End of the Year!!!!

Well today has been one year since I started keeping a log of the mileage I have covered on foot. I have hiked just about every trail here in the Colorado Springs region with several longer treks to Cripple Creek and from Canyon City and back to the Springs. It hasn’t always been easy but it has been fun. For the 12-month period I was able to cover 1,136.06/Miles. That averages out to 3.11/Miles a day for 365 days.

Starting tomorrow my new plan is to try to match if not exceed each months miles that I did in 2008. I have everything tracked and documented in excel so I have something to work against. So expect new stories and new pictures for 2009 and I am looking forward to getting started.

Also starting tomorrow I will be starting a new diet and tracking my weight over the next year. I will be cutting out the beer L and this is really just useless calories that I don’t need. So I will update on how the diet and weight loss goes.

Thank you to everyone who has checked out my blog and I look forward to providing you with new stories, photos and information on the equipment that I use.

The following is my mileage graph for 2008/2009.

End of Week Update

Well we are just a few days away from reaching the 1 year mark. It has been a journey to say the least. For the month of Feb, I am up to 72.18/miles. The last week has been mostly on the tread mill at the gym. So I am now up to 1117.86/miles since I started tracking my distance on March 1st, 2008.

On The Road

So this week I have been on the road meeting with clients and friends. I don’t mind being on the road other that it is a lot of entertaining, which includes breakfast, lunch and dinner and often includes alcohol. Most of my miles this week have taken place on the tread mill. Although I did pick up a really great mask with built in goggles at the Harley Davidson store in Wichita this weekend. I can't wait to try it out and am sure I will freak out anyone I come across on the trails back in CO.

I don't mind the tread mill that much, although I would rather be in the mountains. At least on the tread mill I do run. I break it up by songs. Run one song, walk the next and so on. Just have to be careful that Firebird as 16 minute song doesn't come on when it is time to run. :-)

Making plans to visit Mexico in May and am looking forward to spending a few days on the beach.

Made it but still going strong!

So several of you have asked if I made it to my goal of 1095 miles in 12 months. Well I have actually already passed it and an up to 1100.01 and am still going strong. I will update the blog with the charts, etc. at the end of the month. I knew I could do it and am now looking at doing 1456 for the next year. That would be 4 miles a day, each day for the year. I will also be adding some lifting and dirt bike riding to my work out schedule. Still need to buy the dirt bike and who knows if I will, but it looks like a ton of fun.

Feb 13th. Fishing in Kansas

On Friday I was able to sneak out and do a little farm pond fishing. Cuaght this bad boy on a plastic worm. Nice catch for Febuary in Kansas.

Is tomorrow the day?

Today I walked to work as usual; it was a little cold but not bad. My youngest has been sick and missed school on Tue/Wed so I had to pick up his home work for him. So I walked to his school, which is about 4/miles from my office and then home after getting his work.

So I managed to get just a little over 8/miles in today. I should walk to work tomorrow but I have a busy morning and am leaving early in the afternoon to get home and pack for my trip. I am leaving on Friday early AM and will most likely end up doing some urban hiking in KS.

I only need 4.8 miles to reach my goal and will most likely knock this out tomorrow. Before the end of the month I do want to get one more big hike in so will need to start planning.

Rockin on the Trails

Over the last year I have gone through several pairs of headphones for my IPod, from Skull candy, Sony and others. I have found that the best sounding and the most comfortable are really pretty cheap. I have been using the Sony MDR-J10 Ear Headphones with Non-Slip Design. They fit great into your ear and when wearing a stocking cap, goggles and head lamp there is no pressure on your ears. I tried the Skull candy brand as well as the ones that came with the IPod but these have been the best. The only issue I have run into is that once in a while the ear speaker gets sweat in them and you have to wipe them off. Don't freak out, if you’re not sweating then you are lazy.

The Skull candy and the ones that came with the IPod both hurt my ears and are not that comfortable. If I was lying around I am sure they would be fine. Not only that but the Sony MDR-J10 is really pretty cheap and you can get a couple of pairs in various colors to match what you may be wearing that day. Even though you are on the trails or the gym you still have to look stylish. They come in black, blue and orange. You can find them at Wal-Mart or Radio Shack, but I have only found them in blue at the stores.

