Achievement unlocked - 20 mile charity walk and 50,000 steps in one day!

After months of training and lots of pre-event jitters, I am pleased to announce that the Nerd and I completed the Weekend to End Women's Cancers 1-day charity walk here in Toronto, along with the rest of our Coca-Cola Canada team and more than 3,000 other walkers. 

The walk training schedule that got us to the end intact

Let's start off with the training.  A good friend recommended that we follow a training schedule to get our bodies (and especially our feet) in condition for the Walk, and I have to say that this is a definite key to our success and enjoyment of the event.  Sore feet are no fun at all from what we could see from other walkers, and we were blissfully free of any blisters or chafing to speak of.  Physically, aside from being tired and sweaty (in other words, super glamorous), we had absolutely no sequellae from the Walk.  In fact, we were basically back to normal the very next day, something I did not expect. 


The next day, both the Nerd and I felt fine, albeit a little more tired in the legs than usual during our normal workouts.  We slept great the evening of the walk, and had no significant leg pain to speak of.  And this morning it was back to my normal elliptical routine with 60 minutes on the elliptical, and I felt great (other than the fact that I was on the elliptical machine for 60 minutes, that is!).  Although I did begrudge the time spent doing the training walks when we were doing them, the training and preparation sure paid off.  I know it is possible to do the Walk without training at all, but we had more fun than some of the people who did not prepare simply because our conditioning was exactly what we needed and because we felt fine all the way through. 

Before the Walk - a little nervous...and damp

The walk to the Skydome from our place was rainy, and although we had completed numerous training walks in everything from high humidity to drizzles to torrential downpours, a rainy day would have promised to make a long walk feel just that much longer. 


Fortunately for us though, although it started off grey and drizzly, the day quickly cleared up into intermittent sun and clouds, not too hot, and with a nice breeze.  Perfect walking conditions, in other words.

Waiting for the start

Before the walk we met with the rest of the Coca-Cola team, listened to bursts of almost entirely incomprehensible noise from the loudspeakers (apparently these were motivational speeches, but between distortion and echoes from loud noise in a largely empty stadium, I could barely understand a word) and avoided doing any of the stretching that our other Walkers engaged in. 

Traffic jam

We did not train with stretching and had no problems along the way, and I didn't want to change things up at the 11th hour.  I was comforted in this decision by thinking back on dinner with friends the night before where one was espousing the benefits of being a "supple leopard" - - after all, leopards do not stretch before chasing down prey, so why do we?  I won't claim to be anything close to "supple" (I'm more of a stiff plank, myself), but we are none the worse for having not stretched at all during the day.  I noticed that other walkers were stretching at almost every rest stop, and it allowed us to get ahead of a lot of people simply because we did not stop other than for lunch, and once to eat some fruit at a pit stop.

With the speeches done it was time to hit the road...only to get caught up in the mother of all traffic jams made up of literally thousands of walkers.  Toronto traffic is bad at the best of times, and it is good to know that sidewalk traffic can be just as messed up.  It was worst at the start, but equally bad on some of the small neighborhood streets we were traversing, simply because the sidewalks there were never designed for foot traffic in our numbers. 


Although our team wanted to walk together, we were pretty far back in the pack and the Nerd and I are impatient people by nature so he and I tried to follow our natural pace that quickly took us closer to the front.  It turns out that we finished reasonably far ahead of the rest of our team, but as everyone had fun and made it to the end, I think it still counts as mission accomplished for us all.


One of the more moving moments of the Walk was when we passed Princess Margaret Hospital (the recipient of our fundraising dollars) and ran a veritable gauntlet of doctors and patients cheering us all on.  I am not ashamed to admit that I got a little misty eyed at that point, which I am blaming on air pollution or someone cutting onions in the vicinity rather than the attack of the feels which it really was.  Very moving, to say the least, especially when you consider that all we were doing was spending one day taking rather a longer walk than usual, and those people are fighting the battle against cancer every single day.  I tried to clap and cheer them, but I do not know if they could hear me over the general cacophony.

The 2014 Walk to End Women's Cancers Walk Route - Day 1

Our route took us all over the midtown and west areas of Toronto, generally no further north than Bloor Street and out past High Park (the big green bit in the map above) to the Humber River valley.  We did not go into High Park itself which I found surprising, but it probably would have resulted in shorter mileage, given its location relative to downtown.  Although much of our walk was familiar, we got to discover some new bits too, like the Humber River valley south of our walk last weekend.  Once we hit the Waterfront Trail after lunch I knew we were within 6 miles of home, because this had been part of our first long training walk, the one that saw me almost crippled at 8 miles.  Now here I was at 14+ miles feeling fine and passing people.  Yay for training and gradually building up distances.


