December 21, 2020

Goodbye, Fall

Sadly, today is the last day of fall. I feel like we didn't even really get fall weather! It was really hot and then REALLY rainy and now very cold with accumulated snow last week. (The photo above was a sunrise during one of my walks, and it was actually pretty perfect that day.)

As you may remember, I set up a Cookies Fall Challenge. A lot of people like the summer challenges that I post each year, so I thought I'd try out one for fall (I actually made three different ones to choose from). I don't think it worked out as well as I'd hoped. This is a hard time of year for everyone to do challenges like these. I should have kept it simple (not "easy", but the simplicity of one fun challenge like the summer checklist).

I wish I'd been more attentive to the Facebook groups for the challenges but, because I quickly realized I wasn't going to attempt all three challenges myself, I stuck with the one that I knew I'd be able to make myself do. I did the Cookies Fall Mileage Competition--basically just racking up miles either running or walking and posting a group leaderboard each week.

I'm in awe of how many miles some people run or walk each week! I always had around 35 (walking 5 miles a day, 7 days a week). I was consistently in second place on the leaderboard among the walkers each week (I separated walkers and runners because runners tend to get more mileage in general). Jessica, you are tough competition ;) 

Some quick stats of mine from the challenge (which went from September 22-December 21):

Number of walks: 102
Miles walked: 475.02
Time spent walking: 136 hours and 56 minutes (that also means I listened to 136 hours and 56 minutes of audiobooks!)
Calories burned: 44,275
Average speed: 3.5 mph (17:00/mi pace)
Longest walk: 8.42 miles

I actually didn't do a single walk on the treadmill during the entire challenge! Not that there is anything wrong with using the treadmill; I probably would have used it here and there if Joey wasn't expecting to go for a walk with me every day.

I have seen SO many things throughout the 475 miles walked this fall. I've already written about that a couple of times, so I won't get into it. But I really loved doing this challenge--now that I have a streak going (today was Day 156) I don't want to quit my streak. It's going to get hard to continue throughout the winter, I'm sure, when the temp is in the single digits and there is a ton of snow. 

A few weeks into the fall challenge, Amazon had a sale on the Kindle Paperwhite (which, I'm sure you know by now, is one of my most favorite things ever!) so I bought one to give away. I decided to give it away to someone in the mileage challenge--not the person who racks up the most miles, but via a random drawing for anyone that walks or runs 100 miles for the final 8 weeks of the challenge.

We have 24 people that participated regularly every week. Since today was the last day, I'm going to give them a couple of days to submit their miles and then I'll draw a name for the Kindle. It's been a great group!

As far as the other two challenges (the Fall Hard and the Fall Checklist), I had planned on doing them as well, but I failed early on and it was clear that I wasn't going to focus on it. I'm going to have to check in with the Facebook groups to see how everything went with those challenges.

Moving into winter, I'm not "challenging" myself to do anything--I plan to continue my walking streak as long as I can. I've been writing in my three-month goal journal (Amazon affiliate link) and I'm excited to start working daily on that in January.

The journal is very introspective--the first 10 or so pages are all about achievements and ideals, and then you break it down into smaller sections and eventually a path to meet goals. As you know, I love setting goals! I fail many more times than I succeed, but I continue to set them to always be working on bettering myself.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the fall challenges--I hope you accomplished something you wanted to or at least had fun trying!

3 comments:

  1. Haha well thanks! I have to say though that you had an awesome number of miles weekly considering you have to also deal with kids and northern weather. lol I am retired and in Florida so it's much easier for me to keep up consistent exercise. :) It was a fun challenge and I enjoyed seeing the group posts also.

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  2. I'm glad you set up the challenge. I had started walking at the end of August and your challenge helped me keep my walking streak going. Today will be day 113 of my current streak. Thank you.

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  3. Thank you for setting them up! I really enjoyed the fall challenge - it definitely made me more active, just knowing I'd have to submit miles each week. I'm so grateful for you and the group!

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