Tag Archives: exercise

2000 miles!

Bang the drums! Crash the cymbals! Set off the fireworks! I’ve walked 2000 miles since I had my hip replaced on March 22, 2021.
2000 miles
Before I got my Fitbit, I never gave the distance or number of steps I walked in a day much thought. Well, maybe on a trip to Scotland when I was trying to outdo Wendy H. Jones and that was with a bum hip.

I feel so much better and I’ve lost weight. I don’t get winded like I used to, even when I’m clipping along at a good rate.

My daily walks give me time to unwind and relax. My brain has been in lockdown on the writing front so it’s nice to get out and let my mind wander. It’s helped and I’ve come up with some ideas for scenes for the current work in progress. They might end up on the cutting room floor, but they can at least enjoy a moment or two in the spotlight before I kill the darlings.

When I first set the goal of 2000 miles, I didn’t think I would get there before my birthday later in the year so I was pleasantly surprised to achieve it on August 18th.

But I really shouldn’t be all that surprised. I achieved 1000 miles by Feb 20, 2021, and that included my early days of pot-op recovery and very few steps.

I achieved that before the one-year anniversary so I figured what’s another 1000? I should hit 2000 miles by my birthday easily. And yes, it was easy, especially when most days I walk between five and seven miles. And I had fun! I’ve splashed in puddles and slid down slides in the parks. My inner child has come out to play again.

If you follow me on Facebook, since January I’ve posted maps of my daily walks with the number of steps and miles travelled. I’ve had people tell me they get tired just reading and seeing where I’ve walked.

You can follow me on Facebook here.

The next goal will be 2500 miles and 3000 by the two-year anniversary of my surgery.

 

1000 miles!!! I did it earlier than planned

I’m so excited! When I started on my quest, I was trying to reach 500 miles by the time I had my post-op assessment on November 4th. I succeeded at that. It took me 227 days to do it, but I did. Any miles after that was icing on the cake. It was then I decided to shoot for 1000 miles by the one-year anniversary of my surgery.

1000 miles
1000 miles

Could I reach 1000 miles by the first anniversary of my hip replacement surgery? I was sure going to try. I didn’t have as long to do it, but I already had 500 miles under my belt, so what was 500 more? I had 138 days to go, and if I walked 3.63 miles each day, I’d succeed.

Since then, my average daily miles per day was 4.60, so I was exceeding the minimum requirement, so that would get me there in plenty of time.

Drum roll and let the champagne corks pop! I did it! 1000 miles and with 30 days to spare!

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Final numbers

Steps:  2,530,561

Miles:  1002.71

And the day isn’t over yet! Woohoo!!!

I would walk 500 miles, and I did!

On March 22nd, 2021, I had a left total hip replacement. In addition to the exercises I had to do daily, I set out walking not far at first. In the beginning, I did well to walk to the property line closest to the front door with the aid of my two-wheeled walker. However, never in my wildest dreams did I think I could walk as many miles, including that day (lots of steps from the car to the operating theatre) until the day before I saw my surgeon for a follow-up visit on November 4th.

miles
Can we have a drum roll, please…
miles
March 22nd, until midnight November 3rd, I managed to get an astounding number of miles walked!
miles
Your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. I walked 500 miles in that time frame. Crazy, eh? It was 502.10 miles. And those are the only ones recorded. Some would have occurred when I was moving about not wearing my Fitbit because it was “charge-challenged” and sat on its charger.

To put this into perspective, it would be approximately the equivalent of walking from the CN Tower in downtown Toronto to Science North in Greater Sudbury and back.

I had good days and bad. My worst was April 16th, when I only had 295 steps or .12 miles. It must have rained heavily that day because I was out every day, even if it was just around the block. My best day was August 23rd, when I achieved 21,339 steps or 8.45 miles.

As a result of all my hard work, I feel better. I’ve likely lost weight, although I’ve not stepped on the scales to see. I know when I returned to work I was asked if I’d lost weight. That’s an added bonus of walking.

My next goal is to reach 1000 miles by the anniversary date of my surgery. I’m a further 12.51 miles closer after yesterday’s multiple treks.

Yay me!!!