The very final stretch was through another gauntlet of cheering volunteers into the Skydome itself with our arrival announced via the PA system to all in the area and our faces on the jumbotron.  Well, the Nerd's face and the top of my head, probably, as I kept looking down at the stairs we had to descend to make sure I did not wipe out in front of all and sundry (I remained trip free on the day, yipee, although I did get stepped on once and elbowed once in the chest - ouch!). 

After the walk, glad to be done!

Once we arrived we took stock and were pleased to note that our only physical symptoms after our long walk was a little stiffness and tiredness in the legs.  We were feeling so fine that we walked the mile and a half home and even did a little grocery shopping, although we perhaps looked a little more bedraggled than usual.  Understand me when I say that bedraggled is probably being kind. 

We had one additional win for the day, as if doing a good deed, pushing our limits, and discovering hidden strengths was not enough - - both the Nerd and I topped out at more than 50,000 steps during the day, the first time either of us have done that. 

And to think, all it took was spending 6 hours walking 22 miles (give or take, including the walks to and from the Skydome).  Trust me when I say that this feat will not soon be replicated, at least not by me!

Would I do it again?  Very likely, if I am still at my current company.  After all, now they know I can do it, so there's no excuse not to do it again...but we don't need to worry about that right now.  All that matters is that there are no training walks for me in the near future - - any walks I take will be for fun...and maybe for fitness.

Back to the normal routine tomorrow!

This is what 12.5 miles looks like...

This morning was our last "official" long training walk for the upcoming Weekend to End Women's Cancers charity walk, in that all the training walks from now until September 6 will be shorter than 12.5 miles.  Today was 12.5 miles and tomorrow will be 8.5 miles - - together they amount to pretty much what we will be walking in one day at the event.  Next week are a couple of 6 milers on the weekend, and then it's down to 1.5 mile walks and 3 mile walks as we taper down.  It will be back to the elliptical for sure. 

This morning we left at our customary ungodly hour (we were on the road before 5 am), and we headed east along Queen Street, but instead of following Queen until the Neville Park Loop and coming back by way of the waterfront trail like we did last weekend, we went up Kingston Road to Victoria Park avenue (the old border between Toronto/East York and Scarborough), and then headed up Victoria Park to the Danforth, which we took all the way back to our stomping ground. 

I must confess that I struggled more with this walk than I did with the walk last weekend, mainly because I was trying to push the pace more this week.  And it worked - - we shaved a whole 15 minutes off our walk time for the distance, going down from 3 hr 40 min to 3 hr 25 min this morning over the same distance.  That's a full 15 minutes we did not need to walk compared to last week, which is great.

But the pace was probably an issue, because I was much more tired and sore at the tail end of this walk than I was last week, and I am sure the fact that we were pushing the pace even on the long uphill stretch up Kingston Road had something to do with it.

Nevertheless, we were able to finish the 12.5 miles in much better form than the first time we tried that distance to be sure, and I am feeling pretty good about our chances on the day of the walk. 

All these steps are doing wonders for my Fitbit rankings.  Month to date August I am ranked #60 among 1,100 Redditors who Fitbit, which puts me in the top 5-10% of that group.  Yay!

And did I mention that all this walking is good for weight loss?  Even with rehydrating throughout the walk I was down another pound this morning, for a total of 15.6 pounds lost since I started the new job and recommitted myself to my workout and eating plan.  Sweet. 

I am still above my lowest previous weight, of course, but every additional pound lost puts some distance between me and the dreaded 200 pound mark.  I now have 33 pounds to go until my goal weight, which sounds like a much more reasonable number than it feels like some mornings. 

Today the Nerd and I are going to bake some "proof of concept" Share a Coke (R) gingerbread cookies for the charity bakesale my company is having on Tuesday.  After the cookies, perhaps a much deserved nap.  I love weekends since starting my new job.

Back to blogging - 127.9 pounds down [with pics]

I haven't been blogging for a couple of weeks because, frankly, I have been really frustrated with my workouts and weight loss.

