Stomping September 2017 (Step) Goal Challenge

[Baltoscott]

Stomping September 2017 (Step) Goal Challenge

How It Works:
The purpose of this challenge is to keep track of your daily step goals for September 2017. This is not a competition to see who can do the most amount of steps, 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 30 for the month can you hit your goal.

Some of you might have a constant goal of 10k steps every single day and some 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.

Suggested Posting Format
1) Post either your constant or variable step goal.
2) Keep track of the # of daily goals achieved / 30.

Optional
3) Post either your constant or variable (anything you want) goal.
4) Keep track of the # of daily goals achieved / 30.

The optional items list has grown over the past months. That's why the title has steps in (). In the end it's about setting goals and improving habits. So the optional items can really be anything. Running, biking, weight lifting, food goals, etc. Some will add a goal that is not daily - ie. wanting to do so many strength training workouts in the month - so you might be aiming for a number that is less than 30 for some goals -- maybe 5, 10, or 15. Really, it's just completely open.

Injury Notice
If you injure yourself during the month and decide scale back the number of steps due to the injury, then all you have to do is adjust your daily step 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.

[lusry]

September 5th:

Hitting goal yesterday was hard. A busy work day (I work from home) plus a baby that did not feel well had me pacing till late last night just to get my 10k yesterday. I got it, but just barely. And you're welcome HoosierDaddy73! The couch to 5k program is only 3 days a week and if I get to where I can do more than that great, but I'll definitely be glad if I can get all 12 days this month! 🙂

1. 10k steps/day for 30 days - 5/30 + 2297 bonus steps

2. Run/walk 3 days a week - 12 days - 1/12

3. 5 squats/day for 30 days - 5/30 + 5 bonus squats

4. Lose 4 lbs - Starting weight is 164 - be down to 160 by the end of the month

[Baltoscott]

Sept 6: good lifting day in the gym at work.  Even though I usually only use that one once or twice/week it is definitely worth $25/month just to have it down the stairs from my office!

10K steps/day 6/30 days + 14K bonus steps
1 Push-up/day 6/30 days + 39 bonus reps
1 Pull-up/day 6/30 days + 5 bonus reps
14 lifting days 2/14

Sept 7: feeling fortunate that my Florida vacation finished a few days before Irma visits the area but a bit anxious about the fate of my Condo.   It is 15 miles from the beach but everything is at sea level in Fla.  Hopefully not too bad.  

[Baltoscott]

Welcome @LiquidAmber.  Nice progress @lusry and @HoosierDaddy73.

[DanielleinDC]

1) 10,000 steps per day

2) 6/30 (and I'll almost certainly get today's goal in a few hours)

3) 45 minutes of exercise a day

4) 6/30--sadly, I missed a day. 

[HoosierDaddy73]

September 5th:

My best walking day of the month with 1,699 bonus steps. My first run/walk definitely helped!

September 6th:

Followed up my best day with my worst. Terrible walking day yesterday. Only 4,061 steps and zero active minutes. A lot of working, as well as time wasted (sitting) and not enough effort to exercise/move. But I'm not going to beat myself up over it. Time to get back on the plan!   

• Steps --> 5/30 - 1,996 bonus steps (negative territory now, but will make it up) 
• Run/Walk --> 1/12
• Calories in vs out goal met --> 6/30 (even though I barely moved, I did adjust my calorie intake, something positive) 

Goal to lose 5 pounds and weigh 180 by September 30th. Today's weigh-in: 181.8. Averaging weight loss of 2 pounds per week over the last month. Have lost 8 pounds since August 10th. 

All-time high: 190

All-time low and goal weight: 170 

[HoosierDaddy73]

This is unrelated to the Stomping September challenge, but thought some in here may be able to help. Today I rode the bike to work and activated my Fitbit Surge in bike mode, which has both GPS and Heart Rate monitoring. I rode about 4 miles in 26:00, and it's very hilly, so it was at least a moderate workout. But when I looked at the exercise in my app I see it recorded 0 active minutes, only 3 minutes in the fat burn heart rate zone (none in cardio), and only 56 calories burned. The app doesn't show steps for a bike ride, but by looking at the hourly step counter on the dashboard I think it only counted about 200 or 300 steps during that time frame. None of this seems accurate to me! 

