FB10: Week 13

An overall down week, despite some signs of life.as work and weather kept getting in the way.  Things got off to a slow start on Sunday, with only 3500 steps getting logged.  Monday saw a big increase, jumping up to 5200 steps, thanks to a trip out for dinner.  Work got in the way of things on Tuesday, leading to a big drop that left me 18 steps shy of 2600.  Things improved bigly on Wednesday, as a double header on the south side pushed me up to 6800 steps.  Things were still relatively decent on Thursday, despite a drop down to 4600 steps, thanks to my first visit to the office of 2024.  Friday went bad again, with only 2800 steps.  Saturday wasn’t much better, closing out the week with 3100 steps.

Total steps: 28,785

Daily average: 4112.1

FB10: Week 12

A bit of a down week, as work and weather kept getting in the way.  Things got off to a slow start on Sunday, where 40 more steps were needed just to get to 3900.  Monday saw a big increase, coming 13 steps away from 4700 while watching Purdue battle, but ultimately lose, in the NCAA Tournament Championship.  Things fell off a cliff on Tuesday, dropping down to 3100 steps.  Things were slightly worse on Wednesday, as I fell to just 3000 steps.  Thursday saw a slight increase, going up to 3300 steps.  Friday was a nice bounce back, coming just 5 steps shy of 4200.  My return to Guaranteed Rate Field on Saturday closed out the week on a high-ish note, only 19 steps away from 4700.

Total steps: 26,868

Daily average: 3842.6

FB10: Week 10

It looked to be a bleak week thanks to work, until sports reared its head at the to change the trajectory.  Things got off to a decent start on Sunday, finishing just 5 steps away from 4600.  Monday saw a small decrease, falling down to the 3900-step plateau.  Things were even worse on Tuesday, as I dropped down even further to 3300 steps.  Thanks to meetings, Wednesday bottomed out, leaving me 13 steps shy of 2500.  The start of the baseball season on Thursday helped turn things around, as I returned to Guaranteed Rate Field for the first time in 2024 and earned 6500 steps.  An impromptu trip to Detroit on Friday for the Sweet Sixteen propelled me just past my 7500 daily step goal for the first time since January.  A Purdue victory on Friday meant spending Saturday in Detroit, with dinner over the border at Caesar’s Palace in Windsor, finishing the week with 4400 steps.

Total steps: 32,876

Daily average: 4696.6

FB10: Week 9

Work, along with a return of cold weather, reared its ugly head this week, knocking things back down again.  Things got off to a decent start on Sunday, finishing just 20 steps away from 4100.  Monday saw a small increase, pushing across that 4100-step plateau.  Things fell off a cliff on Tuesday, dropping down to 2400 steps and ending my streak of 4000-step days at nine.  A bit of an increase on Wednesday pushed me back up to 3200 steps.  Thursday saw another small increase, going up again to 3500 steps.  Friday was slightly worse, needing 31 steps to get to 3400.  Saturday ended the week on an upswing, coming 21 steps shy of 3800.

Total steps: 24,521

Daily average: 3503

FB10: Week 7

A slight step backwards, after changing temperatures and work got in the way of a strong start to the week.  Things got off to a decent start on Sunday, finishing with 4200 steps.  Monday saw a nice increase, coming just 11 steps shy of 4800.  Things started to turn south on Tuesday, as I ended up with just 3600 steps.  Wednesday saw another decrease, going down to 2900 steps.  Things cratered on Thursday, as I dropped down to 2400 steps.  Things started to improve on Friday, needing just an additional 12 steps to get to 3500.  Saturday was even better, ending back up over 4000 steps.

Total steps: 25,600

Daily average: 3657.1

FB10: Week 6

Another slight improvement over last week, with some unseasonably warm temperatures poking through as my toe continues to heal.  Things got off to a slow start on Sunday, finishing with 3800 steps.  Monday saw a nice increase, coming just 20 steps shy of 4500.  Tuesday was just slightly worse, as I missed Monday’s total by 63 steps.  Wednesday saw a big decrease, going down to 3600 steps.  Things at work started going south on Thursday, which left me 4 steps shy of 2000.  A small improvement on Friday pushed me up to 2200 steps.  The return of nice weather, plus a trip to the grocery store, on Saturday led to my best day of the week, finishing 27 steps away from 5800.

Total steps: 26,339

Daily average: 3762.7

FB10: Week 4

A grisly toe injury put a damper on what was looking to be a decent enough week.  Things got off to a nice start on Sunday, besting 4200 steps.  A slight decrease on Monday left me 20 steps shy of 3900.  Tuesday saw a slight improvement, needing 24 steps to reach 4000.  Wednesday was tracking well, until I managed to mangle my little toe trying to put on socks, leaving me with 3600 steps.  Thursday was even worse, finishing with 3100 steps.  A busy morning of work on Friday led to the worst day of the week, with only 2500 steps despite a midday trip to the local supermarket.  Saturday bounced back a bit, coming in with 3300 steps.

Total steps: 24,725

Daily average: 3532.1

Should I Even Worry About A 10,000 Step Club?

