PERSONAL BESTS
Best 13.1 miles: 4:16 (2/5/2012 during the Super Bowl)
Best 24 hr Distance: 27.0 miles (May 18-19, 2012 7PMish - 7PMish)
Best 28 hr Distance: 32.5 miles (May 18-19, 2012 5PM - 9PM)
Best Day Distance : 20.0 miles (5/19/12), 18.0 miles (4/14/12; 5/6/2012; 5/18/12)
Best Week Distance : 75.0 miles (Aug 12-18 @ Bob's Cabins)
Best Month Distance: 272 miles in May 2012, 188.0 miles in August 2012, 151.5 miles in March 2012
JANUARY / FEBRUARY
179.5 miles YTD (some travel in January)
MARCH
151.5 miles for the month (no travel)
331.0 miles YTD
4.0 hours snow shoveling YTD
1.3 hours exercise bike YTD
APRIL
128.0 miles for the month (1 week travel with some walking)
459.0 miles YTD
0.421 Best Eric Ratio (4/25/12)
Best Day Distance: 14.0 miles (4/14/12)
Audiobooks
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership by John Dickson
The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in a Business by Patrick Lencioni
MAY
272 miles for the month (no travel)
728 miles YTD
0.510 Best Eric Ratio (05/26/2012)
Best Day Distance: 20.0 miles (5/19/12), 18.0 miles (5/6/2012; 5/18/12)
500 miles YTD on 5/05/12, 12 lbs lost YTD or 1 lb/41 miles
700 miles YTD on 5/27/12, 17 lbs lost YTD or 1 lb/41 miles
Audiobooks
The Reason for God by Timothy Keller
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why it is Important by Richard Rumelt
In the Plex: How Google Works, Thinks, and Shapes Our Lives by Steven Levy
JUNE
137.0 miles for the month (1 week business)
866.0 miles YTD
0.521 Best Eric Ratio (6/26/12)
800 miles YTD on 6/17/12
Audiobooks
Reprise of earlier books + start books finished in July
JULY
102.0 miles for the month (1 week vacation + 1 week business)
968.5 miles YTD
0.509 Best Eric Ratio (7/13/12)
900 miles YTD on 7/11/12
Audiobooks
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul by Howard Schultz
One Thousand Gifts: A dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp
AUGUST
188.0 miles for the month (1 week vacation + three days of business travel)
1156.5 miles YTD
0.536 Best Eric Ratio (8/31/12)
1000 miles YTD on 8/07/12
1100 miles YTD on 8/20/12
Audiobooks
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy by Joan Magretta
Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics by Ross Douthat
SEPTEMBER
170.5 miles for the month
1327.0 miles YTD
0.565 Best Eric Ratio (9/15/12)
1200 miles YTD on 9/8/12
1300 miles YTD on 9/26/12
Audiobooks
Start with Why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action
Demand: Creating what people love before they know they want it
Fooled by Randomness: The hidden role of chance in life and the markets by Tabriz
OCTOBER
187.0 miles for the month
1514.0 miles YTD
0.617 Best Eric Ratio (10/31/12)
1400 miles YTD on 10/13/12 1500 miles YTD on 10/30/12
Audiobooks
The Steve Jobs Way: iLeadership for a new generation by Jay Elliot
King'sCross: The story of the world in the life of Jesus by Tim Keller
Organizaing Genius: The secrets of creative collaboration by Warren Bennis
NOVEMBER
180.5 miles for the month
1694.5 miles YTD
0.652 Best Eric Ratio (11/29/12)
1600 miles YTD on 11/15/12
Audiobooks
Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller
The Prodigal God by Tim Keller
Where Good Ideas Come From: The natural history of innovation by Steven Johnson
DECEMBER
135.5 miles for the month (1 week business + 1 week Christmas)
1830.0 miles YTD
0.671 Best Eric Ratio (12/22/12)
1700 miles YTD on 12/01/12 1800 miles YTD on 12/22/12
Audiobooks
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
The $200 Man
In the 1970s TV Series The Six Million Dollar Man, astronaut Steve Austin crashed and his body was rebuilt with bionic parts to give him superhuman abilities including enhanced speed. Having just completed 200+ miles of walking in the month of May and 700+ miles YTD, my feet have started resembling some distant planet with volcanic blisters and calloused multi-hued plains. Maybe a bit of hyperbole, but my feet are the current bottleneck for my walking speed and distance. With the temps heating up, it would also be nice to stay a little cooler so my range isn't limited that way and at a minimum, maybe I'm a bit more comfortable than soggy cotton socks, denim and Dockers, and T-shirts currently allow.
