After 200+ blog posts, my addlepated brain isn't even going to request a fact-check on this one: I don't like running. Never have, never will. Our church has, in recent years, supported World Vision, which (among many other things) helps Africans obtain clean drinking water. One of their fundraisers is the team in the Chicago Marathon. It's a wonderful cause, and many folks from our church- including committed couch potatoes- have stepped up and taken up running just to be able to help out. It truly is a great cause, but it's not me. Any number of quotes could sum up my position here, but Donnie and Marie Osmond's theme song from their television series of many years ago sums it up pretty well: "She's a little bit country, and he's a little bit rock 'n' roll". Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" was even more spot-on: "A man's gotta know his imitations".
Yeah. "Don't like" doesn't even begin to describe my feelings about running.
When I was in the Air Force, running was a thing we had to do. The area I was stationed at was quite hilly, and I constantly had shin splints. We used to get together a few times a week after class (it was a training installation) to run. Yuck.
I've long since given it up, but at the time I smoked.
Sooo..., just before the command was given to start the run, someone would yell, "SMOKERS TO THE REAR!" and about a dozen of us would quickly move to the rear in Cirque du Soliel precision, and the run would commence. We would start off as soon as we had lit up. I kid you not: we smoked while running.
So yeah, even though I've quit smoking, I still hate running. I respect those that do run- for whatever reason- but it ain't me, babe. No, no, no, it ain't me babe.
So... 10K: it's not running. It's steps.
I've worn a pedometer on a regular basis for the past few years. I've considered other devices, such as a Fitbit, but in the end I've always decided in favor of my Omron pedometer. As much as I'm a fan of big data, there are just some things I don't want to put in the cloud, and my exercise activity is one of them. I download data from my pedometer to my PC, and I can view it in a nice frontend there. Or, I can download a .csv and use my own analytical tools.
10K steps is a good benchmark. There seems to be a concensus on the internet that 10K is a good daily goal to reach for us in the sedentary Western daily routine. As I have a desk job (AND work at night!), 10K is generally a challenge. So today was a good day.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
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