Spring has sprung in Columbus and the weather has finally turned a bit warmer. With that, I ramped up my exercise a bit this week… a bunch actually! I decided to take advantage of the nice weather. So, I have taken to calling this beast week because I really was hitting it hard… I was in beast mode! I pushed my body harder than I think I ever have and it felt great – minus some minor muscle pains.

Personal Record: Exercise Time

My personal fitness tracker automatically records the number of active minutes each day. This measurement includes any exercise that I choose to track with the tracker plus any time I am active for over 10 minutes. This is a good measurement of how active I am in any given day or week.

Well, as I mentioned, this was beast week and I hit a new personal record of 860 minutes of activity. This is over 100 minutes more than the second most active week. By the way, that second most active week was last week at 748 active minutes.

Part of the 860 active minutes I achieved this week was driven by exercises that I tracked using my tracker. This week, I logged nearly 11 hours of exercise including walking, running, weights and my training session. My total walk/run distance was over 55 miles which is more than 10 miles more than last week and most previous weeks.

Eventually, I will not have the time available to spend this much time exercising. In the near future, I expect to have a new job which will consume my time, but until then, I am going to take advantage of this weather and this time to keep moving.

Personal Record: One Day Distance

On Friday, I decided to skip the gym and running and to just go for a long walk. I decided to walk from our house in German Village to lunch at the North Market in downtown (2.5 miles). Then, after lunch, I walked around Goodale Park in the Short North (about 1 mile or more) and then I took a long walk through downtown and back home. Afterwards, I walked to the restaurant where Liz and I would be meeting for dinner.

In all, I walked a total of 11.5 miles in one day which is 2-3 miles more than my previous best day.

Lots of Running

I spent a lot of time running this week.

Monday and Tuesday, I did 5k runs on the treadmill at the gym.

Wednesday I did a 5k run outside through the neighborhood.

Thursday, I did a 4.5 mile trail run downtown along the Scioto river. This trail was very hilly and draining, plus it was a sun-burning good time. I need to start applying sunscreen before outdoor runs.

Finally, on Saturday, I ramped it up even more. I did a 5 mile run from my house to the Grange Audubon park and around the trail that circles the park.

All of these run were a mix of running and walking, but the majority has definitely been running. I am seeing improvements all the time in my endurance and how I feel after a run. I am getting more and more confident that I am going to be ready to run a real 5k within the next 60 days.

Check back next week for more!

Last week’s stats (4/2 – 4/8):
Distance walked/run: 43.7 miles
Total calories burnt: 26,473
Total calories consumed: 14,530
Weight change: 4.2 pounds lost