Tag: 365 Club

368.5 hours of exercise in 2023

Unlike last year, when I fell short of my goal of 365 hours of exercise in a year, I clocked 368.5 hours of exercise in 2023. I reached 365 hours on Dec. 9, 2023, and then mailed in from there to the end of the year. Part of getting all those hours in 2023 can be ascribed to a busy — but unplanned — heavy travel year. We walked all over Egypt and Japan, paddled down the Colorado River and biked across Arkansas.

Adding that to weekly gym workouts and Pilates helped me make my goal, only the second time I have made 365 hours since I started the 365 Club in 2017 when I completed 383.25 hours. Since then . . . well, take a look:

2018: 349.25 hours

2019: 318 hours

2020: Missing (So bad, I did not save?)

2021: 228.5 hours (Can I blame this on COVID?)

2022: 360 hours

I can also give credit to my new electrically assisted bike, which has brought the joy of biking back into my life. Many hours on the ride across Arkansas with my sister, but I also rode it to the gym, to Pilates, to anywhere except downtown Seattle, where street car tracks and heavy traffic have scared me away. This blog got an “like” and a follower recently from another blog that is great for learning more about ebikes, everything from maintenance, laws and accessories, which they would be happy to sell you with its connection to Amazon.

Iowa caucuses are only a week away. Don’t forget the political contest here!

Before the caucuses start, send me four names that fill in these blanks:

Republican presidential nominee

Republican vice presidential nominee

Democratic presidential nominee

Democratic presidential nominee

After the political conventions this summer, we fill see if any got all four correct. If you got four and I only got three, I will donate to a charity (non-political) of your choice. If I beat you, you will contribute to a charity of my choice. Amount to be determined later.

Walking on side streets that are slide streets

Just one hour of walking today. That gets me to 356.25 hours on my way to 365 hours of exercise before Jan. 1, 2022. Three days to go. Greg suggests a long bike ride, which I agree with if the streets were not filled with ice and snow. And why, I ask, are these snow plows sitting in a parking lot when most side streets are mostly slide streets?

Three hours of exercise for the next three days would get me to 365 hours of exercise in 2021, with 15 minutes to spare. Yes, I am a dreamer.

355.25 hours of exercise, aiming for 365 in 2021

Temperature for the morning walk on Monday was 10 degrees. It had warmed up to 20 degrees for the afternoon walk. That’s two hours of exercise to add to my total:

353.25 as of Dec. 26 plus two hours today = 355.25 hours of exercise so far in 2021. Goal = 365 hours of exercise before Jan. 1, 2022. That’s the 365 Club way.

The 2021 question: Why did you not do your exercises?

A friend and former colleague Clem introduced me to the 365 Club – exercise 365 hours in a year, an hour a day. In 2017, I completed 365 hours on Nov. 30, 2017, while walking around Oaxaca, Mexico. Since then? I have fallen short. 317 in 2018. 354.5 in 2019. 2020? Was there a year that year? I think coronavirus ate my homework.

But this year, things were looking up. On Sept. 5, 2021, I was 49 hours ahead of pace (248 hours due at the end of that week; I had 297). Then I started slipping: 42 ahead, 38 ahead, 37 ahead, 34 on Oct. 17, 20.5 on Nov. 7 and now, on Dec. 26: Minus 6.75 hours with 353.25 hours of exercise clocked.

It rained a lot in November. My Pilates instructor went to Hawaii. It was cold. We’ve been stuck inside this country all year. I’m a lazy person with no discipline who needs others to goad him to shut his book (can’t put down “The Girl who Played with Fire”), turn off “Bosch” on TV and move 10 feet away from the couch.

So now I have five days left to do 11.75 hours of exercise by January 1, 2022. This is like college, like finishing a 3,500-word term paper and I have two paragraphs written. Short ones. It is due at 8 a.m. Dorm clock reads 2:20 a.m., and the party light is barely dimming. Plus, the math teacher wants a solution for Fermat’s Last Theorem by noon.

Back to the tail end of 2021, where the weather outside is frightful.

11.75 hours in five days to make 365? 2.5 hours per day would do it with 45 minutes to spare on Dec. 31. I’m reminded of my favorite author when I was in the third grade: Willie Makit, who wrote “Run to the Outhouse.”

Daily counts start Monday, Dec. 27, 2021.