I was proud of my milage before I added up the numbers

Have you ever started doing something and been excited about your progress, only to be left not knowing how to feel when you looked at the hard numbers? I’m in that position right now and the something I have started is running.

I’m not exactly new to running, I ran my first 10K back in November. It was a grueling 6.2 miles but I was proud of my accomplishment. Since then life has thrown me some curve balls and I’ve put on some weight and lost a tremendous amount of stamina.

With a desire to get back into running, I set out for my first run in months. It was a humbling experienced as I gassed out before ever hitting the first mile marker. Since then I have made a serious effort of making it a regular thing.

There have been some bumps along the way but I think I’ve found my groove. On days that I work from home, I spend my lunch break trotting around the neighborhood. Often times I’ll bring my daughter along and she’ll ride her little bike alongside me.

I’ve had a case of Achilles Tendonitis crop up, found a way to continue running, and as I write this, am beginning to feel a bit worn down. While I’ve only been at this for about two weeks, I haven’t taken much in the way of rest days.

On Monday I headed out to the development with my daughter and her little bike. We got started and in short order I began feeling my shins ache. I was willing to grind it out but the windy conditions were sapping the fun out of my daughter’s bike ride.

We cut the run short and detoured our way back home. The run wound up being only 1.8 miles but it felt like it might as well have been 3. Knowing that I’ve been doing a lot of running as of late, I thought to log into my Fitbit Account and take a look at the figures.

At first glance I was thrilled with the numbers. When I added them up though, I suddenly felt disappointed.

The image above is a little deceiving. The first entry (bottom of the list) was actually my first run. I entered the activity type incorrectly in my Fitbit App. Later you’ll see a walk, which was actually a walk. My wife, daughter, and I went out one evening instead of me going for a run. The entry listed as Sport is an automatic entry from my Fitbit Charge HR and probably came from when I mowed the lawn.

If you remove the Sport entry and the one walk, the numbers aren’t as exciting as I initially thought. Over the past 15 days I’ve been out running on 10 occasions. I covered a total of 22.81 miles over a period of a little more than 5 hours.

I suppose it is my competitive drive that tells me the milage should be greater than it is. Perhaps I should be proud of my accomplishment. I know I was before looking at the figures…