For those of you who ride, how do you deal with these issues? Purely speaking of steps, should I just go in and manually add some? Any idea what a cycling to steps conversion would be like? I also posted in the cycling community so hopefully will get some feedback there too. But let me know if you have any ideas or thoughts. 

[Baltoscott]

@HoosierDaddy73 --  In analyzing the calorie burn for your ride the Surge will take into account your HR burn and distance traveled over the time of the ride. It seems to weight in favor of the distance/time calculation. It does not take any "floors" recorded into account.  In bike mode the Surge (and Blaze and Charge 2, which have connected GPS) seem to suppress both the floor and step count over what you would get if you simply stuck it in your front pocket.  (As you found out, you won't see any floors/steps in the activity log, but there actually are some recorded based most probably on bumps in the road).  

Your burn and active minutes are probably a little low because your speed -- if it were a flat ride (remember the hills "floors" are not taken into account) -- was relatively slow at about 10 mph.  

I've got a Garmin bike computer and link that to my fitbit account through Strava.  The bike record from Strava will overwrite my calorie burn and activity minutes for the ride, but not any steps or floors recorded.  This keeps my calorie burn relatively accurate.  Because I put my fitbit in my pocket (an old practice because I've had clip on fitbits for most of my fitbit life), I wind up accumulating about 500 steps/mile biked, and get full floor "credit" for the hills.  This seems comparable to a similar work from actually stepping in that on foot I get close to the standard 2000 steps/mile, and my average bike speed is about 4 times faster than my typical brisk walking speed.

I don't manually add steps because they don't count in challenges, leader board or step calculations for badges.

[HoosierDaddy73]

Thanks Baltoscott, very helpful. By the way, I just signed up for Strava - like literally 5 minutes ago. I'll see if I can add/follow you. What is your Strava account? I was more of a runner in my past but am just now recovering from a nasty case of Plantar Fasciitis, so I'm going to attempt to get into cycling again. 

[Baltoscott]

Looks like I'm in there under my real name: Scott Myers.

Funny, but I've been recovering from Plantar Fasclitis this year too.  Thought it was a bruise on my heal for the longest time.  Finally figured it out when the pain become acute this year.  Started doing stretches and calf exercises, and got inserts for all my shoes.  It is finally (mostly) gone after several months.  

[HoosierDaddy73]

that's pretty much what I did too. Injured during half marathon in April and just now getting over it. 

---

@Baltoscott wrote:

Looks like I'm in there under my real name: Scott Myers.

Funny, but I've been recovering from Plantar Fasclitis this year too.  Thought it was a bruise on my heal for the longest time.  Finally figured it out when the pain become acute this year.  Started doing stretches and calf exercises, and got inserts for all my shoes.  It is finally (mostly) gone after several months.  

---

[lusry]

I totally forgot to record what I did day before yesterday so here's the 6th and 7th. I also forgot to do my squats yesterday so I'll need to do 10 today. My weight has stayed the same and I think it's because I'm still eating whatever I want to eat. So far I've lost 16lbs this year from breastfeeding alone. Now, I need to step it up and actually quit eating the sweets I've become accustomed to and keep up with the workouts. I'm anticipating not hitting my step goal this weekend because we are going out of town to see family. I have a feeling there will be a lot of sitting.

September 6th and 7th - 

1. 10k steps/day for 30 days - 7/30 + 2297 bonus steps

2. Run/walk 3 days a week - 12 days - 2/12

3. 5 squats/day for 30 days - 6/30 + 5 bonus squats

4. Lose 4 lbs - Starting weight is 164 - be down to 160 by the end of the month

[HoosierDaddy73]

September 7th:

Back on track today. Rode the bike to and from work. Used Baltoscott's suggestion of putting my Fitbit in my pocket, and that definitely helped. I'm going to let the bike count toward my run/walk goal since I rarely will do both in the same day.    