So for ~$200 at Scheels, I'm hopefully rebuilt to be a bit faster with an extended range. The new parts include
* Asics GT-2170 running shoes
* Nike performance cotton socks
* Nike DRI-FIT T-shirt
* Columbia cargo pant
So for ~$200 at Scheels, I'm hopefully rebuilt to be a bit faster with an extended range. The new parts include
* Asics GT-2170 running shoes
* Nike performance cotton socks
* Nike DRI-FIT T-shirt
* Columbia cargo pant
Sunday, May 27, 2012
A History of Noel's Walking
I've always enjoyed walking. While growing up, there was utilitarian walking to school in grades 1-3 and 6-9. My favorite walks, though, were on my grandparents' farm and in Minnesota state parks. The farm had wooded pastures which straddled the Little Cedar River and Deer Creek. I could cross either of them with five-buckle overshoes on my feet on one of the trees which had fallen across the banks, making a natural bridge.
The state parks offered trails to explore and new vistas to take in. In the summer, we often went to a park after church on Sundays. Ones we visited most frequently were Nerstrand Woods (now Big Woods), William O'Brien, and Frontenac state parks. After an afternoon of hiking, there would be supper cooked over charcoal and then the drive home.
In college I lived on campus and didn't have a car until half way through my master's degree. I walked to class rain or shine, hot or cold. I did have a bike, but decided in cold weather I preferred walking to sitting on a cold bike seat, peddling into the wind. My biking was done in the summer and in particular, I recall a 7 mile route I did at 3:30 PM when I needed a break from studying/research.
Several college summers I lived in Creve Coeur, MO while interning at McDonnell-Douglas. There was a Kroger's about a mile from my apartment and I would walk there an evening or two during the week to get some items. I learned early on that ice cream was not a good item to buy on these trips since it got pretty soft in the sultry St Louis heat during the walk home. Consequently, I made a trip by car each week to stock up on heavy items like milk, ice cream, pop, etc.
When I moved to Fargo to join the faculty at North Dakota State University, I got an apartment a few blocks south of campus so I could continue my walking ways. This time, the grocery store was just a couple blocks away, making it easier to carry groceries home. About 15 months later I was married and 2 months after that, moving into our current home. Being within walking distance of NDSU was a key selection factor for our house.
The route to campus was along the north side of 13th Avenue North. This route has fences and bushes on the north side which block block the bone piercing winter winds. A pair of long underwear and a good coat were then able to keep me warm on all but the coldest days. A good pair of boots kept my feet warm and also kept me from falling on slick sidewalks and streets. While my current office is just 10-15 minutes north of my old NDSU office, the lack of a windbreak on that northward leg from the main campus is a major reason I haven't walked to work in the winter in recent years.
After leaving NDSU, my offices were a bit further away from home. In the summer, I would sometimes ride my bike, but a car was my main means of commuting. The buildings were typically in industrial sections of town with limited opportunities to walk somewhere for lunch.
Also since college, I've taken vacations with hiking as an activity. These walks are typically under 10 miles at state and national parks on well maintained trails. Some of these are shared in other blog posts.