My world was very different four years ago, as I was finishing up my fifth year using a Fitbit.  I had just added 45 new 10,000 step days, my third best year to date, and, with upcoming trips to Boston and California already on the docket, things were looking good to add a good number more and add some new tales to this list of my Top 25 step days.  Then, the corona virus happened, the world basically shut down for the next year or so, and I stopped needing to leave the house.  I’ve worked from home since March of 2020, which theoretically gives me plenty of free time to go out for walks, but, in practice, leaves me homebound more often than not.  I managed just two 10,000 step days for the just completed ninth year of Fitbit usage, which is my worst total since I started this whole step tracking thing some thirteen odd years ago, leading to a total of 285 since I started keeping track back in 2011.  With that in mind, here’s the list of my Top 25 step days, which has now stayed static for four years.

1: 4/14/2018 – 27,470 steps

My best single day total is from my April 2017 trip to New York to see Angelina.  The day’s excursions included trips to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, Central Park, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Empire State Building.

2: 7/21/2018 – 27,278 steps

My July 2017 trip to Virginia, to hike up Catawba Mountain to McAfee Knob with Jeff and Val, fell just short of the top spot.

3: 6/6/2013 – 24,988 steps

2013’s trip to Disney World, which spent 5 years as my single day best, included excursions to both Epcot Center and the Magic Kingdom, and yes, falling 12 steps short of 25,000 still irks me.

4: 6/3/2019 – 24,665 steps

The first full day of 2019’s summer trip to Washington DC spent most of the day at the Smithsonian Zoo.

5: 8/8/2019 – 23,866 steps

Late in the summer of 2019, I spent two weeks in San Francisco for a work trip.   On my last full day, I went out after work, walking to Pier 39 and then back the other direction to Oracle Park to see the Giants take on the Phillies.  My totals would have been even higher, but I was dead tired and took an Uber back to the hotel after the game.

6: 3/18/2018 – 23,780 steps

My first day in Las Vegas for the 2017 IBM Think conference, the day’s totals include gallivanting around town, including a late night trip up to Caesar’s Palace from the MGM Grand to see Absinthe.

7: 10/24/2018 – 23,362 steps

My October 2018 trip to Boston to see Angelina for our birthday gives us our next entry.  While she was in class, I took tours of Fenway Park and Harvard, before meeting up with her for a late lunch and then heading to the airport for the trip home.

8: 3/22/2016 – 22,493 steps

My one-time second highest day took place during the ill-fated trip to Disney World in March of 2016.  The day’s excursion started at Hollywood Studios before heading over to Epcot Center with Jeff and Val.

9: 7/27/2013 – 20,592 steps

Still my highest total at home in the state of Illinois, the next entry comes thanks to the 2013 BTN 5K and a, for lack of a better word, misunderstanding about where I should be picked up after the race.

10: 12/29/2018 – 20,374 steps

We wrap up the top 10 with 2018’s trip to California and the trip to Disneyland to see Danny perform with the Lincoln-Way Marching Band.

11: 8/5/2017 – 20,218 steps

The next entry came in August of 2017 on the first day of my trip to Boston with Danny and Michael.  After landing in town, we traipsed to the Science Museum, a breakfast joint, our hotel, and, finally, Fenway Park.

12: 7/14/2017 – 20,208 steps

Down to #12 is my 2017 trip to Disney World, a one day journey with Angelina to celebrate her high school graduation. Continue reading →

FB10: Week 1

A slow start to my now tenth year using a Fitbit to track my steps.  The week got off to a good start on Sunday, thanks to a trip down to West Lafayette to see the Purdue women’s basketball team take on our hated in-state rivals which left me 37 steps shy of 5400.  A quick trip to the grocery store on Monday put me 27 steps away from 4600.  Tuesday was easily the worst day of the week, finishing with just 2200 steps.  A nice bounce-back on Wednesday needed only 10 additional steps to reach 3800.  Another trip to the store after work on Thursday, to both shop and charge, pushed me to 4900 steps.  Friday saw a slight drop-off, going down to 4000 steps.  Saturday bounced back up a bit, finishing with 4200 steps.

Total steps: 29,189

Daily average: 4169.9

Fitbit Year 9

year ago, I set a goal of 2,730,000 steps, an average of 7500 steps per day. Thanks to a combination of old age and my weight finally getting the better of me, I fell quite a bit short of my challenge, finishing well more than a million steps behind with only 1,528,938, the fifth straight year I’ve failed to surpass my yearly goal.  My average step total per week was 29,402.65, which comes out to about 4200.4 steps per day. The median weekly step total was 28,354.  My best week was Week 21, which just so happened to correspond with my trip to Seattle with Danny, propelling me to only 44,802 steps for the week.  My worst week was Week 14, where unseasonably cold temperatures took a toll.

For reasons I don’t completely understand, I’m going to keep things as is for the upcoming year, in the hopes that I can finally reverse this downward trend. I am leaving my goal for steps per day at 7500, which would again bring me to a yearly total of 2,730,000 steps. Hopefully this sixth attempt, now one would assume that I’ve gotten this WFH thing down pat, is the one that sticks.