March Madness -- Monthly Step Challenge

[Baltoscott]

March Madness -- Monthly Step Challenge

Time for a new monthly challenge.  I may add some variation related to the collage basketball tournament coming up this month in the US, but for now just the standard stuff.

 
How It Works:

The primary purpose of these challenges has been to keep track of your daily step goals for the month; though we tend to track other things as well, like body weight exercises, sleep, trips to the gym, logging food, etc. This is not a competition to see who can do the most of whatever, instead it is a challenge to measure your consistency. So whether you do 1k, 5k, 10k or even 40k steps a day, this is measuring how many days out of the monthly total you can hit your goal.

Some might have a constant goal of 10k steps every single day and others might have a variable goal throughout the week, for example.
Monday -> Friday = 10k steps a day
Sat & Sun = 6k steps a day

Regardless of how you structure your daily goals, the only thing that matters for this challenge is whether or not you reach what you set out to do.

The March Madness Variation.

Will there be one?  I have an idea perculating, but thoughts are welcome.

Suggested Posting Format
1) Post either your constant or variable step goal.
2) Keep track of the # of daily goals achieved out of the monthly minimum and or monthly total

Injury Notice
If you injure yourself during the month and need to scale back due to the injury, then all you have to do is adjust your goal for that period. If you normally do 10k steps a day but pull a hamstring and decide to do minimal walking (2k steps a day), then all you have to do is change your goal.

[WendyB]

March 3

13K steps/day 2/31

Exercise bike 40 minutes/day 3/31

Boxing 30 Minutes/day 3/31

12 weight lifting days 1/13

Stomach exercises 200 a day with Ab roller 3/31

13 days Yoga/Pilates 1/13

[GershonSurge]

Date	Weight	Fat %	fat wt	lean wt.
3/1/2018	165.4	18.0	29.8	135.6
3/2/2018	164.8	17.3	28.5	136.3
3/3/2018	165	18.2	30.0	135.0

@WendyB,

The research I'm doing is outlined in this topic in the Get Moving!  forum: 

You can't gain muscle while losing weight! (A research project)

Thanks for asking.

[WendyB]

Thanks @GershonSurge I just read it a while ago. 😁

[Baltoscott]

March 3

15K step/day:               3/31

1 pushup/day:              3/31

16 weight-lifting days:   1/16

12 6+hour sleep days:    1/12

Managed to hit my first 6+ hour sleep day by a whole 17 minutes   Again, I had about an hour of awake time according to fitbit.  Most of it is reading, but some getting up through the night.  

No power from about 4PM yesterday through around 10 AM today.  Hardly any snow in Baltimore from the "Bomb" weather event, but sustained winds of about 35 mph, and longest gusts in the 60-70 mph range.  Many trees down but we have had much worse.  

[Baltoscott]

---

@Ennaywrote:

@Baltoscott- what app do you use for streak tracking?  I'd love to set some up. 

and question...have you had any luck changing your sleep because of the info you get off of fitbit?  I got the HR mostly for that but not sure really what i am going to do with the data.  I've had sleep issues for years.  It;s mostly just confirming what I already know, that I get a little deep sleep at the beginning of the night but after that its all very light and if I get woken up after 1 am that is all she wrote.  I have a theoretical goal of 6.5 hours, but rarely get that.

---

@Ennay.  The app is called Streaks.  If you've got an iPhone or iPad you are in luck. 

Regarding sleep -- I will confess that I've not tried as hard as I should to get more of it.  Because of an early morning commute 3 days of the week I have learned to get by on anywhere from 4 to 6.5 hours, and it tends to be around 5 on average.  Even 6.5 hours is probably not heathy, but it would be a big improvement.  Part of the problem is that my wife doesn't need to get up at 4:45 AM like I do at least three days/week, so even when I try for early bedtimes -- 9PM say -- she'll wake me up when she joins me at 10:30 to 11:30.    

[Ennay]

growl, I have android

I consider 6 a pretty good night.  I think I should get more, but havent.  What I would like is my sleep efficiency to be better.  (hours slept vs. hours attempting to sleep)  And it is better than it used to be, I used to have a horrible time falling asleep, now I go to sleep most days fairly quickly, I just dont stay asleep and once i am up for any reason, I am up.   Before kids I had a couple months unemployed and schedule free and I fell into a natural sleep pattern for me of sleep 4 hours, up and productive for 2-3 hours and sleep 2-3 hours more.  But doesn't work so well in the real world.

Its better now that I don't try to go to sleep earlier.  I work in theatre so when I have a show going I can be getting home at midnight for awhile.  I dont stay up that late but I find if I let myself fall asleep before 10:30 I will sleep for 30 minutes maximum and be up for 2-3 hours before I can sleep again, where if I wait until after 10:30 I will sleep usually 4-5 hours, occasionally 6

[benvegi]

Count me in @Baltoscott.   What to do in March? 