In 2006, I was working with an engineering intern from France and invited him to join me for what became known as "Marchez et Mangez", French for "To Walk and To Eat". By the end of the summer, my employer was trying to recruit him to work at a John Deere facility in Germany. The name of the lunchtime walks was changed to "Gehen und Essen", German for "To Walk and To Eat". That name persists to the present and there are a group of about 8 people who get invited on one of the better weather days of the week (if there is one). A typical group will be 3-6 people due to invitees traveling and having conflicting meetings. Besides walking and eating, there is conversation on topics including economics, science, technology, sports, Fargo flood control, and more.
In late 2011, our family was mulling a larger, family Christmas present versus exchanging smaller gifts amongst ourselves. I had floated the idea of a large screen TV as our current largest screen is 26 inches. That idea was out-voted 3-1 in favor of a treadmill. It wasn't so much that I'm anti-exercise, but I already have an exercise bike and a driveway to shovel for fitness. There have been challenges with both of those over the last 20 years.
The idea with the exercise bike was (1) I enjoy biking and (2) I can get caught up with magazine reading during biking. I tried to ride in the morning since research and my practical experience to that time indicated that people who exercise in the mornings are more consistent and persistent in doing so. As I got more involved with getting my girls to school in the morning and had more early morning teleconferences, consistent morning exercise became harder.
Snow shoveling is the most rigorous exercise I get with heart rate getting up to 140 bpm. However, it is dependent on their being snow. In 2010-2011, we had twice the "average" amount of snow, so it was a good program to have. In 2011-2012, we had a fraction of the "average" amount of snow, so I only got in four hours of shoveling after January 1.
With the treadmill delivered on January 2nd, I gave it a try while watching TV in our family room. Adding a Roku device allowed me access to my streaming Netflix queue including favorite old TV shows like Star Trek : The Next generation and the original Twilight Zone series. I was also able to work on my Netflix movie queue and keep up with TED talks.
Another thing I noted was that I could walk until past 9:30 PM without impacting sleep. Since I'm a morning person, I'm typically fading after 8:00 PM. Thus I have been able to take a traditionally unproductive time and use it for exercise: 4-6 miles followed by a shower and the 10:00 PM news.
A third piece to my winter walking, particularly to push myself to get miles, was a metric called the "Eric Ratio". A friend from elementary/jr-sr high named Eric took up running about 12 years ago and has logged over 30,000 miles since then. We reconnected on Facebook and at the end of last year, he started posting his miles YTD. The Eric Ratio is simply my miles YTD divided by Eric's miles YTD. In early winter, I was around 0.250, but I have set a series of goals and am currently at about 0.500. Eric has been a good source of encouragement for my efforts.
When spring arrived, I committed to walk more by walking after supper and by walking to and from work. A key multiplier here is that I've been listening to audio books on my phone. In previous years, I only listened to them on road trips, but walking has been a great opportunity to make consistent progress. I typically listen to the Bible or other Christian books heading into the office and then business and leadership books at other times. If I'm on a non-standard route for which I don't have mileages, I have a cell phone app which logs the route with times and distances. It also randomly places my '70s and '80s music on the phone. When I'm replacing drive miles with walking miles, I get triple benefit since I'm transporting, exercising, and audiobooking at the same time.
In spring, I also experience an outdoor surprise in that my walking speed is about 10% higher outdoors (3.6 - 4.0 mph) than it is on the treadmill (3.4 - 3.6 mph). That boost seems to disappear when I'm wearing my 16 pound backpack for the walk to and from work. While I regularly get passed by runners, I occasionally get passed by a walker on the NDSU campus. I see my speed being able to go up to 4.2 - 4.5 mph with work and I hope being passed by another walker becomes very rare.
At the time of this writing (May 27, 2012), I've just passed 700 miles of walking year to date. My body has benefited through 16 pounds of weight loss and a 10 point reduction in blood pressure. I've watched some good documentaries on Netflix and am listening to some good audiobooks. I plan to keep walking to work well into the fall and then revert to evening treadmill sessions for the winter. My new approach to exercise seems very sustainable, although winter business travel will take its toll. Fortunately, my business travel continues to decline and I'm able to spend more time at home.
