The Two Million (2,000,000) Step Goal. Part 3

So now I find myself in 2007. I have a better sense of what I am capable of. I have a sense of accomplishment from my previous years walking. I have had some big months and some big days to make up those big months. I know I can go on the big walks but can I do enough of them to make up a 2,000,000 step year? There is only one way to find out. Go for it.

To do 2,000,000 steps a year you have to average 5,480 steps a day. That is each and every day, not just the days you feel like walking. If you miss a day you have to walk 10,960 steps the next day just to make up for it. You can of course add 548 steps to the next ten days to make up for one missed day or 55 extra steps for the next 100 days. The point here is that you don’t want to miss any days. As I said before, averages are funny things. The longer you generate an average the harder it is to raise or lower it. Towards the end it took some really big days to make a slight increase in the overall average.

This time I was going to attack the goal from the beginning. No slow starts this time. I needed to average 166,667 steps a month. I could do that; remember I even had a 200,000+ step month. It would be tough but it could be done. The desire was there, the motivation was there and the commitment was there. I was going to do this one way or another; I would walk 2,000,000 steps in one year.

When you have a goal like this, your mindset changes. You look for excuses to add steps to your daily routine. You don’t mind that the parking spots closest to the building are taken. You walk to meetings sometimes even taking the longer route to get there. You carry an umbrella with you so that weather does not slow you down. You study your text book while walking on a favorite path. You find yourself doing figure eight laps in the kitchen while you are waiting for the microwave to finish warming up your dinner. You become one of the mall walkers. You find a way to attach the pedometer to every piece of clothing you own from suits to bike shorts. You do whatever it takes to accumulate those steps so that you can accomplish your goal.

This year, by the end of 6 months I had reached 811,014 steps, the best start so far. Again a bout of illness slowed me down but it was not going to take me out this time. This time I knew what my goal was, and I was firm on my goal. I would make it whatever it took. That determination and drive helped keep me motivated. If I had a spare moment I was walking. If I had a layover in the airport, I was pacing the terminals. If I was in a foreign city, rather than take the rental car or taxi, I was going for a walk.

At the end of 6 months I was behind and chasing my average. I was trying to make up the lost ground and that meant putting in days that had steps well over my goal average in an effort to make up for the days I had gone short. I was beginning to understand how these averages worked, and believe me they are work, and it taught me what was needed to accomplish this goal and it all boiled down to steps.

I pushed myself and set new personal records for most steps in a day and then I would set another. I set a new high month and then another. I finally topped out at 291,066 steps in August. This really helped bring me in line with where I wanted to be but I had to keep up the effort. This made it possible. This was no longer a dream or another empty promise to myself; this was mine to take or mine to give away. It was all up to me. And it was within my reach.

As winter approached and I entered my numbers into my spreadsheet, I knew it was going to be close. My averages had fallen behind again. Not by much, I was still within 100 steps of where I needed to be but making up 100 steps a day this late in the year would mean every day had to come in above average and the higher the better.

At the end of the day I would like at the pedometer and if I was short I clipped it back on and headed out for more. Sometimes I was pacing up and down in the street in front of the house, and sometimes I was just wondering around the house looking for a few extra steps. If anyone saw me, I’m sure they would think me completely insane, but I had my goal and I was going to get it.

As the end of the year came I went shopping, not so much for the presents but for the steps. I went to the local track and made laps. I drank extra water so that I could make more trips. I would walk down the hall to talk shop rather than pick up the phone. All was directed to the goal.

And then it happened. With two days left in the year I hit my target. I had done it. I had accomplished what I had set out to do. I made my goal. The final count showed I had taken 2,011,725 steps. I had traveled 1,074 miles on foot.

This is a wondrous feeling, one that I haven’t experienced for quite some time. It was just what I was looking for. This silly little goal started out as a way to see if I could still set and meet a personal goal. It became much more than that. It became an important message to me. It taught me that I could still direct my life. I could still choose to prioritize my efforts. I could still accomplish what I put my mind to, whatever that may be. I may have forgotten for a time but once again I know that I have it within me.

