An up and down week, with only 4 days over 5000 steps, but 3 over 6000. Nothing out of the ordinary during the work week, as coffee trips make up most of the activity. Saturday was a big disappointment, but Sunday, thanks to another trip to Brookfield Zoo, gets a big bump.
Total steps: 36,412
Weekly average: 5201.7
I began the week a mere 23,909 steps away from the 5 million mark, which came down to a little more than 3400 steps a day to reach the goal during the week. Well, thanks to a work week that saw each day pass the 5000 step plateau, I managed to surpass the 5,000,000 mark on Thursday. The weekend could have used a little work, but beggars cannot be choosers.
Total steps: 35,580
Weekly average: 5082.9
The long-awaited trip to San Diego got off to a rocky start when illness struck 2 days before I was supposed to leave. So, I was a bit shaky when the car arrived to take me to the airport at 3:30 on a Wednesday morning. For some reason, a 6 AM flight didn’t seem like a ridiculous idea back in January when I booked it. So, feeling a little queasy, I boarded the plane heading to Denver. Which also seemed like a good idea back on the cold January day.
After landing in Denver, the connecting flight to San Diego was close enough that I got off one plane and got right on the other. Another quick 2 1/2 hour jaunt and we landed in beautiful San Diego around 10 AM. A quick bus ride later and we arrived at the Manchester Grand Hyatt. While we checked in to the hotel and got all of our conference information, our luggage was supposed to be delivered to our rooms. So imagine my surprise when later that morning, I got a call from someone in the other tower of the hotel saying my luggage had made it to her room. Not a huge deal, but issue #1 of the trip.
After getting the luggage situation worked out, I ventured out to reacquaint myself with the city. It had been almost 10 years since my last visit, so I tried to retrace some of the steps from my previous visits. First was a walk past the convention center, where I had attended a comic con or 3. Next stop was PETCO Park, which is just up the street from the convention center. When I first found out the dates of this trip, the first thing I checked was the Padres schedule. Unfortunately, a game wasn’t in the cards this time, but I did get a look in to the stadium thanks to their open center field concourse. From there, I headed off to Horton Plaza, looking to try and grab something for lunch. This is where I ran into a little trouble because, for the life of me, I couldn’t find it. I eventually had to resort to looking it up on my phone to see how to get there. I guess 10 years really is a long time.
Wednesday night was the big gala event on the USS Midway. Due to the chilly (for southern California) weather, we were moved from the flight deck down below, but still had access to roam the retired aircraft carrier. Both before and after dinner, groups of the winners were called up to shake hands and get their picture taken with Suren and their AVP. It was a nice way to wind down the first day in San Diego.
Overall, a disappointing week, with only 2 days crossing the mythical 5000 step barrier. Monday got things off to a good start thanks to the Warner Brothers studio tour and a trip to the NerdMelt theater to see some comedy. Tuesday’s low total was due to a final low-key day in LA that was spent taking in a taping of @Midnight. Wednesday was a disappointing day, thanks to a cancelled flight that left me stranded at the airport for 16 hours. Thursday I arrived back home and then went to work, despite feeling sick all day. The rest of the week was nothing but disappointment.
Total steps: 29,796
Weekly average: 4256.6
The night started early, as I left work a little early to head down to the city to Rock Bottom in order to catch the end of Game 3 of the ALDS, with the White Sox looking to sweep the Red Sox and win their first post season series since the 1917 World Series. After the game, which, of course, the White Sox did win, Tina, Andy, and I hopped on the Red Line and headed north to Wrigleyville to check out Tegan and Sara at the Metro.
Apparently, there were 2 opening acts, neither one I remember or have even heard of. To be honest, I don’t remember much about the show at all. The album they were touring in support of, So Jealous, is one of my favorites and I’m sure I enjoyed the performance. But, my favorite baseball team was headed for the ALCS, I’d just been to two playoff games, and the Weezer and Foo Fighters show was earlier that week. It’s all sort of jumbled together at this point.