Let me be clear here - - losing weight is work every step of the way, especially when you do it the right way, through gradual lifestyle improvement.  But up until relatively recently, it has been pretty easy for me to lose 1 - 1.5 pounds each week.  I would log my Friday morning weight, bump up a bit Saturday morning, and then Sunday through the following Friday I would pretty well see incremental losses every day.  I would not stress out too much about my progress, because by Sunday (or Monday at the latest) I was usually below my previous Friday's weight, and anything I achieved from that point on was gravy.  (mmmmmm....gravy)

Two weeks ago I changed up my routine to formally add back in a rest day.  Not a pretend rest day with "only" a 30 minute workout like I had been doing, but a full, proper rest day.  No intentional workouts at all.  I would not be bedridden for the day, but I wasn't going out of my way to exercise, unlike the other 6 days of the week.

The rest day has led to a couple of changes in my routine.  First, it has shifted my weigh in day from Friday to Saturday, the official end of my workout week.

Second, it has led to a huge rebound weight gain on Sunday morning, because I have the usual weekend rebound plus whatever I am not losing through sweat from the normal workout.  For the past couple of weeks, instead of getting back to my Friday weight by Monday, I have been only getting near my Saturday weight on the following Friday - - in other words, it is taking me the entire week to get back only as far as I had been the week before.

I am sincerely hoping that this is merely a temporary aberration, prompted by the recent change in routine.  I am finding it very difficult to spend so much of my time making up ground I have already lost, so to speak, and I really dislike the feeling of being behind the eight ball for most of the week when I am exercising every day and eating well.

Now that I have vented my frustrations, let's focus on some of the positives, shall we?

Although it is not pretty, I am still losing weight, which is good because otherwise I would be completely demoralized with the difficulties of the past couple of weeks.  I am down another pound this week, which, in addition to the 1.2 pounds I lost last week, brings me down to 206 pounds, down a total of 127.9 pounds.

Looking back at my progress, I have lost more than 90 pounds since last July, the first readings on the chart, above (top line).  The other major win in the past few weeks has been that I have decreased my body fat % into the normal range (bottom line), albeit not consistently.  Keep in mind that the above chart only starts 6 months after I had first begun working out. 

Taking a look at my steps over the past 11 months, you can see that my average daily steps have increased over time.  In recent weeks I have averaged more than 15,000 steps per day on days I work out.

 

Certainly as my fitness has improved, my world has expanded.  The city is more accessible to me.  Just last week I walked up to the Bay to do some shopping (a trip I previously would have taken the subway to accomplish), and yesterday the Nerd and I walked a mile up to the Loblaws at the old Maple Leaf Gardens to pick up our favourite bread (4 subway stops away).  Where I once could barely walk half a block to the corner, now I don't think twice about walking for an hour on an errand.  I like that.  

 The biggest improvement over time has been in my fasting blood sugar levels.  In May I saw a step change improvement in my sugars, as shown in the above chart.  Whereas each previous month I have seen gradual improvement, even sometimes stringing together 3 or 4 normal results, in May suddenly all but 2 of my readings were normal.  This month to date I have only had 1 elevated reading, and I have also had several readings in the 4 - 4.9 mmol/L range - - another step change improvement.

It's funny how quickly I went from hoping to see a normal fasting blood sugar reading to expecting my readings to be normal.  I am not exactly sure what led to this sudden improvement, other than losing enough weight to almost be overweight, rather than obese.  Perhaps that's all that it takes.  

So how am I progressing against my goals?  Pretty well, in small baby steps:

Only a pound to go to reach light heavy.  In fact, I could qualify for a non-championship fight right now, if, say, I were at all fit.  Which I am not.  At least to that level.  Better yet, I am only 3 pounds away from being overweight.  

I have to confess that it feels like I am reaching 50% of this goal every week.  Which of course means that I will never get there.  I know that I will eventually reach this goal, given time, but it honestly feels like forever.  Patience, grasshopper.  

Here's how I am looking as of June 1, 2013.  To me, I just look normal, like nothing has changed.  Still with the unmanageable hair, still with the wonky eye.  But if I look over time, I can see big changes:

In March 2012 I was wearing size 2X-3X, or a 24-26, and weighed 313.7 pounds.  In October I was down to a plus size 20 and 268.4 pounds, and now I am a size 14-16, and 206 pounds.  Definite progress, if slow and steady.  I have had an expensive month because I have had to buy a lot of new clothes to replace my old baggy suits, but I am feeling more confident and healthier than I have been in years. 

