I've Walked (Over) 10,000 Miles

10,000 miles...

Last night, I finally hit 10,000 recorded miles! It's taken the better part of 8 years to walk and record this milestone! I know, I know - that was terrible. But it's true.

Perhaps the most amusing part of it all is that I wasn't even trying to meet some grand milestone; I just pace a lot. It's something I started doing years and years ago as a young child as it was the only time I got to myself, to the point that I would wake up in the middle of the night to do so. For more on that, I wrote this piece about it titled, "Night Walker" back in 2021. I'd recommend it for full context.

Then again, these are just the steps I've recorded. I've got about 3 decades of walking under my belt - could be that I've walked closer to 30,000 miles in total! Still, undisclosed amount of actual miles walked considered, 10,000 isn't anything to sneeze at either...

I first started using a fitness tracker about 8 years ago - just after I met my current partner. The goal has always been 10,000 steps a day, and generally I'd meet that. The rough part about using trackers like this, however, is that many restart at midnight. Given how unpredictable my sleep schedule can be, sometimes that's a hard thing to fit in to "count". Same when "fatigue week" arrives - the days leading up to my next period where I feel about 100 lbs heavier and it's just a pain to do much of anything. And while I'd be happy to just accept that most days I hit the goal, it is nice - and somewhat impressive - to meet the goal via my tracker's schedule.

In fact, today, in-between writing this out, I hit 155 days straight meeting that goal!

My prior "big streak" had been 114 days, back in 2021. While I stood most of my day at Jurassic World: the Exhibition in 2022, and even did a lot of pacing in between groups of guests, I was unable to meet the goal consistently during those 4 months. This meant that I wasn't able to start up a new streak until late 2022.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with the current streak; I suppose it would be impressive if I could manage 365 days - a full year. We'll see. I'm certainly on a streak, but an additional 210 days is a pretty tall order!

It is a little strange though, recording 10,000 miles when so much of it was just pacing my office day after day... I've simultaneously paced 10,000 miles and haven't really gone anywhere in doing so. Some of it was on my treadmill too, but for the most part, the pacing was a result of my daily routine: pacing my office, listening to music, drinking my protein-packed-coffee, and brainstorming/planning. And at that pace of slow meandering around my office, hitting that 10,000 step mark usually takes about 3 hours unless I get really into a train of thought...

Then again, that's plenty of time for the coffee to kick in and me to figure out the day's general plan. I feel like I need to justify spending my time this way, but the fact is, I feel wrong and off if I don't get my "walkies" in! Especially since I am an introvert and require a lot of time by myself. It's a very important part of my day, and staying at family or friends' homes for too long without my pacing makes me very irritable and short-tempered. Same if I get interrupted...

The 10,000 steps I take averages to just about 2 miles a day, assuming I only meet goal. At 2 miles per day, I'd still be a long ways off from 10,000 miles if that was all I did. However, 12-15k steps per day isn't that uncommon for me, and 20-30k steps in a day is rare, but not unheard of (in the screenshots, you can see my best day to date was 32,303 steps - 3 times my goal)!

I wish I could say I had some grand plans for the future, but the fact is, I never really have had any; I simply racked up the miles doing my thing. The calluses and scars on my feet from them splitting every year are the truest, physical proof of that; I've been pacing barefoot for decades and it shows! Just be happy I didn't include pictures of them - they are rough.

Maybe next time it'll be 15,000 miles. Or that 365 day streak. Either way, I'm sure this isn't my last milestone when it comes to my daily pacing. Can't wait to see you down the road!