So what’s next? I am not sure yet. Maybe it is time to finish my pilot’s license. Maybe it is time to learn a new language. Maybe it is time to take up the piano. Maybe it is time to go after that 1,000 mile year on the bike. During the last three years I still managed 311, 457, and 155 miles. As you can see my focus was on the steps. Maybe this year my focus will be on the bike.

Whatever it is, I know that I can; and if I want to, I will.

PS. It is two months now into the new year. My daily step totals have dropped off to about 1/3 of what they were last year. That is about what they were before I started this whole experiment. One thing that may be making a difference is that the battery went dead last November just before the completion of my goal. Bad timing, right? I have replaced it a couple of times and just went to the watch department and asked for a new one. I think it might have been a little big because even though it works it has reset on me in the middle of the day and once at the end of the day as I was taking it off. Frustrating, especially when you are counting steps. Anyway, I suspect that it is not counting every step anymore.

I have kept most of my new good habits like parking farther out and walking in, or walking to make visits whenever possible. Those kinds of things have stayed with me and I hope they always will. I am not however, as obsessed with making steps so I don’t have the pedometer on me every minute of the day. I also don’t bother to go out of my way to add steps at the end of the day anymore.

I guess the real difference is that for the last three years I had a very specific goal with a time frame that was stated, written down and committed to. I do not have that this year. That is another lesson to be taken away from all this. And I am still glad I did it.

return to part 1 or part 2.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.

The Two Million (2,000,000) Step Goal. Part 2

Once I was committed, I was determined to go through with it what ever the results. I kept a daily log in my day planner recording both the distance and the number of steps taken each and every day. I wore that pedometer everywhere.

Problem was that everywhere didn’t take me very far that first month. I only recorded 27,122 steps in January of 2005. The next month was better but not by much with 53,857 steps taken, and by March I had dropped back down to 50,231. Of course I could blame this all the lousy winter weather that limited the amount of walking space available not to mention how early it gets dark. I would surely do better when spring and summer came around.

By the end of June I totaled all my steps for the year so far and had a whopping total of 312,811 steps. This was half way through the year so I should have been up to 600,000 by now. I had been sick in June and only managed 9,537 steps but this was no excuse. If I really meant to accomplish this goal, and it was for no one else but me, then I was going to have to change my ways and dedicate more of an effort to doing what I set out to do.

In July I reversed my trend and scored a 155,677 step month. This was followed up with a 170,242 month in August. This was one of those ah-ha moments. I could do this if I wanted it enough, and after all wasn’t this what it was all about.

I pressed on with a renewed sense of the possible and at the end of the year the tally stood at 1,215,583. I had managed my first accomplished goal. It felt good but it also seemed to be less than what was possible. After all hadn’t I just covered over 900,000 steps in the last 6 months alone? Why if I could do that pace for 6 months, why not the whole year. 2006 would be the year to go for 1,800,000 steps.

That was an ambitious goal I know. Those last 6 months did take some effort and this would extend that effort for a full 12 months right on the back of the 6 months I had just completed. Could it be done? There was only one way to find out. Go for it.

And I did initially but this was a struggle. Some months were well below the goal. For a 1.8 million step year you need to average 150,000 steps a month. At the end of 6 months I had yet to have a 150,000 step month. It was not looking good. I decided to revise my plan to 1.5 million steps for the year. It was my plan and my goal and I could do what I wanted. This was not a complete submission. At the end of 6 months I only had 585,388 steps meaning I still had a long way to go for 1,500,000.

Again I had to step up to the plate. I had to recommit myself to attaining my goal. I had to decide if this was something that I still wanted. I decided that it was and with renewed energy I went for it.

The next 6 months saw me increase my average and even hit a new personal record of 201,772 steps in one month. The funny thing about averages is that the longer you are working on one the higher the number has to be to change the overall average. Even though I had some big numbers, they didn’t change the overall average as much as I had hoped, but they did contribute to the bottom line. And that is what I was after.

By the end of the year I had made 1,545,278. It wasn’t what I had started out for but it was what I was going after at the end. I had accomplished my goal but the questions lingered. What was I capable of? Did I have one more year of this in me? And if so, what would be the new goal? Could I pull off a truly big goal?

go to part 3. or go back to part 1.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.