Will go with weekly averages based on daily goals.

So, my daily average will be 11 k steps, 20 floors, 6 miles per day, times seven. It's easier for me to keep up posting this way as we are getting so busy putting in the garden, getting ready for our weekly trail rides which start this week. Plus I'm doing more woodturning in the shop and I am also teaching turning once a week.

[benvegi]

Do you ever wonder why I don't reach my step and floor goals for a day? (probably not) Went for a walk Saturday planning on going up the hill, when I got to the creek had to change my mind. 

[GershonSurge]

Today's numbers were disappointing. The jump in fat% is too big to be real. Should bounce back soon. Perhaps the cause was I didn't do my resistance training this morning.

	weight	Fat %	fat wt		lean wt.
3/1/2018	165.4	18.0	29.8		135.6
3/2/2018	164.8	17.3	28.5		136.3
3/3/2018	165	18.2	30.0		135.0
3/4/2018	165	19.7	32.5		132.5

[Ennay]

Average >10K  :  3/31

Daily 10K: 3/26

11 dots: 2/26

Food Log 3/31
Ended up over 16K steps yesterday, not really sure how.  Was trying to make a decision on adjusting my HRzones as I think they are too low but my legs arent up to the challenge yet.  Made good choices while dining out. 

[Baltoscott]

March 3

15K step/day:               4/31

1 pushup/day:              4/31

16 weight-lifting days:   2/16

12 6+hour sleep days:    2/12

@benvegi -- hope that stream doesn't get any worse/closer to home!

[WendyB]

March 4

13K steps/day 3/31

Exercise bike 40 minutes/day 4/31

Boxing 30 Minutes/day 4/31

12 weight lifting days 1/13

Stomach exercises 200 a day with Ab roller 4/31

13 days Yoga/Pilates 1/13

[NellyG]

5 March

Step goal                  4/5        4/31

Swim                         1/2        1/8

Fitbit Coach/Bike    1/1         1/4

[GershonSurge]

March 5, 2018

weight	Fat %	fat wt		lean wt.
165.4	18.0	29.8		135.6
164.8	17.3	28.5		136.3
165.0	18.2	30.0		135.0
165.0	19.7	32.5		132.5
163.8	17.2	28.2		135.6

[Ennay]

Average >10K  :  4/31

Daily 10K: 4/26

11 dots: 3/26

Food Log 4/31

My office workout room looks like a zappos factory.  I ended up pulling out all my old running shoes to see if some were better on the foot pain than others.  I have been wearing Mizunos but remembered that I started wearing Mizunos because they were more flexible and easier on my achilles and PF but I used to only wear them for training runs <10 mi and races up to the HM.  For long stuff I wore Brooks because they have more forefoot cushion.   But **ahem**, when did brooks become so crazy expensive.  My last marathon shoe has about 500 miles on it so it is pretty worn and new ones are almost twice what Mizunos cost. .  

[WendyB]

March 5

13K steps/day 4/31

Exercise bike 40 minutes/day 5/31

Boxing 30 Minutes/day 5/31

12 weight lifting days 2/13

Stomach exercises 200 a day with Ab roller 5/31

13 days Yoga/Pilates 2/13

[GershonSurge]

@Ennay,

I put Gorilla tape on the bottoms of my shoes. Use strips about an inch long and 3/4 of an inch wide. If you keep up with it, shoes can last thousands of miles. I touch it up each day. Usually, only one strip wears through a little bit each day.

I wear a size 12 EEEE shoe, so it's hard to find replacements. 

[Baltoscott]

March 5

15K step/day: 5/31
1 pushup/day: 5/31
16 weight-lifting days: 3/16
12 6+hour sleep days: 2/12

[Julia_G]

Okay, I have declared March begun!  (Don't jump on me -- I am speaking only for myself; I know most of you guys began last Thursday, but first I flew almost 10 hours, then I had an 8 hour time change, and then we all in the UK had the Beast from the East with a lot of ice and snow, so I cut myself a few days' slack...)

My goals are pretty modest.  I am hoping for a clean streak of 12 k steps per day, every day except next Saturday (when I have an all day commitment).  That makes 25 days left.

I also, per @Baltoscott's inspiration, hope to be in bed by 11 pm at least 5 nights per week (yikes!  It's 22:44; I had better hurry up!)

I am also resolving to eat red meat no more than 2 times per week (so no more than 6 times this month -- since March started late)

Finally, I would like to lose 3 lbs.  That might be a tall order, but I feel a little better just a little lighter, so I am going to try.

So, today:

Steps 12498 that's 1/25

Starting weight 119.7 (let's agree to call it 120)

Red meat 0/6

In bed by 11 -- yes, if I sign off now!

Nighty, night!

[Ennay]

Well I tried to reply to @GershonSurge  but my entire post about shoes was not permitted.  I can never figure out what that is about. Its not a wear issue its an impact issue.