A year ago, my Apple Watch suggested that it wasn’t too late if I wanted to earn the 2020 International Women’s Day challenge: all it took was a 20-minute walk!
How it started
My dog in tow, I went for a walk. I earned my first “activity” badge. And this marked the start of my exercising daily.
The mammoth total!
In the past 365 days, I covered 1,172.78 kilometers (728.7 miles) in logged walks, or runs.
To put this into some perspective:
- That’s about an eighth or a ninth of what I drive yearly.
- That’s an average of almost 100 kilometers per month.
- I will note that about half of it was achieved during the first five months (because that’s when I ran.)
As someone who abhorred even the idea of exercising and had stopped any practice of sport for a couple of decades, I find all of this both impressive and very gratifying.
Graphs
Notes on the graphs, key stats
Except the “stand” graph which so far has been steadily increasing (spoiler: it is about to plateau at 19 times per day, or decrease. I don’t sleep so well but I’m hopeful this can improve), all of the bars of the other graphs are consistent (that’s reassuring!)
March and April last year were the slow but steady start, then in May I really upped my game. In June I probably was like, “chill if you want to sustain this.” But July, golly! July was too much. So much that a huge dip followed and it took me all of August, September and October to recover and make really small progress. I didn’t resume running though. November, December and January 2021 were tough too, with another dip and a general but consistent sluggishness. I was back at it in February. And a week into March suggests it’s going to be a pretty good month.
Notable rounded numbers include:
- May 2020: walked 110 km
- Jul 2020: ran 100 km (over 12 hours), covered a total walking + running distance of 175 km
- Aug 2020: 15 hours of core training and yoga
- Sep 2020: 42 workouts out of 60 were yoga and core training, for a total of 33 hours
- Dec 2020: daily yoga practices of 40 minutes
- Jan 2021: only month in the past year where I didn’t exercise every day (only 25 workouts)
- Feb 2021: 1:40:00 of average walk time (13 walks, over 21 hours, over 106 km)
How it’s going
My primary motivation (beyond the Apple Watch successful nagging of exactly a year ago) was to lose the extra weight that I had put on due to some medication I took for a month or so, and to get back in shape.
In that regard it has been a complete success. Although it took eight long months to complete the former! I am back in shape: no more knee and hip pains, stronger legs and arms, slower heart rate.
But what keeps me going is this: exercising is now a key part of my life. I swear I never thought I would think that! I still can’t wrap my head around it :) but it’s true. This is the only thing I do for myself. This is the only thing I do that is not working, or caring for my child or relatives (both of which, with a little sleep, a little Netflix, or a little art making or reading, fill the rest of my life.)
