activity
Its been more than a month since i wrote here. Weird.
Today I went for a run, and then a walk. Overall it felt alright. I'd also run last Saturday and that felt... hard. One of my goals for the year was to get back in shape for running, and specifically to run the Backyard 5k. I did run that race in the beginning of June. I was pleased that I ran the whole thing*, and a bit frustrated at how hard it was. Actually, that wasn't all that different from my take away this week. I'm pleased that i've gotten out there, but frustrated with how hard it is.
* I like the Big Backyard 5k. Its a good cause, a sort of silly but fun run, and I love the people that i do it with.
It has been harder for me to feel like i'm back in shape after Marie. It is a combination of starting off at a lower level of fitness, that much less time for putting in the effort, and getting older in general. I had been feeling pretty good about what I was doing for much of the year - I'd incorporated a lot of walking into my days, and started to include more toning and stretching. The walking was huge, not only because I was getting in enough to feel that it was making a difference, but also because I felt good about the life style it was modelling.
However, with my return to work, my walking hours were far curtailed. Now one of my jobs is sedentary, as opposed to having the one job that included walking and wasn't sedentary even when I wasn't walking. After a month of realizing how that was going to hit me I figured i needed to take steps to remedy the problem. One of my steps was to get a fitbit, which is really just a nice new indulgent toy, but i'm enjoying getting data from it. I like data. The model i chose also will show you, at any given time, how close you are to a daily goal (like #steps), so I have been able to use that to help modestly boost my daily activity count. Its also added incentive to actually do something active. I am a goal oriented person.
I have found that I seem to burn very few calories in a given day. (I rarely break 2000, according to the fitbit estimates, while its default goal for me is 2400. I'm fairly sure this is wrong - my basal metabolism rate must be a bit higher than it assumes, but it is still a bit of an eye opener. I'm not sure that i care that much, except that it implies that either I am not as active as I feel like i am, or that the fitbit is pretty bad at actually measuring my activity levels. Maybe both.)
I have also found that my sleep is, when its there, very efficient. Well, I didn't need the fitbit to tell me that - when i sleep i sleep like the dead. I fall asleep very quickly - usually in less than five minutes - and am rarely restless. My fatigue level, then, is the result of a shorter nightly sleep period, and the number of times i wake up. (When I wake up I am awake for a little while, because there is usually a reason I woke up.)
I've been trying to come up with some machine learning app I can write using fitbit information, but I haven't actually come up with something brilliant, yet.
The other thing that Josh and i really need to do is get back to our exercise program. We had been using the Kinect Nike Fit program, but fell off the wagon in May. Neither one of us really enjoy the program, but we both feel like it does actually boost our fitness level. There are a few things in it that i felt helped with my running, and my back pain was really pretty reduced while we were using it regularly. So, we've jumped back on, and have promised ourselves the reward of a different program to intersperse with this one. We have our eyes on a program that boasts a more fun approach to fitness to mix in.
Of course, i'd love to get back to swimming. And/or Yoga. But i'm thinking that those things will probably have to wait, and, in the meantime, I can feel lucky that i have this much.
Today I went for a run, and then a walk. Overall it felt alright. I'd also run last Saturday and that felt... hard. One of my goals for the year was to get back in shape for running, and specifically to run the Backyard 5k. I did run that race in the beginning of June. I was pleased that I ran the whole thing*, and a bit frustrated at how hard it was. Actually, that wasn't all that different from my take away this week. I'm pleased that i've gotten out there, but frustrated with how hard it is.
* I like the Big Backyard 5k. Its a good cause, a sort of silly but fun run, and I love the people that i do it with.
It has been harder for me to feel like i'm back in shape after Marie. It is a combination of starting off at a lower level of fitness, that much less time for putting in the effort, and getting older in general. I had been feeling pretty good about what I was doing for much of the year - I'd incorporated a lot of walking into my days, and started to include more toning and stretching. The walking was huge, not only because I was getting in enough to feel that it was making a difference, but also because I felt good about the life style it was modelling.
However, with my return to work, my walking hours were far curtailed. Now one of my jobs is sedentary, as opposed to having the one job that included walking and wasn't sedentary even when I wasn't walking. After a month of realizing how that was going to hit me I figured i needed to take steps to remedy the problem. One of my steps was to get a fitbit, which is really just a nice new indulgent toy, but i'm enjoying getting data from it. I like data. The model i chose also will show you, at any given time, how close you are to a daily goal (like #steps), so I have been able to use that to help modestly boost my daily activity count. Its also added incentive to actually do something active. I am a goal oriented person.
I have found that I seem to burn very few calories in a given day. (I rarely break 2000, according to the fitbit estimates, while its default goal for me is 2400. I'm fairly sure this is wrong - my basal metabolism rate must be a bit higher than it assumes, but it is still a bit of an eye opener. I'm not sure that i care that much, except that it implies that either I am not as active as I feel like i am, or that the fitbit is pretty bad at actually measuring my activity levels. Maybe both.)
I have also found that my sleep is, when its there, very efficient. Well, I didn't need the fitbit to tell me that - when i sleep i sleep like the dead. I fall asleep very quickly - usually in less than five minutes - and am rarely restless. My fatigue level, then, is the result of a shorter nightly sleep period, and the number of times i wake up. (When I wake up I am awake for a little while, because there is usually a reason I woke up.)
I've been trying to come up with some machine learning app I can write using fitbit information, but I haven't actually come up with something brilliant, yet.
The other thing that Josh and i really need to do is get back to our exercise program. We had been using the Kinect Nike Fit program, but fell off the wagon in May. Neither one of us really enjoy the program, but we both feel like it does actually boost our fitness level. There are a few things in it that i felt helped with my running, and my back pain was really pretty reduced while we were using it regularly. So, we've jumped back on, and have promised ourselves the reward of a different program to intersperse with this one. We have our eyes on a program that boasts a more fun approach to fitness to mix in.
Of course, i'd love to get back to swimming. And/or Yoga. But i'm thinking that those things will probably have to wait, and, in the meantime, I can feel lucky that i have this much.