The Two Million (2,000,000) Step Goal. Part 1

It started out with me feeling like I was in a rut. I didn’t seem to be getting very far in life, my job stunk, and many of my aspirations and dreams were stuck on the side of the road. I had all the makings for the perfect pity party lined up and ready to go. I didn’t need another one of those again. I knew that I needed to do something, anything really to shake myself up even if it was just a little and put myself in motion. I needed a goal.

Since my fear of missing out on so many dreams was staring me in the face, I did not want a goal that was so big it would not get done. I needed something small enough that I could tackle yet big enough to give a real sense of accomplishment. It had to be something I could accomplish. That was the whole point at this stage. I needed a mark in the win column.

I had already tried to reach a 1,000 mile biking year and I enjoyed biking but again the rut thing raised its head. I could only seem to average about 600 miles a year and lately my average had been dropping. A lot of variables can come into play with biking such as weather, daylight, time available, not to mention desire that ebbs and tides. It takes an effort to get suited up to ride and it takes time to make a ride big enough to feel like you went somewhere. So even if I still had my yearly goal of getting in a 1,000 mile year I needed something to go along with it, just in case.

This goal needed to be something that could be done more often and was slightly more in my control. It had to be something that would be self motivating and yet small efforts would still pay dividends.

About this time there was talk of the 10,000 step exercise program. The idea is simple enough. Walk 10,000 steps a day and you would lose weight and become healthy or at least healthier. Since I am a numbers guy and a slight tech geek I have had an interest in pedometers. I had never gotten one though. So one day while in the local Wal-Mart I happened to notice a simple pedometer for under $4. My price point was met. My interest was piqued; I mean how do those things work anyway? I went ahead and bought myself a new play toy.

So now I had my toy. The first thing to do with it is learn how to use it. Set up is usually the toughest step. Figure out the average length of your stride and not only will the pedometer count your steps it will calculate how far you have traveled. This takes some effort. Finding out your average stride is a little like thinking about which step you take when you go bowling. If you are thinking about it, your whole rhythm is thrown off and you look like a total spaz. I tried to measure the sidewalk and see how many steps I took for a given distance. I got a different count almost every time. It all depended on my mood, speed, arm swing, phase of the moon, temperature, altitude, wind velocity and how well I was avoiding breaking my mothers back by not stepping on the cracks.

I finally decide to take a walk around the block twice and compare the steps with the distance as measured by my bikes trip computer. I ended up walking around that block several times and coming up with an average of 34 inches. Being a numbers guy I knew that some steps would be longer and some steps would be shorter but I was happy with this distance and thought that it would serve me well as a representation of my average stride.

At 6’2” I have a fairly long stride and when I get walking I can really move out. For those thinking that 34 inches doesn’t seem very big or that it seems incredibly huge let me give you some other numbers with which to compare. At 34 inches it takes 1872 steps to make a mile. That means that a 10,000 step day will cover about 5 1/3 miles. I have another friend that used to do the 10,000 step program by counting all her steps during the day and then getting on a treadmill at the end of the day to make up the difference. Being somewhat smaller than me her 10,000 steps worked out to about 4 miles.

I found a web site referenced from work talking about the 10,000 step plan and one of the better pieces of advice was to wear your pedometer for a few normal days to establish a base line. This gives you a place to start from. It was not a great place. I realized that being stuck in a cubicle does not afford one many opportunities to acquire large numbers of steps. That combined with snow on the ground in winter time limited me to about 1200 steps a day. That only worked out to 36,000 steps a month. That was about 3 ½ days worth on a 10,000 step plan. I had to think about this.

I went with the idea that 100,000 steps a month was doable. That was about 3 times what I was averaging on a normal day, so this would still require some effort. 100,000 steps a month would work out to 1.2 million steps in a year, so not only would there be effort there would have to be a commitment. Since this commitment was to no one else but me, it would require self motivation and determination if I was to succeed. This was just what I was looking for. I decided to go for it.

go to part 2

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.