2018 Goals: And I would walk 1,500 miles…

Sometime back in 2017 I discovered the wonderful world of Moon Joggers, a group dedicated to participating in “virtual 5Ks.”

If that whole sentence sounded totally confusing, I hear you. Basically, the idea is this: instead of entering a real 5K race, this group challenges its members to participate in “virtual races,” where the time-keeper is you and all members are on the honor system when reporting times. You can log your miles (or, rather, kilometers!) at the gym, outside on a trail, a city street, or wherever you feel most comfortable. You don’t have to be a runner, either. You can walk, jog, run, or even bike your miles.

Basically, the only rule is that you need to challenge yourself and keep logging those miles.

The group maintains a log where you can input your daily miles and times, and combines the totals for a group tally. Every year they select a new space-themed “destination” to aim for (this year it was Journey to Jupiter), and members do their best to propel the group forward by walking, running and biking their way to fitness, one day at a time.

I found this fascinating and motivating, and immediately signed up for a free account. (You can do so here if you are also intrigued!)

I then began logging my miles, using my Fitbit’s daily records as my official counter.

Last year I managed to reach a grand total of 1,164.55 miles (according to my Fitbit), which was quite the accomplishment for a slothful writer like me.

Every year the Moon Joggers ask what “rank” you’d like to try to attain with your annual mileage. So in 2018 I decided to go for the rank of Ensign, which requires a total of 1,500 miles for the year.

I’ve currently risen through the ranks of Official MJ (1 mile), Space Ranger (100), Cadet (500), Private (750), and Officer (1,000 miles!), and am quickly closing in on that Ensign ranking!

Right now, my yearly total is 1,366.66 miles. This means that to hit the 1,500 mark I’ll need to log 133.34 more miles between now and the stroke of midnight on December 31st.

If my calculations are correct (and math is not my strong suit, so they may be not be!), this means I need to log 7.85 miles a day (rounding up, just to be sure) in order to reach my goal.

On an average day, where I walk about 10,000 steps, I hit about 4.4 miles. So this means I almost need to double my mileage per day.

Hence this blog post!

I’m here to hold myself accountable, and to make a plan for accomplishing this goal.

The Plan

Walk 7.85 miles per day. (Straightforward, if not necessarily simple!)

How to Achieve Said Plan

Break the goal down into two parts:

Walk 1,000 steps each hour, from 9 AM to 5 PM = 8,000 steps.
Walk for a dedicated 30 minutes each morning (before 9 AM) and evening (after 5 PM) until the 7.85 miles have been achieved.
Schedule these blocks into my day, so that they start to become a habit. (Also, making them into appointments or meetings is a good trick to get yourself to take those blocks of time more seriously.)

The Backup Plan

Since I know I am more likely to hold myself accountable if other people are involved, I’m also going to participate in Fitbit’s weekly challenges with a group of folks that I regularly invite to face off, step-wise. There are two types of challenges that work best for this plan: the Workweek Hustle and the Weekend Warrior.

One of my Fitbit pals has been inviting me to participate in a really motivational Weekend Warrior challenge with a bunch of other hustling women, and I managed to beat them all in a surprise victory last weekend, so now they are out for revenge! This ought to be a good way to get in my weekend steps.

Then, I need to step up my Workweek game to out-walk another Fitbit friend who lives in The Netherlands and seems to walk constantly. Even though the challenge is tied to the timezone of the person who invites others to participate, I always find myself losing to this friend who is a whole day ahead of me, and whom I should be able to finish off while he is literally sleeping. (Yes, strategy is important!)

Both of these challenges should, hopefully, push me to keep up with my daily walking goals.