Made It!

I made it to my 60 miles the week before last, and this week I made it to 50 miles, which was my goal. Unfortunately this weekend I have been a huge slacker, but I think I had that coming--I'll pick up a few miles tonight and work on making it back up to 50 over the course of the week. (Our competition weeks have been running Friday to Friday.) It's just really hard to do the miles on the weekend because a) I don't have my friend to go to the park with, b) I don't walk to and from work, which gets me about 4 miles right there, and c) I really, really enjoy sitting on my ass on the sofa with a good book or a movie, especially over a 3-day weekend.

But I have now lost count of the number of days that the scale has consistently said I am not overweight according to my body mass index, which is very exciting. I'm not real obsessed with the weight side of things (I can't afford to get obsessed, because I did that once and it sucked). I'd just like to get moving enough to maintain my weight and make sure my pants fit, and to find a form of activity that's sustainable for me.

I like the walking, and it saves me a fair amount of cash ($2 each way on the subway, which is a minimum of $20 a week assuming I don't go anywhere other than to and from work). Of course, I'm not counting the new absurdly expensive shoes that I bought myself as a reward for walking 400 miles. I was saving them for a 500 mile reward (since some people recommend that you change your shoes after 500 miles) but my foot pain was feeling very arch-support related, and has gone completely since I started wearing the new shoes. I can safely say, however, that the number of times I haven't taken the subway during this competition has more than paid for my new shoes, so that's fair.

I also feel pretty fit--I can walk all over Manhattan with my suitcase packed for a weekend. It's not pleasant and I feel sweaty, but I don't feel like I might die. I can run up the steps in the subway (on the days when it is pouring rain and I'm not prepared). I'm pretty sure I can keep up with most of the normal people in the city. And here's a major one--hills do not seem to bother me more than they bother other people. For years every time I had to climb a flight of stairs or a hill, I secretly thought that I was going to die of a massive heart attack. Now I feel the same discomfort as a normal person, which is a very nice feeling.

Maybe in a few more weeks I'll be bold enough to make the appointment with the cardiologist that I've been putting off for well over a year now....