Confessions of a Pedometerholic

Workout: just a couple of dog walks, but here's how my week panned out:

Saturday: super awesome 7-hour hike to Williwaw Lakes
Sunday: THE CORE
Monday: 3 miles on Powerline
Tuesday: 2 miles at the track (I didn't blog about it, though, so it DIDN'T HAPPEN)
Wednesday: Flattop!
Thursday: 3 wonderful but crappy miles, THE CORE
Friday: see above

Total: 8 measly miles of jogging, about 9 hours of hiking, and some strength stuff

Tomorrow, Hal's letting me do 4! I gotta say, I know I hardly ran any miles, but my shin feels much better than it has with only slightly higher mileage. I know I'm already setting myself up for disappointment (it has only been four days, after all), but I'm feeling good about this. Slow but steady blah blah blah, right?

Anchorage-y picture because I've got nothing else:

My neighbors have decided it's time.

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And now, because I'm 800 years old, I'd like to talk about pedometers. My beloved pedometer, more specifically.

A beauty, isn't she? But not really.

So why do I wear something so dumb? Well, it started as a work thing. I was "gently pushed" by some coworkers at my old job (in New York) into joining their pedometer team for some contest that was going on. I was told it would probably last a week or two, and since at the time I was training for the Burlington Marathon I ended up not running and keep promising to talk about, I figured I should give it a shot, if only to show I was "part of the team" (I was, very soon after, no longer part of the team). I quickly realized the contest wasn't "one or two weeks"-it was three months. That's a long-ass time to remember to wear a pedometer and write down your daily step count. I was no longer excited to take part in this team-building exercise.

Well, we all got our handy dandy pedometers, started tracking our steps on the ridiculous pedometer website, and something funny happened: I loved it. Loved, loved my stupid pedometer that gave me a very suggestive bulge in whatever pants/skirt I happened to be wearing. While the rest of my team almost immediately lost interest and stopped keeping track of their steps, I was a neurotic freak about it. The pedometer even served a real purpose when I stress fractured my foot (is that a verb?) and had to wear a boot for six weeks. I couldn't run, obviously, but I really wanted to keep my activity level up, so my pedometer was a great way to ensure I stayed active. It's amazing how you can think you've had a pretty active day, only to be told by your pedometer that you've really just sat on your ass. It keeps you honest.

Wow, I sound like I'm about to tell you "I bring this up because I'm being sponsored by this AMAZING pedometer company that sent me a million pedometers and now you ALL can have one but first you just need to like them on Facebook and send me $100!" I'm not actually doing that. I'm just telling you that my pedometer is fucking awesome. Who'da thunk it? Anyway, I'm trying to say that I still wear my pedometer every single day, and I still keep track of my steps. I've found that if I average 18,000 a day, I can eat whatever the hell I want and not gain weight. It's a good system.

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In other news, did anyone else hear about the Civil Wars (possibly) breaking up?!?! Say it ain't so!!! It's funny, actually, because whenever I see videos of them at live shows talking before a song, I always seem to think, "Wow, he's about to punch her in the face" because, frankly, she seemed kind of annoying. I wonder if he just couldn't stand it anymore. I'm sure it was much more than that (and I'm sure she's a very lovely person), but whatever the case, laaaaaame. Have you watched Billie Jean? Stop reading this crap and go check it out. Love their version.