Off and running (...well walking anyway)..

It has been two weeks since the Follow the Fifty (FTF) kickoff. 

I have had a gym membership for five years, and have continued to visit the gym during that time.  I must admit that I did not attend everyday and my workouts were not always very intensive. 

Since the kickoff I have faithfully gotten up out of bed at 4:45 a.m. most every weekday morning (except for two mornings where I had early meetings) and have gone to Midtown Fitness in Putnam.  My gym time is somewhat limited to 45 minutes, but I have been trying to make the most of it.  I have been challenging myself on the arc elliptical trainer by choosing a different program each day rather than just doing a flat manual program.  The most difficult program is the full interval program which has high stepping at a tougher tension.  The easiest is my manual program where I have upped the difficulty level a bit.  I do a half hour on the eliptical minimally. 

One of the best parts of FTF has been connecting with my teammates.  I met with Sue and Kathy on April 7 at Sue's house.  Rosemary wasn't able to join us at that time.  We planned our first strategies that include:

• Walk two or more miles every Saturday.  We agreed to meet at 1:30 p.m. at Roseland Park each week whenever possible.  We will bring coaches when we can.
• Do one physical activity per day and track them.
• Track what we are eating if we can.
• Participate as a team in the Deary Memorial Road Race, Walk, and Bike event (we will probably do the five mile walk but at that point .... who knows?)
• Participate in the DKH Triathalon in August in some way.  We may relay it, or maybe do it all....again who knows where we will be at that point.
• Kathy will set up a facebook page for Team #44 (that's us!)
• Participate in the FTF events as a team!

After our meeting, Sue and I went for a walk with "Princess" and Sue's daughter Rachael, who is also her coach.  We walked a two mile loop that Sue had clocked with her car earlier. 

Today, on April 14th, Sue met me at my house and we walked a two mile walk that I had clocked.  We also discussed some of the challenges we are finding aand strategies that we are using.  The discussion is very helpful.  We also have the mileage marker for a 3 mile walk and I am going to go to Roseland Park today to determine the lap distance at the park.  I think it is 1.25 miles but I may not remember it correctly.  That way we can set a goal for five laps prior to the Deary Race.

So we are off and .....walking!!  More to come!