82 miles in June!

Remember I mentioned trying a new fitness regimen? It’s working! During June I walked a little over 80 miles, not counting a couple of days when my iPod wasn’t working and I didn’t get to record my walks. All the miles were done outside, either in the hills around my house or the nearby lake. No treadmill. Just plenty of fresh air and sunshine. Lots of eye candy jogging around the lake, too. So many reasons to get out of the house.

I got one of those nike+ gizmos that attaches to your iPod, with one part in your shoe, and it keeps track of how far and how fast you walk. Then you can upload all the data into iTunes and then the Nike website and see all sorts of cool graphs of your workout. I’ve cut my time per mile by over 10% during the past few weeks alone and by about 20% from a month or so ago. I’m one of those data-oriented people (also called geeks) who like looking at charts and numbers and using that to motivate myself. And for me, this works.

My other secret? Instead of listening to music, the way I used to do, I’ve been listening to audiobooks. If I want to know what happens next, I have to keep walking! It’s a great incentive. I find myself taking two walks a day sometimes, just so I can listen to another chapter or two. My public library is part of Netlibrary and there are tons of great books to download/check out. And it’s all legal!

Here’s hoping I can keep up the good work during July.

I’ve set myself a few goals for the month, both personal and professional, and I’ll probably be writing/checking in here about my progress on those. I also love to get other people’s suggestions for setting and achieving goals, and I’ll post again about that as well.