All I wanted to do is to walk.  I decided walking wasn’t enough.  I needed to set a goal.  Since I’m no runner I looked for a 5k to walk at the beginning of summer.  I knew I was slow so I decided to walk at least 3.2 miles five to six days a week to practice and then enter another 5k at the end of the summer to see if I improved.  Look at me being all goal oriented.  Yay me.

I used my iPhone pedometer to measure my walk distance each evening after work to practice.  It has a 10 minute lag time though so it wasn’t always the most helpful while I waited for it to update.  I either underestimated or overestimated what I thought I had.  I looked for a pedometer app that I could download (for free of course) that would update a little quicker and found one.

The trouble is it sets a steps’ goal for me, also.  It thinks I want to achieve 10,000 steps a day.  I don’t.  I want to achieve a daily goal of four miles because with my steps accumulated all day plus a 5k distance walk that usually equals about four miles.  Plus, if you know me at all, then you know I like to end the day on an even number.  To finish a day, with say, 3.7 miles is ridiculous.  So, we’re looking at about a half mile at work (I sit at a desk all day), and about a 3.5 mile walk to make my four miles.

It’s my system.

But this pedometer wants me to achieve 10,000 steps a day also.  Which is close to four miles.  Sometimes more, sometimes less (I don’t understand that at all).  So now, I have to not only get four miles but I also have to get 10,000 steps a day.  I used to make fun of the 10,000 steppers.  I’ve never been one to hop on a bandwagon on purpose and this makes me a little mad that I have apparently jumped on the 10,000 step wagon and become a poster child for it.   Because I can’t be thisclose and not reach the goal.  I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.

With the fall season upon us, I am now walking in the dark to keep my goal.  I am having a difficult time lowering my goal now.

All I want to do is walk.