So, net net, it has been a frustrating month so far because the change to my routine has made progress a little tougher to see.  But the progress is still happening, which is great.  I just need to be more patient and accept that this is still a long term thing that I am doing here.  Every month I am still losing pounds and inches, and every month I am measurably healthier.  So I just need to stop trying to have it all, right now, and get zen about this lifestyle change.  

Side effect of fitness: more fitness

I noticed something new a few days ago.  Suddenly, out of the blue, I was logging twice as many steps on my Fitbit.  (I am going to work on the assumption that this is due to a change in my workouts, and not a software glitch!). 

A few weeks ago, I was averaging around 5,000 steps per day.  I could usually get my 5,000 daily steps badge on weekdays, but I certainly wasn't stepping up a storm, even with my hourly trips to the washroom and to the kitchen to get more water.

I've recently noticed, however, that my step count has dramatically increased over the past week.  Instead of 5,000 steps a day, I am now averaging more than 10,000 steps per day - - a target I never thought I would achieve without incremental walks.

I think the source of this is my stepped-up (no pun intended!) stride rate on the elliptical machine.  I used to run between 100 strides per minute and 120 strides per minute, and a couple of weeks ago I tried to increase my stride rate to 120 - 130 strides per minute.  This morning I was able to keep my strides per minute above 130 for almost the entire 50 minutes that I was on the elliptical - - a huge improvement. 

Thinking back to a few months ago, I could not do 130 strides a minute and keep using the handles on the elliptical - - I would have to hold onto the sissy bar for anything over 100 strides per minute, for fear of falling off the machine. I also could not sustain anything over 120 strides a minute for more than a couple of minutes at a time.  Today I was able to sustain 130 strides per minute using the moving handles, and it felt if not comfortable, then perfectly sustainable. 

I love these little incremental changes that creep up on me.  The longer I work out and incorporate healthy things into my lifestyle, the more I realize that the path to fitness is not linear.  It takes twists and turns as my body adjusts to what I am doing, and becomes stronger and fitter.  It is almost like my body gets used to a certain level of activity or food intake, and then says "OK, then, let's see how you like being able to do this!". 

The simple fact is that I can do things now that not only could I not do before, I could not even imagine doing.  It's not a smooth road, but every now and then I notice a dramatic improvement.  Stephen Jay Gould had it right with evolutionary change being more expressed by "punctuated equilibrium" - - long periods of "same old, same old", and then WHAM! something dramatically new. 

For me, the WHAM was noticing that I have been able to increase my stride rate in a way that is making a noticeable impact on my Fitbit step counter.  My cardio and endurance has improved to the point where this is not only possible, it's the new baseline. 

Now that I am able to hit 10,000 steps in my day, I want to set up a regular pattern of hitting this target  - - can I do it every workout day?  I don't know, but I'm going to try.  Then what?  12,500 steps?  More weight training?  Longer boxing workouts?  I don't know what my body will be capable of with time, but I am really looking forward to finding out.

I may not see it ... but my Fitbit does

As you know, I began officially working out at the end of January, 2012.  Before that, and in fact, as early as November, 2011, I was watching what I ate (although not, apparently, watching it very closely).  Trying to manage my food consumption alone led to some minor weight loss, but it took adding exercise to really see the pounds start to come off.

I, like most people, look at myself in the mirror every day.  Changes are happening to my body, but I don't really see them until I compare two photographs, side by side.  It's just that all the changes are so incredibly gradual, that I don't notice them from day to day.


But my little Fitbit sees the changes, too, and tells me so.  Let's look at my very first weekly report from Fitbit (at right).  I walked a whopping total of 13,209 steps that week, for an average of 1,887 steps per day, and a total of 5.94 miles for the entire week. 

Thinking back to this timeframe, at my heaviest, I simply couldn't walk more than a half a block without extreme discomfort in my back, and without my asthma kicking in to make me sound like a freight train.  Not to mention the ever-so-attractive bright pink face.  And that is from walking half a block.

I couldn't walk to the office (a 3 block trip) without stopping at least once to stretch out my back, and I would do whatever I could to avoid walking at all, it was so uncomfortable.  I spent $12 each week on transit to the office, and $50 per week on cabs home from the office.  All because I. Could. Not. Walk. 

Let's compare, shall we, to one of my recent tracking reports (not last week's because Fitbit decided not to track an entire day's worth of steps for some reason, but that's another story). 

A couple of weeks ago I walked more than 48 thousand steps, covering more than 23 miles.  Not only can I walk to the office without discomfort, but I recently went on a 4.4 mile walk, for "fun".  I would never have even thought that I could do such a thing, when I started this workout kick. 

