I am fortunate enough to work with my brother-in-law and my sister. Even better, somehow, based on the exercise estimates we turned in, we all ended up on the same team for thi
s competition as well.
Daniel, Janesse and I have been talking since the competition began about how we
needed to have a family get together and play some sports. It is something we do often during the cooler months anyway, and is easily facilitated by having a large family and a good amount of room to run in my backyard.
Today, we finallyput it together and had about 12 of us
over at my house creating an opportunity to rack up some miles for the Insain Bolts. We had a great time for about two hours as we played flag football, Ultimate Frisbee (with a football) and wrapped up with a short game of kickball.
We had a good time and great exercise, especially the Ultimate Frisbee (football), you almost end up running non-stop the entire time, mileage wise, it might even be better to wear the pedometer.
I look forward to doing more in the
future, this competition creates that extra little nudge to get outside and do something to get some exercise and for us, it even creates us an opportunity to spend time with our family, engaging in fun activities and creating memories.
Go Bolts! After this week, we will be over 10% complete!
I had the opportunity this last weekend to ditch my neighborhood sidewalks and gain some miles via a two day backpacking trip through the Superstition Wilderness just east of Phoenix. We did about a 6 hour hike back to an area called Reavis Ranch. In the late 1800's, a recluse named Elisha Reavis built the ranch. He made a living by selling fruits and vegtables that he grew to the local mining camps. Although the ranch house itself burned down about 10 years ago, some old farm equipment, an apple orchard, and a small creek still remain making Reavis Ranch a prime destination for a weekend adventure.
Unfortunately however, these healthy plants took over in many spots making it difficult to navigate. It never seemed to fail that the thickest patches of bushes also had the largest thorns.
When we arrived at our destination we found most of the apple trees only had a few fruit left, primarily in locations a tired hiker may not want to climb. Although we did fit into that category, we were determined not to leave empty handed. We got about 5 apples each which later that night we cored and baked with brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter. As I sat there eating the fresh apple desert under the clear night sky, I listened to the creek flowing a few feet away and wind blowing through the needles of the pine trees and found it very hard to believe we were only about 35 miles from the Phoenix metropolitan area.
I racked up some good pedometer miles in Vegas last week. I racked up a few miles with Bill on Wednesday and Jeff from KC and I racked up some miles on Thursday. The weather felt great in the evenings, especially when compared to our lunchtime walks here. The toughest walk I did was Friday, I decided I would walk down the strip in the direction of the airport until I reached a point where I was two tired or was out of time, then I would take a cab the rest of the way. I made it about 3 miles(proudly sporting my IB shirt), then I stopped and had breakfast and caught a cab. I has hoped to go further but my bag and laptop were weighing me down a bit. Overall it was a good time and I felt great that despite racking up over 10 miles walking on Wednesday, I was not sore at all on Thursday. I know that would not have been the case if not for the competition and all the extra walking I have been doing.
