Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Tag: exercise Page 1 of 2

I Have Saved Middle Earth!

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On December 2, 2015

In General Cogitation

Destroyed the ring and saved Middle EarthWhat began in January of this year, has finally come to an end. It took me 11 months and 2 days to finally walk the distance Frodo walked from Bag End to destroy “The One Ring” in Mordor. 1,779 miles, which is approximately 3,543,997 steps! My Walk to Mordor challenge is finally over (and I did it better than Frodo because I still have all ten of my fingers)! I think next year I will try for the extra 1,625 miles, which is essentially from Minas Tirith back to Bag End, so I guess I will have to update my little calculator on my website to include those milestones. Since I got a bit of a late start this year and I didn’t start exercising consistently in the mornings until July, I think I have a pretty good shot at completing the extra distance.

So 1,779 miles is the hypothetical distance between Bag End and the point inside Mount Doom when Frodo destroyed the ring. I’m sure most of you, like me, probably can’t fully appreciate that distance in terms of two fictional locations, so I did some research to find some actual locations. I used the map coordinates of Cincinnati as my starting point and I picked the more interesting locations and points of interest that would be within that distance. So, after having walked 1,779 miles, I could have essentially walked from Cincinnati to …

[table]
Location,Distance,Direction
El Salvador – San Salvador,1772 miles,South
Canada – Nunavut – Coral Harbour,1731 miles,North
Canada – Alberta,1689 miles,Northwest
Dominican Republic – Santo Domingo,1669 miles,Southeast
Phoenix – Arizona,1581 miles,West
[/table]

There are several more locations that are within that distance, but I just picked a few to give the distance some perspective. I found the following website to find these distances. http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/distances.html?n=414. I don’t have any reason to question if the calculations on this site are legitimate so I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Anyway, since I am going to do this again next year, who will be brave enough to do it with me?? I can add you to my calculator to help you keep track of your progress if you like. Frodo didn’t do it alone, so why should I!

/cheers

Meeting Your Fitness Goals

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On November 17, 2015

In General Cogitation

Meet Your Fitness Goals (or you're a girlie man)Rarely have I ever set a fitness goal at the beginning of the year and actually met that goal, but it looks like that is about to change. I’ve talked a lot over the past 10 months about the Walk to Mordor fitness challenge and, as of the writing of this post, I am less than 100 miles away from completing it (currently at 1,696 miles); 1,779 miles walked within a calendar year and I have until December 31st to get there. I am going to do the challenge again next year and hopefully improve how far I go to eventually attempt the other half of the challenge (… And Back Again, which adds another 1,625 miles which is the approximate distance from Minas Tirith to Bag End). I think next year someone should join me! Frodo didn’t do it alone!!!

I also set another goal late this past summer. I started at a client in mid-to-late July, and I had just started a morning exercise routine. I decided that I was going to work out every week day morning (starting around 5am) until I take vacation the week of Thanksgiving. I am 3 days away from achieving that goal. Granted I may have missed one or two days since July because of illness or complete and utter exhaustion, but I’m proud to say that I did it! During the week of Thanksgiving I am going to take some much-needed time to rest and tell myself that I have earned a week of sleeping in the mornings instead of getting up to work out. Of course my body is trained to do that so unlearning it for only a week will be the biggest challenge (especially come Monday the 30th).

I still have quite a bit of work in front of me to slim down, perhaps that will be a goal for next year (beyond going “back to Mordor”).

/cheers

minion_keboard_smI could get so much more accomplished if I only had minions!

Walk to Mordor: Arrived at Rauros

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On September 10, 2015

In General Cogitation

falls_of_rauros_ii_by_reneaignerI have officially reached Rauros in my Walk to Mordor Nerd Fitness challenge. That means I have walked over 1300 miles so far this year.

Many folks don’t really know what, in Middle Earth, Rauros is. If you do a Google search you will immediately recognize the location, or you can look at the image at the top, which is the Falls of Rauros.

Argonath

The Pillars of Kings

If that still doesn’t ring a bell from the movies, perhaps this image will help. Just prior to the falls, one would pass through the Gates of Argonath (aka The Pillars of Kings). The Falls of Rauros are also the falls that served as Boromir’s burial site.

Rauros is the final milestone in the Walk to Mordor before Mount Doom. I reached that milestone yesterday, which means I have a little over 400 miles left to complete the challenge. As long as I keep my current pace, statistically, I should have no problem completing the challenge by the end of the year.

I have been tracking my progress using my own tool and my Fitbit dashboard.

/cheers

minion_keboard_smI could get so much more accomplished if I only had minions!

Did Fitbit Make America Healthier?