• Steps --> 6/30 - 1,208 bonus steps (Still in negative territory now, but inching back) 
• Run/Walk/Bike --> 2/12
• Calories in vs out goal met --> 7/30  

Goal to lose 5 pounds and weigh 180 by September 30th.

Current weight: 181.8.

All-time high: 190

All-time low and goal weight: 170 

[benvegi]

Holly Cow, two low days in a row. One was a town day (my wife cracked a filling), the other day I was teaching a woodturning student in my shop all afternoon. 

Goals: Steps 10 k, floors 35, miles 5 per day.

9/5 Trail ride day: Total steps 22.8, 87 floors, 11 miles.  My steps: 9.9 steps, 15 floors, 4.8 miles.

9/6 town day steps 5.5, 15 floors, 2.4 miles

9/7 teaching day steps 10.2, 15 floors, 4.6 miles 

Today is starting much better. My wife & I walked 3.5 miles this morning. She hit her daily goal on the walk and I hit mine just before 12 noon. Should have a very good count by tonight.

[benvegi]

Goals: Steps 10 k, floors 35, miles 5 per day.

9/8  Steps 16.8, floors 48, 7.6 miles

[Baltoscott]

Sept 7:  

10K steps/day 7/30 days + 15K bonus steps
1 Push-up/day 7/30 days + 55 bonus reps
1 Pull-up/day 7/30 days + 7 bonus reps
14 lifting days 2/14

Sept 8: 

10K steps/day 8/30 days + 9K bonus steps
1 Push-up/day 8/30 days + 19 bonus reps
1 Pull-up/day 8/30 days + 5 bonus reps
14 lifting days 3/14

Sept 9: Nice bike ride to the Baltimore Fells Point area and then back through some neighborhood festivals in the city.  

[Baltoscott]

Sept 9:
10K steps/day 9/30 days + 5K bonus steps
1 Push-up/day 9/30 days + 19 bonus reps
1 Pull-up/day 9/30 days + 6 bonus reps
14 lifting days 3/14

[DanielleinDC]

Today: 

1) Goal of 10,000 steps a day

2) 10/30, although I've had to pace in my apartment a couple of times to get it.

3) 45 minutes of exercise a day

4) 8/30

[Baltoscott]

Sept 10:
10K steps/day 10/30 days + 21K bonus steps
1 Push-up/day 10/30 days + 44 bonus reps
1 Pull-up/day 10/30 days + 26 bonus reps
14 lifting days 4/14

Strava was trying set a world record for most half marathons in a single day yesterday.  I decided to join even though I don't run.  Still tabulating and it looks like they ranked us on distance rather than time, but I am currently tied for 17,699 out of 75,288.  My pace was horrible, at 16:14/mi, but I did meet up with my wife and help carry groceries to her car before we went to an event to look at street art.  Might have stayed under 15/mi if I hadn't done that before finishing.

[lusry]

As predicted, I didn't hit my goal either day this weekend, but I got at least 5k both days so I'm ok with that. I did my run on Friday and I'm sick so I'm debating whether or not to do my run today or just wait until tomorrow...we'll see as the day progresses.

September 8, 9, 10:

10k steps/day for 30 days - 8/30 + 2297 bonus steps

2. Run/walk 3 days a week - 12 days - 3/12

3. 5 squats/day for 30 days - 10/30 + 5 bonus squats

4. Lose 4 lbs - Starting weight is 164 - be down to 160 by the end of the month

[Baltoscott]

Sept 11:

10K steps/day 11/30 days + 56K bonus steps
1 Push-up/day 11/30 days + 44 bonus reps
1 Pull-up/day 11/30 days + 10 bonus reps
14 lifting days 4/14

I hope you are feeling better @lusry.  As your new habits become 'fixed' it will be easier to do them in other environments -- like trips to family.  But the weekend is done so it is time to look forward.  Your next run is coming up. 🏃🏃