Rest (fail) day

So in my quest to move, on Wednesday, we were hosting my whole division at our satellite office.  One of my co-workers was already waiting outside of the building at 5:30am!!! when I got there.  Can you see where this is leading?

I did not get my daily work walk in, that sort of made me feel a little off.  I did exercise somewhat on my balance ball, but even that was stunted.  My whole day was wrecked.

This was a fail day to say the least, or I could turn that around and say it was a "rest" day.  Yah, that's the correct wording.  Rest days are good.

It was a 90 degree, hazy, hot, and humid day.  A nice day for a rest day.

After work, I started putting my bike together.  No, it was not in pieces, did you not see my picture?  I added my water bottle holder and I connected my new cheap bike computer.  It is a Schwinn something or other.  I got it working, I think.  My maiden ride will be the tell-tale sign that it is correctly hooked up.

I am planning my maiden ride for Friday.  As keeping with my other quest to not lose my "use or lose" leave, I am off on Friday.  Again.

I never did show you a picture of my bike, did I?  Were you dying in anticipation?  I'm sorry.  Here it is!

my bike

I need a name for my new bike.  Yes, I have names for my things.  My vehicles have all had names so it is only fitting that I have a name for my new bike.  Any suggestions?

It's here!

So let's play a little catch up, shall we?

When I last left off, I was anticipating picking up my new bike on Tuesday.  (just wait until you see the picture)

work walk

Tuesday was a pretty good, normal day.  My morning walk was over 2 miles, nice!  I walked 2.05 miles in 39.20 minutes.  These walks are starting to rock.

Matter of fact, I had over 5000 steps before noon!  That's awesome.


won't rotate

After work I am heading directly to the LBS.  Can't wait!

bike rack

I'm getting antsy

I got to share my good news with my co-worker who is a big biking enthusiast.  He and his wife took their first mini-adventure about a month ago.  They travelled from Arlington to somewhere around Harrisonburg where they have a cabin.  I think that is exciting.

Anyhow, I shared my news about my new bike with him.  After that, I kept getting a lot of funny, accessory, and tip type messages from him.  That just makes me more excited.

My bike is due at my LBS somewhere around 6 pm tonight.  I believe I actually won't pick it up until tomorrow after work.  But that's ok.  Just waiting on that phone call.

Today (and most of this week) is supposed to be hazy, hot, and humid with the temperature in the high 80's and low 90's.  So, in reality, that means no type of exercising after work.  No biking (obviously) and no walking.

No worries.  I got my walk in this morning and my usual bunch of balance ball exercising in during the day.  I believe that my walking everyday and working out during work will go a long way towards my goals of getting fit and losing weight.  Don't you?

This morning I walked 1.69 miles in 30:40 minutes.  Here are my tracks.

Morning walk

Longest walk ever (so far)

Still without a bike, but I will make do.  I will continue moving.

It's amazing how many different ways I can walk right in my area.  I never realized that before.  My usual walk has a bunch of branches off of it and today was a good day to just explore one of them.  This particular one took me almost parallel to the bike trail.  I know that there must be a path down to it somewhere close because I can see the paths shooting off when I am riding on the trail.  That will be another explorer day.

Today I walked 4.26 miles in 1:09:55 hours.  This is my longest, single session of walking.  It was a great walk.  Here are my tracks.



4.26 miles walking

I know I've said this before, but I really do love this app.  I love the maps it shows and I love how accurate it is.  My Tracks will always be my go to tracking app.


So I'm wondering, how long until I start to see some progress?  I know I mentioned already that I have a pair shorts that fit now (that didn't 6 weeks ago), but I've been very consistent in my "moving" and would really like to see some real progress.

How long until I see that?

Still not a happy camper, but better

My foul mood has partially carried over to today.  I mean really, I had just installed (double-side tape as recommended) my bike computer on my bike.  I don't even have 1 mile logged on it.  And my bike craps out.

My husband looked at the chain and it came apart at a place where it is supposed to allow removing/adding links, but I lost the pin.  And after inspecting the shifting/derailleurs, it really is in sort of sad shape.  Not perfectly straight, which I could tell when I tried to shift.

My beloved mountain bike (I know I've been complaining about it) is headed for the ????  I could probably spend some money to get it fixed, but is it worth it? 

I got absolutely no moving accomplished yesterday.  That's the first time in 4 weeks that I did nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  That is pathetic and makes my mood even worse.

Got that out of my system and I am over it.  Truly I am.  Because......

My new bike

This is my new bike!  It is a Dark Metallic Blue Trek 7.2 FX.  And it is gorgeous.  I don't actually have it in hand just yet, my store had to contact another store to have them ship the last one available in the size I wanted.  My store had 2, but they were just a size too big.  Don't get me wrong, I would have dealt just fine with the bigger size, and I would have bought it immediately, but I did the right thing and had them check the other stores and I got lucky.

My bike should be at my local store on Monday.  Not until Monday evening though.  The wait will be worth it.  I have heard nothing but good reviews about this bike.  And it turns out that one of my friends has the 7.3 FX and absolutely loves his.

I.  Can't.  Wait!

So, in the meantime, it is a weekend and I may not have biked the trail anyhow.  So, put the feet on my lakes trail and I was off.

I walked 2.47 miles in 46.40 minutes.  I really was planning on walking more but nature was calling.  That just sucked.  Oh well.  I was moving!  I really enjoy walking around the lakes, it is just so calming.

my lakes' tracks

Bike computer (scratch that) I need a new bike!

I went out and bought a cheap (well, can't really say cheap, what I mean is low cost.  We'll see if it is actually cheap or not after I get it hooked up and tested) bike computer.  It is a Cateye Velo 7.  I configured it and am getting ready to install it and test it out.

Here it is:  0 miles.  Does anyone else have one like this?  What is your experience with it?

bike computer

I will still use my fitbit and the My Tracks app on my phone and will compare the 3 of them.

Got my bike computer hooked up to the bike, verified that it captures speed, and I'm ready to test it out.

Seriously?!?  Well, no bike ride today.


broken chain

Here's my tracks.  I biked a whole 242 feet!  Actually, I am really lucky that this happened almost right out of my driveway.

Didn't I tell you earlier that I needed a new bike.  Anyone out there want to help?  I'll advertise for you?  I'll review for you?  I'm talking to you Spokes, Etc.  How about a little love here?

Thanks.



Work gets in the way

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Today is going to be a loooonnnggg day at work.  I got my walking out of the way.  Walked 1.26 miles in 23:34 minutes and saw a friend!



Walking

My friend

I also got as much balance ball exercise in as possible.  I can feel these in my gut/abdomen.  Can't see the effects yet (well, maybe a little), but boy can I feel it.

Had to leave the office at 10:30am and head to DC.  Actually, pretty excited about this adventure.  We are going to assist a law enforcement entity with booking in their arrestees.  There is a demonstration going on at the White House and they expect at least 100 arrests will be made.  This law enforcement entity is one of the users of my law enforcement records management system.

We are going to be there to get hands on with how they enter their information and how we can help to improve this process.  (I got a few ideas already)

I don't talk about my job much, but I absolutely love it!

So biking after work was not happening.  I got home at 7:30pm (after being in the office at 5:30am) and it was a really long day.

I will say, one of the highlights was taking my inaugural ride on the Silver Line.  It just opened 5 days ago.  Nice!