By The Numbers: August

I love keeping track of numbers and really stupid statistics. I find this motivates me to do better than last month.

Here are my numbers for the month of August. I will show you where I increased or decreased from the previous month.

Flights of stairs: 39 up from 15 in July

In my office building, we have a six-story parking deck. Starting at the bottom it is about 100 steps to the top. Almost 300 feet in elevation. This is easy to remember so every time I walk up the stairs or walk the ramps to the top it counts as one completion. I have to do 100 steps without stopping in order for it to count. Also, when I am at the gym and use the stair stepper, every 100 steps counts as one completion.

I also use the treadmill at the gym. I typically get the grade up to at least 8 percent. Right now, the highest grade I have gotten to is 11 percent. But if you walk a mile at 10 percent grade, that is a climb of 540 feet. So, I would have to walk for 6 miles at 10 percent grade to get the magical 3000 feet of elevation gain. My short-term goal is two walk two miles at 10 percent grade. Not there yet!

Trail Miles: 29 miles (6 hikes) up from 15 miles in July

There is nothing like walking in nature to prepare you for walking in nature. So I log the number of times, I get out and the total milage. In our area I need to walk about 4miles to log 1000 feet of elevation gain. So, between the treadmill and the hikes, I am hoping that this will help get me into shape.

Days with 10,000 steps: 5 times (11 times in July)

15,000 steps: 3 times (5 times in July)

20,000 steps: 5 times (4 times in July)

25,000 steps:

30,000 steps

Number of times at the gym: 5 times (just started tracking this)

I sit at my desk most of the day and this reminds me to get outside and walk instead of taking the car. Luckly, I work downtown and this makes it more enjoyable on nice days. While not a direct relationship to hiking, it shows how much I get out from behind my desk.

Weight: 224 same as July

You think with this increase in activity, I would drop a few pounds. However, the first three months I have stayed flat or is that just plain fat?

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Just Joe