Rock On My Friends!

The Incline Again

So me and one of the guys from work snuck out a little early and headed out to do the incline again today. We are trying to get it into the work out schedule for every Tuesday. A storm blew in this afternoon and it started snowing. But what the hell, no pain no gain. We headed up and made really good time. We didn't stop for air until we reached the halfway point. Took a minute, caught our breath and finished it up.

This added another 5/miles to my mileage and after updating the spreadsheet I only have 11/miles to go. Shouldn't be a problem as long as I keep up my walking this next week when I am on the road. So looks like I will be doing some flat land walking in Wichita, KS and Kansas City, KS.

What am I going to do next? I am on the hunt for a dirt bike as I would like to start riding some of the trails here in town. Would definitely be a great upper body work out?

Mt. Cutler & Mt. Muscoco

I had loaded up the backpack last night with big ambitions of doing a big hike today. The weather report called for snow and I was packed for it. Well I got up and 6am and looked outside, no snow. So I hopped in the hot tub for a while and then answered email till about 8am. The wife and one of the kids got out of bed so I made egg McMuffins for everyone.

The wife is trying to catch up with school and she needed to study and have some quite time. So about 9:15 I put on my hiking gear and headed out. Since is started so late I wasn’t sure where to go. I headed up Cheyenne Blvd, towards Helen Hunt Falls. On the way I up I saw the Mt. Cutler trail head and had never done it as it is only 2/miles round trip. So today was the day. In the parking lot I was talking to another hiker and he mentioned that there was a side trail that would take you up to Mt. Muscoco and would add a few extra miles to the hike.

So I headed out and ended up getting just a little over 5/miles in today. I managed to to get to the top of both peaks and back. I shot a few photos of a guy doing some ice climbing across the canyon. I don’t know how he got there but need to see if I can find the trail.

Additional photos can be found at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/drobincorvette/MtCutlerMtMuscoco?authkey=hQRMUvzzYXI#

Another great day to be outside

Left the house about 6am this morning and headed up the Bear Creek trail to the top of Gold Camp Road. Then scooted up the mountain and made my way over to the Captain Jacks Trail. Came across several dear on the trail this morning and snapped a few pics. Round trip it was about 7.5/miles. I got back home around 9:30am. It was a beautiful sunrise and a great day temperature wise. I think I caught on the news that we are supposed to get snow starting tomorrow.

After getting home we headed back to the Zoo again. The pics for the Hike and the Zoo outing can be found at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/drobincorvette/20090207?authkey=BXRuD3RZFwg#

Just about there!

I just plugged in my miles for today and realized I only have 29/miles that I need to get in this month. This week has been fun as I did the incline on Tue and Thu and plan on doing it again on Sat morning. I tracked my time today and it took me 50 minutes. It is one hell of a work out, but slow and steady get’s the job done. I think this Saturday I will try to make my way up to Barr Camp. It’s about 7/miles. Once you get past the incline or the first three miles of Barr Camp Trail it is not that bad of hike.

One thing that is nice is that there is a guy from my office and he is a fitness nut even more than me. He plays hockey, lifts, and hikes and is a big snow boarder. I am not sure if he is being nice to me and goes at my pace when we hike or not, but so far I have been able to keep up. He’s a couple years younger than me but in great physical shape. I need to spend more time on the weights. That may be one of my new goals once I get my mileage in. I have been struggling with what I am going to do next. I can’t believe that a year has just about gone bye.

I need to get my miles in this next week as my travel schedule is starting to pick up. Will be in KS/OK the week of the 16th and we are looking at an acquisition in NYC and this is going to require a considerable amount of my time in the NY/NJ area. The stress of this will surely help me keep fit.

I will be posting my fancy graphs and charts in the next couple of days.

When I do my hiking in summer and winter I wear the UVEX eye pod goggles. They come with four sets of lenses depending on the type and time of hiking you plan on doing. I think these are the same eye goggles that Vin Diesel wears in the Riddick movies.

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

For yesterday's walk, I got the wife out with me. She has been swamped with school work but that is just about behind her now. We went to the Zoo and checked out the animals. It took the GPS with me and we managed to get about two miles in. Nothing spectacular but it was a beautiful day and all the animals were out as well.