100 miles down, 30 hours to go!

I did it. Happy birthday to me- I went 100 miles in April.

That is like walking from London to Calais France. (Europe makes 100 miles seem a lot further than Canada)

And I feel great about it. The point of this challenge was to motivate me and make me keep going just a little bit more. The result was that I have maintained the 33 pounds that I have lost so far, and I am in way better shape to try to drop a few more!

I have a new challenge for May. 30 active hours. What I mean by "active hours" is hours in which you are doing intentional physical activity, like hiking. not hours where you are moving but not really, like shopping at the mall. The intention of this is to work less hard, but for longer. Instead of pushing myself to finish my miles, I will back off the speed and keep going. I chose 30, because that works out to an hour every day, but I have no intention of doing an actual hour every day.

Some days I will do a 30 minute walk and that will be it. Some days We will go on 2 hour hikes. As long as I get my but off the couch and move, I think I can make this 30 hour goal. I just need some fun way to measure it.

Happy May everyone! 

Gadgets and Gizmos

With my 100 mile month challenge coming up starting on Sunday, I thought I would mention some gadgets that might just make it easier.

The first is technically an app, I mention all the time. My Fitness Pal (which can also be used online- no smartphone required!) This free website is how I made the plan that has helped me lose 31 pounds so far. I love this site!

Another handy gadget for helping, is a pedometer. I have this one:

And it is nice to know how far you walk! If you are using a pedometer to gauge your steps for the 100 mile challenge, just estimate your stride length!

The last item on my list is actually an item on my wishlist. A heart monitor.

This one from Amazon is pink, and it doubles as a pedometer, so score!

Keeping track of your heart rate is a great way to monitor your fitness and weight loss, and gauge how hard your body is working.  The way to use it is really simple- take your resting heart rate first thing when you wake up.

Then calculate your "max" heart rate. You can pay for someone to calculate all this for you with a treadmill and stuff, or you can use a basic formula. A good rule of thumb is 220- your age is a rough estimate of your max.

Then all you need is a little math, to tell you what your zones are.

Zones 2-3 are where you want to be for aerobic fitness and 4 &5 are anaerobic (basically you build muscle not burn fat) 

The easy/ free way to monitor your heart rate (which is what I do now) is the talking/ singing rule. 

If you can sing, you aren't working out hard enough, if you can't talk you are working out too hard.

For me a sign of fitness is how hard I have to work to get into a certain heart rate zone. At first- just thinking about the gym made me sweat, and 5 minutes on the elliptical got my heart rate up there. Now I have to be seriously rocking out with the resistance up to get my heart rate going when I fist start to work out. That little bit of progress helps me keep going, and push just a little more. 

Regardless of which zone you are in for your 100 miles, even if you do the whole month in zone one, Just think of how far you will have gone! And you will see how fast your body gets used to the work!