Last week I walked to the office and home again every day (except for Friday evening, when I took a cab to meet a friend uptown for dinner).  I then had a long walk on Saturday afternoon, home from Yonge and Bloor, and I had the monster of all walks (for me) on Sunday, at Tommy Thompson Park. 

The Nerd has noticed that I walk faster, when I walk places, and that we do not need to stop when he walks me to the office in the morning.  He also notices that we go on walks together at least 2-3 times per week, where in the past I would have done everything in my power to avoid walking anywhere.  And there's also the money saved in transit and cabs - - a not immaterial thing in this economy, when times are tight.  And there's also the attitude shift.  Before (in the "dark times" before working out), my default was to take transit everywhere.  Toronto is blessed with a pretty good transit system downtown, and I am smack dab in the center of it.  Over time, however, I have noticed that I find waiting for the streetcar to be more of a pain than it is worth, especially when I know it will be packed and uncomfortable.  I am finding it just easier and nicer to walk to work, and many times I will arrive before the streetcar would have dropped me off.  That change in my mindset is a huge thing, and is the thing that will help me keep with these good walking habits more than anything else. 

I don't notice these differences, because they sneak up on me so gradually.  I can't tell you the first time I was able to walk to work without significant discomfort.  I can't tell you when my wheezing started to get better.  And I can't tell you when I first thought it was easier to walk to work than to wait for the streetcar.  But I can tell you that all of a sudden I am noticing that I can do things that I could never do before. 

And that's a good thing. 

I can't wait to see the story the numbers tell 6 months or a year from now. 

Let's Take it up a Notch...

Last week was the first full week of adding walks 3x/week into my workout routine, and I think it's time to increase the daily steps targets in my Fitbit.

When I first signed up for the Fitbit back in January, I was barely able to walk 2,000 steps each day.  Over time, as my endurance and energy increased with my overall fitness, that number crept up to 3,000 and then 4,000 average steps per day. 

Most recently, my target was set at 5,000 steps per day.  For the last two weeks, I have been blowing that target out of the water, because of the added walks in my routine.  I have also been walking to and from the office more regularly.  Although that walk to the office is so short (8 minutes or less) that it alone cannot account for the sudden uptick in steps taken, the 3 20-35 minute walks I have been taking in the evenings certainly can.

Last Friday my partner and I walked 2.7 miles to and from the post office.  Although that is a long walk for me right now, as time goes on this will be the norm.  Certainly it is my goal to be able to comfortably walk 3 miles in an outing, as this is what my partner's mom does on her daily walks.  If I can keep up with them, I will be doing well. 

The last time we went for one of her infamous walks (or as I like to call them, grim death marches), I spent much of the time just trying to make it to the next landmark, and praying for the walk to end.  I hindsight I don't think the walk was even that long, but it certainly felt long to me.  I barely made it, and was appalled at my lack of fitness.  And that was before I really let myself go and stopped moving almost entirely, a couple of years ago, so you can imagine what would have happened if I had tried to go on the same walk last December.  You don't have to imagine, I will tell you - - I would not have made it out of the parking lot to reach the walking path, as the lot was some distance from the entrance to the park, and in December I couldn't comfortably walk a block and a half without stopping for a break.

Now, however, after almost 8 months of working out steadily, I would be able to handle that walk.  First, I would be emotionally able to handle it, because I would be confident that I have handled similar walks at home.  The distance may be a bit more than I am used to (although it may not be once I have ramped up my walking plan), but I am not at all uncomfortable when I finish my walks now, so there's no reason to think that I could not walk further, if required.

I would also have a way of controlling uncertainty.  I know that my partner's mom likes to walk 2-3 miles on her daily walks.  I would simply turn on my DigiFit app and tell it I am going on a walk, and then it would track my heart rate, calories burned, and distance travelled.  I would even be able to see the path taken on the walk appear on a map in the app.  All of this helps me know how far we have walked, and where, which would help me gauge how long we have left to walk.  Knowing that the walk is almost over stops it from feeling like it is never going to end (which is what the last walk felt like). 

This is not to say that I would be jumping up to volunteer to take a walk, necessarily, but I would not try to avoid it.  And I would be better physically able to handle the walk, and thereby enjoy the company of my partner and his family. 

All of which is the long way of saying that I need to increase my Fitbit target steps, because I ain't going to be walking less anytime soon.