The week got off to a disappointing start, with an opening day trip down to US Cellular Field coinciding with the onset of an illness that kept me home from work on Tuesday. Wednesday was the first day of the trip out west and, thanks to a walk around San Diego and a trip to the USS Midway, I logged my first day over 10,000 steps since late September, a mere 27 weeks ago. Thursday and Friday also broke past the 10,000 step plateau. Saturday crossed 5000 steps thanks to a drive up the coast to Los Angeles and a trip to Dodger Stadium. Sunday, thanks to a trip to Hollywood and the walk of fame, once again blew past the 10,000 step mark.
Total steps: 60,216
Weekly average: 8602.3
Another work week where every day surpassed the 5000 step mark. The weekend also showed a slight improvement, thanks to taking care of a sick family member.
Total steps: 38,436
Weekly average: 5490.9
The last two weeks have also had a challenge to improve on the number of steps accumulated from January 18-31st. My total for that period was 62,776 steps. Over the past two weeks, my total is 74,944 , an improvement of 12,168.
The story of this show begins months earlier, when tickets were first due to go on sale. I had access to a pre-sale, and just as it was about to go live, there was a fire drill at work, which left me away from my computer for some time. Thankfully, I was able to still find decent seats once the drill was over. My plan was to try and entice a girl I had a crush on to attend with me, and I had a few months to work that angle.
Sadly, things did not work out in that regard, so I dumped the extra pair of tickets I had and ended up going with Tina. It seems as though the Kaiser Chiefs were the opening act for the night, but I don’t remember if we were there in time to see them or not. Weezer was the second act of the evening, and, according to Internet reports, they played a decent mix of old and new songs. They even mixed in a few covers, including a version of Big Me by their show mates.
Once they were done, the Foo Fighters came out and also mixed in old hits with selections from their new album. They also managed to break down some of their hits with elongated guitar solos that gave the audience an opportunity to thrash themselves as much as humanly possible.
The combination of the two headlining bands made this seem like a the closing acts of a festival from a decade previous, but they both provided a good night for the crowd and a good kickoff to what ended up being one of the busiest, and most exciting, weeks of my life.
Way back in July of 2011, when I started this whole GlobalFit exercise (pun somewhat intended), I had the silly thought that since 10,000 steps was what is generally considered active, that I would use that as a guideline of something to ascribe to. Now, nearly 3 years later, I find that I’ve actually crossed that plateau only 31 times. As I spend today flying home from California, with the expectation that I will be adding at least one or two days to this list, I thought it would be sobering, and perhaps inspiring, to look back at the top 20 of those 31 days.
1: 6/6/2013 – 24,988 steps
My best single day total came during last summer’s trip to Disney World. The day’s excursion to both Epcot Center and the Magic Kingdom ended up with a total of approximately 12.5 miles. And yes, it does bother me that I didn’t get those 12 additional steps to reach 25,000.
2: 7/27/2013 – 20,592 steps
My second highest total came nearly 2 months after my highest, thanks to the BTN 5K and a, for lack of a better word, misunderstanding about where I should be picked up after the race. These 2 days are the sum total of my days over 20,000 steps.
3: 6/8/2013 – 17,852 steps
My third highest output brings us back to Disney World, this time for a day split between Animal Kingdom in the morning and Hollywood Studios in the afternoon. Sadly, this also ends our collection of days greater than 15,000.
4: 9/9/2012 – 14,957 steps
The fourth best day I’ve had in the last 3 years is my highest total outside of the United States. A Sunday in Belfast spent walking down to the Titanic museum
5: 6/7/2013 – 14,940 steps
We round out the top 5 with another day of last June’s vacation to Disney World. This day started with a morning trip to the hotel pool, followed by an abbreviated day at the Magic Kingdom.
My hopes of winning anything in a basketball pool this year took at fatal hit when my pick for champion, Louisville, was bounced out during the Sweet 16 round against Kentucky. With the Final Four happening this weekend, let’s take a look at how things stand.
I am down to one team, but still have some hope of finishing second in the work pool. If Florida advances to the championship game, but loses the national title, I will nail that second place finish. Every other scenario has me finishing in either fourth or fifth place.