A Little Friendly Competition

"To be number one, you have to train like you're number two."  - Maurice Green

I'm not one to fall for gimmicks or quick fixes that promise to make me lose weight or make me run faster.  I'm a firm believer in the basics of fitness training and the understanding of science when it comes to weight loss and weight gain.  I believe in working hard and eating right to reap the benefits of a healthy mind and body both inside and out.

While I was in Virginia this past week, many of my friends mentioned how much this blog is helping to motivate them.  How they love reading about the different things that I do to stay active and how it helps to get them outside and moving.  Many of them mentioned getting a FitBit and tracking their progress on there.  While I normally wouldn't have made that purchase, I decided to do it and track my own activity to help motivate them and also myself.  By the way, a simple trip to your local Costco will save you about $20 vs the everyday retailer of this item.  :)

My personal goal for the FitBit is to walk/run at least 15,000 steps per day.  It doesn't sound like a lot, but when you work a desk job, it's not always the easiest to get this in.  Now, my friend Jennie and I are as competitive as they come with each other, so we decided to create a challenge amongst ourselves to further push each other and get moving.  Our goal is to run/walk the 1,640 miles that separate us.  The prize?!!  The loser has to fly out and visit the other after the challenge is completed!  

We came up with a few rules for our challenge...

• Steps are only calculated when "living" everyday life and running outside and/or on a treadmill
• If doing the elliptical or bike, you must take the FitBit off
• We screenshot our progress at the end of each day and send it to each other to keep ourselves honest

I will be recording our weekly accomplishments on the "Workout Goals" page of the blog so you will be able to see where we both stand!  :)

Today was day one.  Not an easy start to the day for me after arriving home at 2am after missing my connection back to Colorado from the East Coast, but in any event I was able to get a quick 1.5 mile run in this morning along with a 30 minute elliptical workout.  By the end of the business day, I realized that I still had quite a few steps to complete so I decided to take a walk on a local trail.  Even though we started the day off with snow, this evening was absolutely gorgeous!

I've played sports my entire life so I'm a competitive person by nature, but the truth is that your competition shouldn't be amongst other people, but by the person you were yesterday.  If you are constantly trying to "beat" who you were yesterday, you will see great results and be happy with your progress!  So get up, get outside and get moving!