I have always performed better with some goal hanging in front of me to to work towards..Generally, a race or 5K. I need something to work for to keep me motivated.
Wasn't it Wile E. Coyote that used to dangle the carrot on a stick in front of the Roadrunner? That's me.
At work, I am in a 5 week step challenge.
The way it works is, you are on a 5 person team, and you are matched each week against another 5 person team, and the goal is to get more steps than the other team and win the challenge.
My team is composed of 4 of my work friends, and as things progressed, we found our managers had also created a team. We are "slightly" competitive, and I hoped we would get matched against them so that we could kick their butts!
We even joked with them during the 1st week, before we were even matched up.
We won our first week by a landslide and demolished the other team.
The managers also won their first week.
We are now in Week 2, so on Tuesday mornings your new match up is announced.
I am generally one of the first in at work, so I signed in to look.
We were matched against the management team! Holy Crap!
We are the Navy Broncos and they are the Teal Unicorns.
Immediately, I started a group text with the 5 of us to tell the others.
Because great competitive minds think alike, the leader of the Management team did something similar with their team.
"Let's kill them"
And so the trash talking began.
It was like the Giants playing the Cowboys in my family.
A family divided.
A workplace divided.
The trash talking wasn't limited to just via group text messages,
We trash talk in person at work too.
It made the week a lot of competitive fun.
There is definitely a power to competition among your own teammates and your opponents. We want to kill those unicorns. Even from before we were matched up, we went in for the kill and they knew it. There is even competition among our own team as two of us keep vying for the top spot (number of steps and keep switching places).
I was called out for competing with someone on my own team, only to have this person text me and ask how many steps I had one day so she could outstep me.
Whaaaaaat?! I'm not the only competitive one apparently..LOL
Win at
all costs. Go in for the kill when the opposing team is part of your
own work team.
A little friendly competition...
--threatening to trip
people
--tell them you will hit them with your car as you see them walking outside
--wishing them to get muscle injuries
...goes a
long way to motivate.
Yes, this was from both teams.
We are all really good at taunting each other, all in good fun.
I seriously stepped up my steps.
My step goal before this challenge was 8000, but I generally would try for 10000 steps daily.
It was a psychological thing.
I feel better getting 10000 with an 8000 goal then I did setting for 10000 and thinking I wouldn't make it. Underpromise and overdeliver at its finest.
I'm learning I really am capable of more than what my brain tells me I am capable of doing.
Then the step challenge started and even though my Fitbit was set for 8000 - This thing set a daily goal for each of us for 10000 steps. Well seeing that in writing every day makes me crazy and sets my bar higher. To get less than 10000 is to admit failure, in my competitive mind.
This week, going in for the kill, I stepped up my A Game.
In the mornings before work, I generally walk before it gets too hot, but I increased there too - from 2.5 miles to 4 miles every morning.
I went from an average of around 12000 steps and began shooting for 16,000-20,000 daily.
One day I got 21,000 by walking another 3 miles after work one afternoon. I definitely crossed the crazy/dedicated line that day. To be honest, I am doing that every day.
There
were multiple comments made on both teams to the effect of so what if
we kill ourselves trying, at least we will win. So what if we end up in
traction after the week is over, no big deal.
Because I increased my steps so quickly, I developed blisters on my left foot, but I figured out how to get around them. Ignore the blisters and pray you make it to the end of the challenge and can get your steps in without having to stop.
Talk about letting your pain be your rocket fuel!
I
began pregaming each night since:
Popping ibuprofen and
using an ice pack to reduce
the inflammation
so that it returns to a level I can live with by the following morning.
Treatment of Champions!!
We motivated each other as a team and began walking together on short walks during the workday around the building. Plus, it was added motivation and opportunity to taunt the Unicorns as we did so. As they did to us, too.
Throughout the week, I found there are easy ways to get steps in that I hadn't thought about before this challenge.
I heard one of the managers at the copy machine behind my desk.
Where they couldn't initially see me until they went back to their desk,
I stood up and began walking in squares/circles around my desk until spotted by them.
It was a wonderful passive-aggressive opportunity to taunt them.
I went down the the lunchroom to cook my lunch (microwave) for 4 minutes.
Normally I stand there and play on my phone or chat, but I thought 4 minutes is enough time to do a lap around the building. So I did. I got some more steps in that way, easily. By the time I finished, my lunch was ready. I think I'll keep doing this.
Yesterday, Saturday, I flew out for a daytrip and did not have time to power walk before we left (I was NOT getting up at 2am to go walk 4 miles outside!), so I got creative. We were early to the airport as planned and I had about an hour to kill, so I put on my earbuds and walked around the airport concourses - From Low A's to High As, and then back through A, B, C and D, and then back, which got me what I needed - around 5000 steps. It was a good workout. I got my laps on courtesy of the complimentary American and Southwest Airlines exercise program (The Terminal 4 Almost 5K)
While it’s important to know your limits and live within them, there are also times you need to push them in order to fly and surpass them.
I'm glad I only have today and tomorrow left of this craziness.
This week's challenge ends Monday night.
My feet will be thankful for some rest after that before they decide to kill themselves.