Will I ever run? I've never liked running and my daughters have said they can't remember ever seeing me run for a significant distance beyond crossing a street. I don't really have a motivation to run, but won't rule it out.
Will I ever compete? I have the range for a half and full marathon. My speed isn't very impressive and I prefer to "compete" on the Eric Ratio and personal bests. I don't like being with large groups of people, I don't like letting others determine when I'll be walking, and I don't need race swag. I won't rule it out, but I'm lacking motivation on that front.
Pasture at my Grandparents' Farm
The state parks offered trails to explore and new vistas to take in. In the summer, we often went to a park after church on Sundays. Ones we visited most frequently were Nerstrand Woods (now Big Woods), William O'Brien, and Frontenac state parks. After an afternoon of hiking, there would be supper cooked over charcoal and then the drive home.
Cooking Out at Nerstrand Woods State Park
In college I lived on campus and didn't have a car until half way through my master's degree. I walked to class rain or shine, hot or cold. I did have a bike, but decided in cold weather I preferred walking to sitting on a cold bike seat, peddling into the wind. My biking was done in the summer and in particular, I recall a 7 mile route I did at 3:30 PM when I needed a break from studying/research.
Several college summers I lived in Creve Coeur, MO while interning at McDonnell-Douglas. There was a Kroger's about a mile from my apartment and I would walk there an evening or two during the week to get some items. I learned early on that ice cream was not a good item to buy on these trips since it got pretty soft in the sultry St Louis heat during the walk home. Consequently, I made a trip by car each week to stock up on heavy items like milk, ice cream, pop, etc.
When I moved to Fargo to join the faculty at North Dakota State University, I got an apartment a few blocks south of campus so I could continue my walking ways. This time, the grocery store was just a couple blocks away, making it easier to carry groceries home. About 15 months later I was married and 2 months after that, moving into our current home. Being within walking distance of NDSU was a key selection factor for our house.
The route to campus was along the north side of 13th Avenue North. This route has fences and bushes on the north side which block block the bone piercing winter winds. A pair of long underwear and a good coat were then able to keep me warm on all but the coldest days. A good pair of boots kept my feet warm and also kept me from falling on slick sidewalks and streets. While my current office is just 10-15 minutes north of my old NDSU office, the lack of a windbreak on that northward leg from the main campus is a major reason I haven't walked to work in the winter in recent years.
After leaving NDSU, my offices were a bit further away from home. In the summer, I would sometimes ride my bike, but a car was my main means of commuting. The buildings were typically in industrial sections of town with limited opportunities to walk somewhere for lunch.
Also since college, I've taken vacations with hiking as an activity. These walks are typically under 10 miles at state and national parks on well maintained trails. Some of these are shared in other blog posts.
Hiking at Mount St Helens, July 2010
In 2001, my office moved to the Technology Park on the NDSU campus. There is a good selection of restaurants on 19th Avenue North and especially now, good sidewalks. A loop from my office, along 17th Avenue North to 10th Street, up to 19th Avenue North, and back to the office provides a 2 mile walk, lunch, and completion within an hour.In 2006, I was working with an engineering intern from France and invited him to join me for what became known as "Marchez et Mangez", French for "To Walk and To Eat". By the end of the summer, my employer was trying to recruit him to work at a John Deere facility in Germany. The name of the lunchtime walks was changed to "Gehen und Essen", German for "To Walk and To Eat". That name persists to the present and there are a group of about 8 people who get invited on one of the better weather days of the week (if there is one). A typical group will be 3-6 people due to invitees traveling and having conflicting meetings. Besides walking and eating, there is conversation on topics including economics, science, technology, sports, Fargo flood control, and more.
