I am continuing to move in ways I haven’t in awhile. In preparation for my first post-40 5k, I’m checking in once a week and sharing my progress. I’m proud to say that Spring Break 2014 was full of fun, and full of exercise. We trekked through Conner Prairie, I got in three workouts at the gym, and then Saturday happened. Oh Saturday.
Leilan and I have become dedicated FitBit users. It’s basically a geeky pedometer that works with a smartphone app by syncing throughout the day. We’ve been using our devices since early March, and it’s been a great motivator to move more and sit less. Saturday though, we took this idea to a new level.
Saturday we had a friendly competition- we asked the kids, “Who will take more steps? Mommy or Daddy?”
Friends chimed in with their thoughts, and I had a good number of people on my side. Meg was rooting for me too. We started out just a few steps apart when we got into the car to go to the Children’s Museum.
“Do you want me to drop you off at the door?” he asked coyly.
“No, we can walk with you,” I answered.
In the museum we eventually got split up, and I was put on Andrew duty, which means we watched a lot of trains. After reconnecting, I discovered that he was ahead by quite a bit- while I was watching trains, he and Meg were all over the place! I left him in ScienceWorks on the fourth floor with the kids and “went for a walk”.
In case you were wondering, it’s about 700 steps to walk the ramps of the museum from the fourth floor to the basement and then back up again. I did it twice and evened the score. When we left the museum, we were once again within a couple hundred steps of each other.
Here’s where it gets confusing. After we stopped for a bite to eat, we split up. Leilan was headed to the store to buy some clothes. I took the kids to Holland Park, where they played and I walked the path near the playground. I went over 10,000 steps there, and thought I had gained the lead.
As we were getting ready to head home, I got the following tweet. It looked like 10000 was not going to be the end of it.
That night on our date, we walked through Ritchey Woods- it was quite and peaceful and a nice way to reconnect with each other. We then drove to dinner, and parked at the end of the parking lot. When we were done, we walked over to the mall, walked around the mall and then walked back to the car.
When we finally picked up the kids, we compared notes.
SOMEHOW HE BEAT ME. I do not know what he did while clothes shopping, but clearly he walked around the store a few times. I also got distracted at the mall by shiny things, and I’m fairly certain he got a few more steps in while I looked at baubles. But seriously, how did he get so far ahead???
Even though I didn’t win, it was the most active Saturday we’ve had in awhile, and I booked 8 miles in my training log.
With three weeks to go until the Finish Line 500 Festival 5k, I’m feeling like finishing this event is going to be a heck of a lot easier than our Saturday competition.
“Disclosure: McDonald’s of Central Indiana has provided benefits, including free Finish Line 500 Festival 5K registration, an Arch Card, a t-shirt and giveaway products in exchange for my participation in this campaign.”
