Ah…. the 1000 mile man… Sounds much better than a One Minute Man…

So, as was first outlined here and then further commented upon here, here, here, here and
here, I had a goal for 2007 of 1000 miles of exercise.

Thanks mostly to the Tour de Madeira, I entered today (“the last day” as indicated by my children) at a very respectable 985.2 miles.

I headed off to the YMCA where I got in a nice 14.48 miles in 45 minutes. 14.48 miles, you might ask? But Dan, that would only put you at 999.68 miles for the year? Surely you’re not going to skate by on mere roundage?

Fear not, gentle reader. I had been dared (by Carey as opposed to Kerry) to do my final exercising for the year backwards. So for my final 8/10 of a mile, I ran backwards around the block. Well, ran and walked backwards. I don’t know if any of you have ever attempted to run backwards but it is HARD! I did manage to avoid being hit, hitting anything, or falling down, though there were some close calls. Mostly with me narrowly missing parked cars. I’m not sure if the hardest part is balancing / looking where you’re going, or the fact that it exercises completely different muscles (the front of your thighs mostly is what burned for me). It took me 11:27 to do that 8/10 of a mile, and if anyone wants to try suggesting that those 8/10 of a mile should count negative, you can first run 8/10 of a mile backwards yourself, and then BIIIIIIIIIITE ME 😛

So the final totals for the year were 1,000.5 miles, in 75 hours, 6 minutes and 8 seconds (just above 3 days).

I have decided for various reasons to set my 2008 goal as a time-based one. The main reason is that a distance-based goal lends itself to the selection of such exercises that have high distance / time coefficients (i.e. biking). And while biking is fun, I would like to do other things (run / swim mostly) while this will also allow me to do weight training and/or re-join Carolyn at step aerobics, should the mood strike. I guess I could even count Dance Dance Revolution if I’m feelin frisky 🙂

I set the 2008 goal at 4 days. As I’ve told this to various folks, some have said that it is too high, and some have said that it’s not enough. That’s how I know it’s perfect! The other nice thing about 4 days is that it divides itself up nicely. 1 day a quarter, or 8 hours a month. That would be 4 days at 30 minutes a day, though I may go for more. We shall see.