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On July 7, 2015

In Apple, Microsoft, Mobile, Technology

I talk about my Fitbit a lot because over the past 2+ years it has helped me to lose over 50 lbs and keep it off. In that time I know, literally, almost 100+ people that are using Fitbits to get into better shape. I know there are millions more out there just based on the premise that Fitbit is now trading stock publicly and you see Fitbit commercials during prime time television. Today I know it isn’t just Fitbit that is causing more Americans to become healthier; Nike, BodyFit, Apple’s HealthKit, even the Microsoft Band (for the 3 people that have one) are also contributors. So I don’t think Fitbit single-handedly made America healthier, but I think it was the catalyst. Seriously, if only Fitbit had stock I could have bought 2 years ago!

I had tried so many different fads, diets and programs to try to lose weight and get into shape, I was even offered monetary rewards one time; but nothing I tried seemed to work. I don’t know what it was about the Fitbit that turned it around for me, but I’m glad it worked. I wish I knew the statistics of obesity in America right now and I’m curious if they have gone down (since I’m not a professional blogger and I don’t write for the AP, I don’t feel like doing the research myself – I guess that qualifies me to work for CNN *rim-shot*).

These things do have a tendency to fade away as it will no longer be “trendy” to use a fitness tracker, but hopefully the numbers keep rising. I know I do what I can to encourage friends, family and co-workers to keep walking and working out to help them become healthier. I think its pretty hilarious though that all of Michelle Obama’s “efforts” to reduce obesity hasn’t had the same impact as a tiny, electronic device (especially since I still see King Size candy bars and I still drink 16+ ounces of pop every day). It just goes to show you that even a tiny device is much more influential than a tiny mind 😉

Keep Walking My Friends (in the voice of the Dos Equis guy)

Walk to Mordor Progress

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On June 25, 2015

In General Cogitation

walk-into-mordorBack in January of this year I told folks on Facebook that I was going to participate in the Walk-to-Mordor Nerd Fitness challenge. I can’t remember how I originally found out about this challenge. I feel like I read about it on someone else’s feed and searched for it on Google. I found most of the logistics from a blog site called Nerd Fitness where I downloaded an Excel file to track the progress. After logging my progress the first couple of times, being the pragmatic nerd that I am, I realized I could build a web page to do this for me!

Enough about how big of a nerd I am; I’m here to talk about my progress since we are nearing the end of six months.

As I said I am tracking my progress on a web page I created at http://www.vleaminck.com/#/walkToMordor and, as you would be able to tell from the page, it appears I am on track to complete the challenge. If you recall, back in January when I decided to take on this quest, not only were we a couple of days into January but I was several miles behind. Only through perseverance [and +50 Fortitude] I managed to catch up and get back on track.

If any of you want to participate in this challenge, let me know and I can add you to the web page so you can track your progress as well. It doesn’t have to be January 1 to participate, you just need to complete the challenge within a calendar year. So you could start right now if you wanted to or you can wait and do it with me as I will probably try to do it again next year. I think it would be great to get more people actively doing this challenge so who is willing to “step up”? (pun intended).

Lost FitBit? Use Your Phone

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On June 12, 2015

In General Cogitation, Technology

FitbitI have been using the same FitBit for over two and a half years now so losing it would give me a great deal of angst. I have probably convinced dozens of friends and family to get their own FitBits and it sometimes baffles me when they say they can’t find theirs (I’m very OCD about checking my pocket probably once an hour for my FitBit, even if I have been sitting for an hour). So the obvious excuse, when I taunt them, is they “lost it” *sigh*

Well now that excuse is no longer valid. An update to the phone app a few weeks ago will now allow you to link multiple devices to one account, including your phone. You can now add your phone to your FitBit account as a “Mobile Tracker” and it will record your steps just as your FitBit would (granted I don’t know if the accuracy is the same).

If you don’t know how to hook up your phone as a tracker, I can help you out (unless you have already performed a search on Google and found the answer in the FitBit forums). You will need to have the FitBit app installed on your phone which you can get from the App Store or the Android Store.

Once you have the app installed and you have launched it:

  • Tap on “Account” at the bottom of the screen.
  • Tap “Set Up a New Fitbit Device” – which should be right in the middle of your screen.
  • Tap on the “MobileTrack” option at the bottom and follow any additional prompts.

This should set your phone up as a tracker and it will only track the basics (i.e. it won’t track sleep, stairs, etc). I use this option when my FitBit is charging and I am still going to be somewhat active – because every step counts! Once it has finished charging (or you find your by gone FitBit) I would remove the phone, which I recommend as only one device can be tracking steps at a time. Steps from all devices will be aggregated on your FitBit account.

So there you have it. If you have lost your FitBit or its charging, and you have a phone that supports all the functionality of the app (I believe the FitBit app still has functionality issues on iPhone 4) then you no longer have an excuse for your lower rank on the leader boards 🙂

Keep Calm and Walk On!

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