In late 2011, our family was mulling a larger, family Christmas present versus exchanging smaller gifts amongst ourselves. I had floated the idea of a large screen TV as our current largest screen is 26 inches. That idea was out-voted 3-1 in favor of a treadmill. It wasn't so much that I'm anti-exercise, but I already have an exercise bike and a driveway to shovel for fitness. There have been challenges with both of those over the last 20 years.
The idea with the exercise bike was (1) I enjoy biking and (2) I can get caught up with magazine reading during biking. I tried to ride in the morning since research and my practical experience to that time indicated that people who exercise in the mornings are more consistent and persistent in doing so. As I got more involved with getting my girls to school in the morning and had more early morning teleconferences, consistent morning exercise became harder.
Snow shoveling is the most rigorous exercise I get with heart rate getting up to 140 bpm. However, it is dependent on their being snow. In 2010-2011, we had twice the "average" amount of snow, so it was a good program to have. In 2011-2012, we had a fraction of the "average" amount of snow, so I only got in four hours of shoveling after January 1.
With the treadmill delivered on January 2nd, I gave it a try while watching TV in our family room. Adding a Roku device allowed me access to my streaming Netflix queue including favorite old TV shows like Star Trek : The Next generation and the original Twilight Zone series. I was also able to work on my Netflix movie queue and keep up with TED talks.
Another thing I noted was that I could walk until past 9:30 PM without impacting sleep. Since I'm a morning person, I'm typically fading after 8:00 PM. Thus I have been able to take a traditionally unproductive time and use it for exercise: 4-6 miles followed by a shower and the 10:00 PM news.
A third piece to my winter walking, particularly to push myself to get miles, was a metric called the "Eric Ratio". A friend from elementary/jr-sr high named Eric took up running about 12 years ago and has logged over 30,000 miles since then. We reconnected on Facebook and at the end of last year, he started posting his miles YTD. The Eric Ratio is simply my miles YTD divided by Eric's miles YTD. In early winter, I was around 0.250, but I have set a series of goals and am currently at about 0.500. Eric has been a good source of encouragement for my efforts.
When spring arrived, I committed to walk more by walking after supper and by walking to and from work. A key multiplier here is that I've been listening to audio books on my phone. In previous years, I only listened to them on road trips, but walking has been a great opportunity to make consistent progress. I typically listen to the Bible or other Christian books heading into the office and then business and leadership books at other times. If I'm on a non-standard route for which I don't have mileages, I have a cell phone app which logs the route with times and distances. It also randomly places my '70s and '80s music on the phone. When I'm replacing drive miles with walking miles, I get triple benefit since I'm transporting, exercising, and audiobooking at the same time.
In spring, I also experience an outdoor surprise in that my walking speed is about 10% higher outdoors (3.6 - 4.0 mph) than it is on the treadmill (3.4 - 3.6 mph). That boost seems to disappear when I'm wearing my 16 pound backpack for the walk to and from work. While I regularly get passed by runners, I occasionally get passed by a walker on the NDSU campus. I see my speed being able to go up to 4.2 - 4.5 mph with work and I hope being passed by another walker becomes very rare.
At the time of this writing (May 27, 2012), I've just passed 700 miles of walking year to date. My body has benefited through 16 pounds of weight loss and a 10 point reduction in blood pressure. I've watched some good documentaries on Netflix and am listening to some good audiobooks. I plan to keep walking to work well into the fall and then revert to evening treadmill sessions for the winter. My new approach to exercise seems very sustainable, although winter business travel will take its toll. Fortunately, my business travel continues to decline and I'm able to spend more time at home.
Will I ever run? I've never liked running and my daughters have said they can't remember ever seeing me run for a significant distance beyond crossing a street. I don't really have a motivation to run, but won't rule it out.
Will I ever compete? I have the range for a half and full marathon. My speed isn't very impressive and I prefer to "compete" on the Eric Ratio and personal bests. I don't like being with large groups of people, I don't like letting others determine when I'll be walking, and I don't need race swag. I won't rule it out, but I'm lacking motivation on that front.
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