Sunday, January 1, 2017

Looking Back at a Year

Happy New Year all my faithful readers. So it is now the official put the new calendar up on the wall and throw the old one out day. We should make something to celebrate the act of getting rid of, or recycling the old calendar and putting up the new calendar. I recall a few years ago when the people were getting upset with the Mayan Calendar it was running out and therefore the thought was the world and Universe was coming to an end. What actually happened was the calendar was coming to the end, and all that was required was to go to the local kiosk at the Mall and get the new Mayan Calendar.

So I'm looking back to the year 2016 and considering all that has happened and what it means with my exercise: 1) The Big thing on my wrist over the past year is the Fitbit Flex; I've wore it practically every day over the year and to the end of the year, I have, done 4,256,701 steps, which translate into 3,355 kilometers. Now to help understand these numbers, it means everything that the Fitbit considers as steps is part of those numbers. My last badge has been the India badge so I've done the equivalent of the coastline of India. That is quite interesting and i do look forward to another year wearing the devise. I've got to purchase a few more wristband over the next year to make sure it stays colourful.

2) When I started 2016 I decided I would cutback on my running; this was due to the number of injuries I was starting to develop and keep, especially the knees, I wanted to make sure I didn't overdo it last year. The good news in 2015 was that I surpassed 800 miles. I wanted to rest up my body and then add some other activities. I will be honest and say the I took off the month of December, due to a stupid chest cold that started the month, plus being busier more then I should have been and so I didn't have any activity for the entire month. Still I reached over 500 miles which works out to 841 kilometers, which is still acceptable. I remember when I reached over 300 miles and that was something that impressed me and it is good. Now the number of road races went down to 1 but I did do 3 virtual runs. Which was still good and I have the medals, tee shirts and the stickers, the latter are on my new laptop. They look good and I am glad to participate in the virtual runs. What is nice about the virtual runs is that they take place everywhere and anywhere so instead of going to some place special at a specific time, I just choose when I'm going to wear the tee shirt and the number, they supply the pins which is neat. One of the best runs I did was a result of a bike ride, which meant I ran down the regional road to one of the regional forests which was a great experience, and I plan to have some more of these type of runs

3) One part of my exercise I wanted to expand was the bike riding. A couple of years ago I had to buy a new bike due to an accident which destroyed the bike I had. I truly enjoyed that bike, it was great and I put a lot of distance on those wheels. Sadly, it was destroyed, not on the road but in the garage. I still get upset when I think about it, so please give me a few moments to compose myself before I continue.

Okay I'm back, the year 2015 when the old bike was destroyed and I bought a new bike, I put a whole 20 miles on it. This past year I managed to get 86.98 miles As I mentioned in the part about running, one of the places I biked to is now going to be a part of my regular running route. It's out of the city and along on the regional road. It is going to be great. It's a good route and I look forward to the new route and the new year of running. Some of the peripherals for the bike has been the handlebar mounts for my smartphone, I'm using it for my Strava app on my phone so that I've got the distance, time, calories and so on registered and uploaded. It is great, looks good and keeps the phone solid on the bike. I've got one mountain bike jersey that I plan to wear when the weather gets warm enough, plus there's a long sleeve one that I have my eye on and I will probably purchase it shortly. I'm still learning to get used to the disc brake system and I am getting better.

4)After teasing me and a lot of people for more then six months and probably closer to a year, the World Gym opened up in the downtown core of the old city of Galt. It's 8 minutes from home and 5 minutes from my office. It is great, it's not as large as the main one, but it has all the equipment that I need to have a good workout. Since it has opened, I've been to the main gym only once, and I think that's going to be it. I like the location, the way it's set up for everybody and while the lockers may be a bit small, it's okay. I'm using the main row of the coat rack to have my coat and boots so I'm not taking up a lot of space with the locker. Plus I've got a good time for a few classes and there is the hydromassage bed. I've been using the recumbent bike and now I'm going to use the elliptical machine as my cardio.

5)Yoga I went to the Yoga Conference in Toronto and I plan to get to it next year. I bought myself a new mat, Dusky Leaf, the most I've spent on a mat. I've found a lot of great videos on YouTube and are making them a part of my weekly workout.

6) My morning workout is still an activity. It gets me going and I think Eowyn enjoys having me workout downstairs. Plus when the weather was warm I was outside and it was fun.

So that's what happen last year. The next blog will consider what I want in 2017. Thanks for reading.

No comments:

Post a Comment