged 76 hours running. (Would that be 152 hours for someone with two legs?) At my average distance pace of 10 minutes per mile, that's 456 miles.

I also logged 17 hours of swimming and I can easily swim a mile now without stopping.

Lagniappe gets credit too, of course. I also logged all of our walks that were over half an hour in duration, and together we logged over 90 hours of walking and hiking, to include quite a bit of time spent on the Appalachian Trail and Maryland Heights across the Potomac from Harpers Ferry. If you've climbed to the Old Stone Fort as we've done numerous times, you'll know that the hike's no joke. We worked, and he earned his own Gold Ribbon, which is on the way along with my medallion. We celebrated last night with a glass of Bushmills for me, and a deer bone for him. Very happy.

Now that I've hit the Gold Medal on this program, I'm at a loss for something else to work on. I can't stop now, and I'm in search of another workout program. Any of you have any suggestions?

4 comments:

  1. Congrats on your achievement. I am, frankly, in awe of your athletic endeavors. All you need now is a bicycle and you're ready for a triathlon. Lu and I have been riding for the last year and a half and your running posts have me back out on the road running again.
    Now if I could only swim.
    I have an idea for a non-swimming tri event though. I want to do a
    10k run, 100 mile bicycle ride and lift 100,000 pounds in the gym, all in succession.
    What do you think?

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  2. That is a Big accomplishment -- what a milestone!
    I bike here in AZ in the AM and love it. I stay to paved ways -- don't want to lose it here on the jagged rocks -- and with a little exploring, I can avoid most of the busy streets. (Bikers, motorized or not, are invisible -- never forget!)

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  3. Tell me about it, Ed.

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  4. Congratulations! super inspiring. I recommend a bicycle and a triathlon or biathlon. Or Yoga - it would help take that edge off.

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