AND THE RACE IS ON!

The virtual race that is. Its our work's 2nd annual virtual race. Last year, the winner was whoever reached 175 miles first. That was me! How did I do it? Bike, bike, bike. I rode 170 miles in one week, ran 5 and swam 1 (I lost count, who can blame me?). As I said, I did this in one week. You can't imagine the criticism I got for this. Did people congratulate me for pulling off this huge feat in one week? No. Instead, they all assumed I cheated. How was it possible? Did you run the whole way? (right!) Even the person in charge of keeping track of everyone's progress couldn't quite figure it out (How did you bike 15 miles in 45 minutes when my chart says you can only bike 10?) Stupid stuff like that.

Since I was motivated to win, I rationalized it out: I can bike farther in less time than anything else. So I figured out what I had to do every day to reach my goal distance in one week. And then every day I put my plan into action: bike 15 in the morning before work, bike 15 after. The days I ran and swam it was only because I was so sick of getting out my bike in the morning I needed a break. And I think because it rained hard one day.

This year, being a month later and a little darker in the morning, and as it turns out heavy rain 2 mornings in a row, and being not as motivated, I will compete but am not getting obsessed with the whole thing. Let someone else do all the work! And they made it harder, since apparently 175 miles in one week was just too easy. This year, they have two categories: low impact and high impact. The low impact only has to do 175 miles, reaching this goal by counting steps, which includes things like mopping, sweeping floors, pulling weeds, etc. That leaves me out right there, all that yard work and house cleaning! High impact of course includes biking, running, swimming, walking, etc. This too includes counting steps, but things like that are too technical for me. Me? I prefer to count miles. Much easier for me to use my bike odometer to see how far I've gone instead of trying to use the time biked to convert to "steps." Bah!