Stepping up my game
Today is a bit of a celebration day for me as I mark six straight months of taking (at least) 10,000 steps a day. This is especially happy for me because one of my (many) goals for 2020 is to take a minimum of 4,000,000 steps over the course of the year. That means I will need about 11,000 steps a day for 366 days.
My current streak began at the end of September. But if I count only the full months (October through March), I have managed 1,992,203 steps which is just shy of an average of 10,890 steps per day. That is not quite at my daily average requirements but, much like my running goals, I am sure that I will improve on that average as the weather improves.
When my current step-streak began, I was not really expecting to manage so many days in a row of 10,000+ steps. But I know that I get a new Garmin Badge each time I manage a 60-day step-streak, so I have been motivated onwards through the gamification of fitness. And now, even though I don’t get an additional badge for ongoing streaks or the number of consecutive 60-day badges in a row, I am motivated by my own pure stubbornness to keep going.
Of course, my obsessive personality means that I get quite anxious when I think I might not make my steps. Sometimes, that means going out for an evening walk or dancing around the cottage a bit before bed. (Yes, I am that crazy about this!)
In fact, I had a bit of a depressing mood crash related to my step-streak in February. When I went to bed on the 23rd, I had more than 10,200 steps on my watch. I had noticed before closing my eyes that it hadn’t synced with my Garmin Connect app, but I was sure it would synch overnight, so I didn’t worry about it. Only when I woke up on the 24th, I found that it hadn’t synched, and turning my watch off and back on again reverted my count to about 9,750. I was gutted, as that meant that instead of having a streak of 147 days, I was back down to zero!
But despite my grief, I tweeted about my dilemma. I didn’t tweet for anything other than a bit of feigned sympathy (and maybe to gently mock my obsession) but their customer support team replied and put me in touch with their tech team who were able to fix the glitch. This means I got my streak back! Yay!
Sure, I would have known that I had achieved a longer streak than what the system said, but I wanted the digital artefact, too; I wanted the points. I wanted needed that gamified motivation to keep going!
And, thanks to that quick save by Garmin, I can now boast six months in a row of taking 10,000+ steps a day. And if I can keep this up, along with several a lot of days where I rack up far more than 10,000 steps, I will smash my 2020 goal of 4,000,000 steps with (relative) ease.
Stats for the record:
* Most steps in a day during this 6-month period = 20,541 (1 January 2020)
* Most steps in a day ever = 54,218 (27 September 2015, from my last Loch Ness Marathon and the first full day of Garmin ownership)
* Most steps in a day not including a marathon race = 26,736 (4 May 2019)
Anyhow, it feels really good to have this streak, and I am hoping that I can stay healthy enough to keep it going for a bit longer. As I am planning to run quite a bit more this year, it should be easy to get the steps in most days… I just need to keep putting one foot in front of the other!