What with the new year and all, we've gone and done something silly. In a fit of can-do-it-ive-ness, our family made a goal to move ourselves 1000 miles this year. No, we're not moving to a new city, state or country, but we will be transporting ourselves as much as possible, before our weary bones collapse in our stationary beds at night.
The basic "rules" are these. (Rules is in quotes, because let's be honest here, we made them, and we can un-make them and generally cheat however we see fit.)
1. We will walk, run, hike or ski (x-country) 1000 miles as a family. Biking doesn't count, and I haven't thought of any other methods of moving our bodies along a path that would qualify that we are likely to do. (See that rules out swimming for distance -- we aren't likely to do it, and even if we were, it's way more work than just walking!) Things like basketball, which certainly involve running don't count. I don't have to justify why not to you!
2. Each individual's effort counts. If the whole family goes on a 1 mile walk, we mark down 4 total miles.
3. Trips must be at least a quarter of a mile long. This limit needs to be short enough that the girls can contribute in their own way, but long enough that we aren't trying to "nickle and dime" our way, here. None of this "well, I walked over to the neighbors to borrow an egg, that's like 85 feet."
4. Trips only count if you didn't have to make them anyway. This rules out all the mileage at the grocery store and things like that. Essentially, we're trying to measure effort above and beyond what any couch potato has to do just to keep themselves fed. (I suppose they could be having those potato chips delivered?)
More rules may be forth coming, should they be necessary, but since only 4 people are playing this game, only 3 of them can form sentences, and only 2 of them even know about the game, how many rules could we possibly need?
So far we're 12.35 miles in. Yes, in 14 days. I realize that we're a bit behind pace. I realize that the goal is probably a bit over-aggressive to say the least. 1000 miles is about 20 miles a week! Winter is tough. Who wants to go on a walk when the high today was like 19°? Who wants to run in the snow? But we'll see how we can do.
And besides, we've got a whole extra day this year to get it done.
3 comments:
Awesome goal. I can't wait to hear about the progress.
"But I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more just to be the man who walked 1000 miles to fall down at your door."
I think that should be our theme song this year.
This "little" goal that you guys have set for yourselves has inspired me to keep track of my running for the year. For mine, it has to be running (or shuffley jogging) not walking and I also imposed a minimum of .25 miles for it to count. I haven't set a goal, just curious about what I'll be able to do. I'm up to 20.25 miles so far. In other news, I haven't exercised consistently since June so it's been slooooow going.
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