Started Another Streak

I Have a Monster Streak Going…

That is the one I wrote about blogging every night here for over 11 straight years without a miss.

So I know how to do a streak successfully. And over the years I have started a lot of streaks and challenges for myself. Some are writing streaks like a short story a day for over a hundred days that I did in 2022. That was fun.

And I have started a ton of streaks that just went nowhere for one reason or another. Mostly I gave them no power, or they had no end goal.

I think a solid goal is maybe the most important, and the goal needs to be something you really want.

Well, I have started an exercise steak I have done before. 10,000 steps per day minimum. I know how easy that is on some days and how hard that is on others. For my stride that is five miles per day.

And I started swimming a number of laps every morning. (Have never done the swimming in my adult life, but I was a great swimmer at one point. I am so out of shape it is stupidly hard.) The swimming should help with the breathing. My goal is to lose enough body fat to be able to actually stay under water and swim one length of our pool under water. That might take a while to attain, but it is a good goal. (When I was younger I would have been able to go two lengths of the pool under water without straining. Younger is the key term there.)

Also on top of that, I will spend two days a week lifting (not weights, boxes of books and big shelves in our storage units.)

Later this fall when a big new driving range opens a short distance from us, I will see if my eyes will allow me to hit balls. If so, I will add that in as upper body exercise. I used to be able to hit a thousand balls a day. Right now I would get winded on a small bucket. (I have no plans on playing, just hitting balls on a range. Great full body exercise.)

Part of the 10,000 steps every day will be running. Slowly at first, then more as the weight drops and the knees strengthen.  I ran a quarter of a mile today, more than enough.

Why am I doing all this and giving this much focus to it?

1… Lose weight… 30 extra pounds I gained from the years of the pandemic. (Yes, I have reduced calories and am eating very healthy.)

2… I have a 5K run on September 30th. And that starts weekly 5K charity runs until Christmas and some into next year. Some of the runs I am signed up for 10K. (Easier to win the old geezer age group in a 10K because almost no one my age runs that far. (grin)) Key with 10K is you have to run most of it or everyone goes home while you are still out on the course.

3… I have a half marathon I would like to be better at in February this year. I have finished that half five straight years, none have been pretty.

4… In 2021 I finished a full marathon. (26 miles) I was 70, had done a little pandemic-style training, but not much, and stepped on a large rock at mile six that punctured the bottom of my foot. Still finished, but it was not pretty. I would like to do that run better in the spring this coming year.

So I have real motivation to hit the streak on the 10,000 steps per day, increase my running, lift a lot of boxes, and swim a ton of laps.

The first run is the Vegas Strong 5K run. Thousands and thousands will be running it all over the downtown Vegas area near our place. My goal is on one of these 5K runs to break 30 minutes. My personal best is 31 minutes 19 seconds.

My best 10K is 1 hour, 15 minutes, and 88 seconds.

My best half marathon is 2 hours, 56 minutes, 32 seconds.

So another goal is to beat all of those this year.

Goals are critical for streaks, both in writing, publishing, and exercising. I’ll let you know how this goes.