-yeah right-

I’ve decided not to use elevators for the next month in the lead up to the Mangatepopo walk.  I figure this will be good for my fitness and for building my leg / knee strength.

I hate stairs.

More to the point, I hate getting to my desk puffing and panting like a fat guy who just walked up a flight of stairs . . . oh . . . anyway, I hate it.  So now I will have to stand in the stairwell catching my breath before I head into the office. Luckily I work on the second floor of my office building so it isn’t too onerous to walk up and down the stairs.  I might have more of a challenge when I have to go to meetings at the other office building up the road where I am usually going to the 13th floor.  Let’s climb those stairs when I get to them . . .

In other news:

I have reconfirmed my opinion that when I want to exercise the least is when it will do me the most good.  Last night I really didn’t want to go out for a walk, but made myself and actually had quite a good time of it.  It felt like I was walking faster and stronger up the hills, and even pushed on further than The Plan™required of me, but only by 600 metres (don’t want to get too ahead of myself).

So an update on where I am at according to The Plan™ at half-way through Week 7, I have walked  110.1 km over 27 hrs 8 min.  I don’t know if that is good or bad really.  I am feeling fitter and think I am finding walking easier.  I am even feeling thinner, but I am sure that is all in my head.

I am sitting at 91% adherance to The Plan™, but that figure is only so high because I have made an alteration to how I calculate “adherance”.  Rather than expecting to walk every day for a year (which would give me the 100%) I realise it is actually only reasonable to expect to walk 5 days a week.  Giving myself time to recover and rest, particularly after a long walk and i’m suffering from bung knee or gouty foot.

I am also having doubts around how I am accomplishing most of these walks.  Instead of doing 4 km straight I am splitting it to before and after work (by parking 2 km from work).  Effective time wise and for making sure I get the walks in, but not sure if it is conditioning me to be able to walk for long distances.  It is early days yet.  But I will have to have a serious think about that and if it is really helping.