2020 in 2020 (Part 1 of 3)

In the first days of January 2020, my good friend, Rita Pociask, set a fitness goal for herself and invited everyone to join her on the journey. Her goal was simple. She was going to walk or run 2,020 miles in 2020. Our friendship has spanned almost 30 years and her invitation sounded like a great way to be a supportive friend, so I said sure…I’d do it too!

Really, it was just a half hearted commitment on my part. I mean, friendships like ours don’t come along every day and I really needed to move more. I figured even if I only got half of those miles covered it would be more than I had walked or run in the last two years! (See half hearted!) At the time, however, I was using the recumbent bike in the gym and really enjoying it. So, I asked Rita if I could count those miles too/instead. She pointed out that everyone’s journey was going to be different and I could accomplish the goal any way I wanted. See why we are friends?

So, I started tracking my every walking mile using an iPhone app called Pacer. And I took photos of my cycling sessions in the gym.

January, I figured was all about seeing where I was and how many steps I normally took in a day. I was surprised how sedentary I had become! February, I was traveling alot and the weather was making it difficult. I was leaving warm and sunny Arizona and sometimes landing in Indiana with temperatures in the teens with piles of snow on the ground. I quickly discovered, any excuse will do to avoid the tough stuff. But I was still diligently tracking what little movement I was making. Again, I keep telling myself awareness is half the battle.

In March, one of the strangest months in the history of my life, everything changed. First, I sold my old RV, Vanya. In order to do that, I needed to move all of my stuff from one RV to the new-to-me 5th wheel I had just bought. I don’t own a car, but we did manage to purchase a little collapsable wagon. Trip after trip, Mom and I hauled things about 50 yards between the old RV and the new. Back and forth, back and forth. Those steps really started to add up!

Around the second week of March, I left on an RV delivery trip and when I came back my resort job of being a cashier at the onsite restaurant disappeared. Just like that, this virus thing I had been hearing about stopped my life in its tracks. No more RVs were even being manufactured as Indiana (and the rest of the world) went into lockdown.

Everyone was ordered to stay home or shelter in place or whatever their state chose to call it. And I suddenly found myself with tons of time on my hands. It took me a solid week to find homes for all my stuff in the new RV and to throughly clean it. By week two of lockdown, I was restless. So, I turned my eyes toward the goal of getting outside and moving more. After all, if I was supposed to stay home to stay healthy, why not become as healthy as possible? And going out to exercise was still not frowned on by anyone. Time to fully commit to 2020 in 2020.

Once I really wrapped my head around trying to walk/run/cycle that many miles, I had to start with admitting how out of shape I had let myself become. My weight and blood pressure were out of control. My doctor had been telling me that for a while. I hate taking medication of any kind for any reason, but in 2019 I had to begin taking blood pressure medication or face serious health consequences. My doctor and I struck a deal. If I lost 20 pounds she would consider taking me off the medication and see how I did. So, 2020 in 2020 and 20 pounds! That’s a lot of 20s. I actually included the struggle with my blood pressure in a video on the Vagabounders YouTube channel and you can watch it here:

I have always been a goal setter. Set the goal, devise a plan and make it happen. The gym was closed with everything else so it would have to be walking miles until normal returned. So, I figured out how many days were left in the year, added up how many miles I had already gone (the number was pitifully small), divided by the number of days and got my new walking target. New goal was 6 miles/day. Every day.

The next morning, I laced up my walking shoes and started down the street.  In Part 2 of 2020 in 2020, I’ll tell you all about the challenges and changes that have shaped my current fitness journey. If you’re interested in following my adventures subscribe to my mailing list for the latest updates.

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