Tuesday, May 1, 2012

500-Mile May

This month I'm going to try to really push myself physically and travel 500-hundred miles on foot or bicycle. To accomplish this goal I will need to travel an average of 16.13 miles per day.

A bicycle ride to work gets me 10 miles each way, giving me a potential 20 mile each workday. Except, on Fridays I go to Bread and Roses after work, which is a 6 mile ride. This gives me 19 non-Friday weekdays, and 4 Fridays, so 19 * 20 + 4 * 16 = 444 miles on bicycle.

That gives me only 56 miles to find elsewhere. In my one-hour lunch-break I can fit a 2-mile walk or a 4-mile run. In practice, presently, I can only run about 2 miles. With 23 work-days, that comes out to 46.  444 + 46 = 490 miles. Now I've only got 10 miles left to make up. This can be done over the weekend, or by walking the dogs after work.

As always, a big factor here is the reality of life. Last weekend Kim came down with a surprise case of appendicitis. That has put the task of transporting the kids before and after work on me for now. So today, the first day of my challenge, I did not ride to work and will not be riding home. I did get a 2.17 mile run in, but that's a far cry from the 16.13 miles I need each day, and not a good start.

I've also got a conference with Athena's teacher on May 8th, so I will not be riding to work that day, but can still ride home. May 10th I will be participating in Aurora's field trip to Saint Augustine. The walking may make up some of those miles though.

I can only assume other life-events will show up, and will have to take them as they come. As strange as it may seem, I don't believe I will actually be able to make my goal. However, I'm going to give it my all and see how it goes.

I will be keeping my activities updated at http://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?snapid=S478383Gdyj

You can also see all of my recorded activities on Runkeeper at http://runkeeper.com/user/maxolasersquad/activity/


2 comments:

  1. Don't you think it would be easier to get to the 500 if you rode on your lunch break instead of running/walking? I know for me, I can get in 10-15 miles on the bike in an hour. I try to ride at least 3 days/week (I keep a foldable bike under my desk for days when I don't ride to work) and it really helps energize me for the afternoon. I know running probably does too, but if you're concerned about upping your distance, that seems one way to do it.

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  2. I've actually started to ride on my break, as you suggested, to get more miles in. I've been wanting to get back into running, so I still run as well.

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