Last Place Runner

I’ve worn my Altra running shoes to the gym for a week now. I’m glad I ordered two pairs! It was not difficult really to adjust to them, but I could tell my alignment was different as I ran. It also seemed like I was making the treadmill shake — maybe just a difference in how my feet were striking?

I’d been having some burning tightness in my outer right calf. I noticed on my first day in the Altras that wasn’t happening. The shoes are nice and roomy and so well padded on the heel. I’d like my husband to try a pair because he is never happy with any pair of shoe EVER, not since the pair he bought for our wedding and was discontinued by the time he wore them out several years later. He’s still not sold on the idea — and I know he has to think things he does are his idea alone. So I’ll enjoy my comfy new running shoes while he keeps looking for his perfect pair.

I also upgraded my fitness tracker recently. I’ve been using the Fitbit flex since last summer. And I liked it … BUT …

I wanted something with more than a line of lighted dots on the display. I was not so hot to have it that I bought a newer one. But a couple of weeks ago, Groupon had the Garmin Vivofit for $59.99. (Last I checked, Amazon had it for the same price.) It sets your daily goal for you and if you sit around too long, a red band creeps across the top of the display. It shows date, time, calories, steps, and goal. I haven’t compared it to my Fitbit (maybe I can wear them both tomorrow, if I remember) as far as tracking steps, but after having worn a Fitbit for so long, I know pretty well how much I move around on any given day. And I know, too, (sadly) about how many steps I can pack in during a trip to the gym. It seems pretty close. The Vivofit tracks sleep without having to be put to sleep (like the Fitbit, which put itself in sleep mode every time I pushed a grocery cart from the store to the car), but it usually doesn’t know I’m awake until after my shower. Which is my fault, anyway, because the Vivofit can be worn in the shower, but I take it off. And I’m not too concerned about how accurate the sleep tracking is because I usually know if I slept well or didn’t.

So, TL;DR: I like my Vivofit OK. It doesn’t have a backlight (the newer model does), and it runs on a battery with about a one-year life span, so no more charging.

My friend Lauren posted on Facebook that she and her husband had joined a six-month challenge on dietbet.com. I had heard about it before, but I didn’t know anyone who had done it, so I didn’t look into it much. But I looked over the challenge, which is to lose 10 percent of your body weight in six months. It’s $25 per month, which you can win back and then some if you hit all your goals. So I decided to go for it and rely on Lauren and her husband for moral support and good-natured taunting. Then today I decided to not go wild on holidays, but also not kill myself trying not to eat all the fresh sweet corn we bought at a roadside stand.

So that’s where I am right now.