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Stepping out, now with marine mammals.

Chris Hobson

Chris Hobson

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
A while ago I was having a go at upping my daily step count to supplement my swimming activities. There is an old thread about it here which is now closed for comments:

Chris Hobson

Thread 'Stepping out. (Now with cute puppy pic.)'

I used to be a regular on the sporting forum here. Triathlons and distance running being my thing made it easy to do interesting write ups of my various challenges and activities. As I've grown a little older I have had to slow down a bit and staying active has become a bit more of a challenge. My right knee has been troublesome for quite a while now, no problem for day to day living but not really up to running any more. Cycling was OK to start with but eventually riding longer distances would make it sore too. A couple of years ago I set out to swim 500 miles in a year as a fundraiser...
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My Garmin sets daily targets which are tailored to current activity levels plus a little extra. If I make today's target, tomorrow's will be a little higher, if I miss today's target then tomorrow's will be a little lower. It keeps a count of how many consecutive days that the target has been reached, the catch of course being that it then keeps going up. Getting a good run going isn't as easy as you would think, my all time record is only nine days. Currently I am on three days but I'm pretty sure to hit today's target after going to Hornsea to pick up my prescription and then going for a nice breezy walk along the beach. There were some cute little wading birds running around with really rapid legs. I looked them up later and found that they are called knots.

Another little feature that the Garmin has, it calculates my "Fitness Age". I don't take this too seriously, I don't really know what it's based on, but it's a bit of fun. When I first discovered this feature I was 66 and my fitness age was 60 so I was feeling quite smug. It is giving me a target of 57 though which I don't think is going to be attainable any time soon. In quite a short time I've gone up to 62 so I seem to have aged two years in a matter of months. I'm hoping that the extra walking will bring it back down.
 
I posted a link to it so I think it should be OK. I think that it's better if the threads don't get too long really so I thought that starting a new one would be a good idea.

Update. I've now hit today's target of 8,270 making the current run four days. My fitness age has gone down to 61.5 so it must be working.
 
Today we had a road trip giving a young friend a lift from Hull to Keele Uni. This of course involves several hours of driving and not stepping. Still, we got home in time for me to take a walk down the disused railway line and nail the target (8,970) once again. Five days now.
 
It's getting a bit boring now I know, but today's target of 9,360 has now been topped. Six day streak so far.
 
I've been doing my walks down the disused railway, now a walking and cycle path. I've been a bit annoyed and disgusted by the amount of cans and empty bottles that are lying around, some just a few steps away from a litter bin. So I decided to combine this morning's little walk with a litter pick.1000000085.jpgOne large black bin bag from maybe just over half a mile of the path.

Edit.
It seems as if I'm just talking to myself here but today's target of 9,990 has now been passed. Seven days in a row now. Tomorrow I'm going for my blood test. My local surgery is in Hornsea so a walk along the beach will be included.
 
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I went walking on the beach at Hornsea this morning. Went out early, took a few pictures, went for my blood test, walked on the beach a bit more.
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I was worried that the seal was unwell in some way as it was just lying on its back quite a long way from the water. I contacted the people who take care of such things and sent them some pictures. It didn't seem to be in any distress, they seem to have decided that it was just chilling on the beach. Meanwhile I have made a decent sized hole in today's step target which is just over ten thousand.
 
Well done on your walking and in particular the litter picking. The UK used to have much less litter than other countries that I lived in. It's no longer the case.

I don't have a Garmin to tell me my fitness age but my phone does put me in a percentile of people my age based on my walking. I'm normally in the top 15% but with time off over Christmas I made it into the top 2% which I was pretty happy about. My best so far has been 28,373 steps or 13.54 miles on a day in December. I want to break the 20 mile mark in the next month or two.
 
Being in the top 2% for anything is pretty impressive. I don't know what my best ever step count would have been. I used to do a fair bit of distance running that included a few marathons so I would have managed a decent score on race day.
 
That seal looked as if he'd literally just finished waving at you! 😎
 
Chris Hobson said:
I went walking on the beach at Hornsea this morning. Went out early, took a few pictures, went for my blood test, walked on the beach a bit more.
View attachment 33745View attachment 33746View attachment 33747
I was worried that the seal was unwell in some way as it was just lying on its back quite a long way from the water. I contacted the people who take care of such things and sent them some pictures. It didn't seem to be in any distress, they seem to have decided that it was just chilling on the beach. Meanwhile I have made a decent sized hole in today's step target which is just over ten thousand.
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My parents retired to Hornsea about 20 years ago. Sadly they are no longer alive, but I have many fond memories of my husband and my dad shore fishing along that stretch of beach.
 
Good luck for a new personal best tomorrow Chris of a 10 day run.
 
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