The January Challenge

Chris is heading to the Dominican Republic in two weeks with his parents and 2 sisters. Yours truly is staying at home with the kids in the cold. The idea for Chris to join his family on this trip was cooked up while I was off galavanting in CA with my girlfriends. Thus we come to the one downfall of Mommy Time. Somehow Daddy thinks he deserves equal, if not more, Daddy Time.

You may recall that Chris and his sisters were the ones who recently did a triathlon together. The three of them are often creating competitions involving working out, the most recent of which, when asked if I wanted to participate, a "yes" came out of my mouth. Still not sure how that happened. Anyway, this brings us to the January Challenge. This past Monday marked 3 weeks until the big trip, and the start of the January Challenge. In 3 weeks, the goal is to go the distance of 100 miles. One can bike, run on the treadmill, and do the elliptical. The only stipulation is that no more than 50 miles can be done on the bike.

Before I really knew what was involved, I asked Chris to talk numbers. Basically, we'd have 19 days to do 100 miles, meaning, that if you were to go to the gym all 19 days, you'd have to do a minimum of 5 1/4 miles per day. Now, I have been doing pretty well at going to the gym for the past 4 months, but I am not about to go to the gym for 19 days straight. That's just crazy! So, on Monday I started in on this challenge and let me tell you, it is HARD! I ran 4 miles the other day and then tacked on a few more with the bike. Today I did the elliptical for 6 miles and it took me an hour and a half! But, I am happy to report that I am getting in over 5 miles per day! The hardest part isn't necessarily in the physical exertion, but the fact that running on the treadmill is so boring! Thank goodness for iphones/ipods/tvs, etc!