One hundred thirty-eight people participated in this February’s Move it! Get Active Cook County initiative, logging over 9,945 miles and spending over 2,707 hours exercising. Some people tracked only their miles, others only their minutes, while others tracked both. They did lots of different kinds of things to stay active, including walking dogs, running, snowshoeing, skiing, biking, and even galloping with pedometers, both indoors and out. Charlie Butter of Grand Marais rode 509.7 miles on his fluid resistance bicycle system, logging the most miles of any individual tracking his or her progress on the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic’s Move It! webpage. Anyone wishing to outdo Charlie will have another opportunity in May.
After successful monthlong Move It! Get Active Cook County! events the last two years in May, a challenge went out this year to get moving in February. One hundred thirty eight intrepid souls braved cold, snow, and wind (or in some cases, stale gym air, the din of the TV set in front of their exercise equipment, or balmy Florida breezes), logging just over 9,945 miles and spending 162,448 minutes doing it. That’s over 2,707 hours or over 112 24-hours days.
Some people signed up as groups—workplace groups, social groups, clubs—on the Move It! webpage to keep motivated.
Karen Neal of the “Endorphineers,” said, “Our group of 13, whose average age is 68, just about killed ourselves with enthusiasm….”
One member told her they kept at it in order to not let the group down. “I thought that it might be fun to form my own team of people who are either quite active or who certainly love the outdoors and needed a bit of prodding,” Karen said.
She was “quite thrilled with the team that developed,” she said. “We are all old and retired and have plenty of time. Lots of energy too, I guess!”
Karen and her husband Pat snowshoed, cross country skied and walked their dog for exercise. A couple of the others were vacationing in Florida and biked and walked on the beach while enjoying the balmy weather. Another member of the group logged a lot of miles biking in Arizona.
“We had a lot of fun watching the daily results and commenting via email,” Karen said. “When I participated last spring, I did no more than what I’d normally do for exercise. But this time, with the team feeling like a real team, I pushed myself. I was pretty glad that it was over on the last day. On March first we [her husband Pat and exercise buddy Jetty St. John] took a ‘rest day’—only went five miles!! Phew!”
The Endorphineers, with 212.1 miles logged per member, achieved the highest mileage and the highest mileage per member of all the groups.
Charlie Butter logged the most individual miles – 509.7. He worked out with a combination of methods including weight training, calisthenics, and yoga, but his primary exercise was with a fluid resistance bicycle training system. He watches videos on a flat screen TV in his and his wife Sue’s workout room just to keep himself distracted. The bike training system has a computer that keeps track of miles and minutes.
Of other bike training systems, Charlie said, “They just drive me to distraction.” This one feels more like a real biking experience than any others he has tried, he said, and he is also biking on his own bicycle, which he can detach within a minute if he wants to ride his bike outside. “It really does a great job of mimicking real conditions,” he said.
“I wrecked my knee about a year and a half ago,” Charlie said. His fluid resistance biking system helped him rehab his knee and in the process, rekindled his love for biking. “It’s been a good way to make the winter grind more bearable,” he said.
Sawtooth Mountain Elementary Teacher Lorelei Livingston’s third grade class got into the groove by logging their movement at school with pedometers during the month of February. “The students walked, skipped, hopped, ran during P.E. and recess, or even galloped a bit while wearing the pedometers,” she said. “After getting morning chores taken care of, students could walk laps inside the classroom prior to the pledge and morning announcements. We took other motion breaks during the day, which included laps in our hallways. The students also wore the pedometers when they went to P.E., music, art, computer class and outside for recess.
“The third graders told me they want to continue to keep track of their pedometer steps during the month of March,” Ms. Livingston said. “We’ll most likely enter the 2013 spring Move It! contest…just for the experience.” She said another positive outcome of the event was that keeping track of the mileage helped the students practice their math skills.
The 27 third-grade students logged a total of 1,365 miles in 17 school days, averaging 2.97 miles—or about 5,950 steps— per student per school day.
The individual who logged the most minutes—4,967—was Larry Krause. That’s about 82.78 hours or 20.7 hours a week.
Results can be found on the Sawtooth Mountain website at www.sawtoothmountainclinic.org/events/index.php. They include both group and individual miles and minutes logged.
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