15-17

Mile 51.  Tortoise's basic walking goals for 2015 are to walk two or more miles on 95% of the 313 days in the year that aren't Sundays, and to add an extra mile to last year's goal.  So Lou is trying to walk at least 1,002 miles in 2015, which should require an average of an hour a day.  Guess it's Tortoise's version of Play60 ... we're all kids in the end, right?

Another goal Tortoise has is to push himself a little extra at least one day a month.  This is all about getting the heart rate up and keeping Dr. Carter pleased with his progress.  Lou is starting in January with a goal to do a 3+ mile walk that includes at least a mile walking uphill on something with a tortoise rating of 4.0 or better.  This would mean a grade of 4-6% depending on the elevation of the walk. Each month through August he hopes to gradually add both additional grade and distance, then back off a little as sunlight and weather continue their seasonal cycles.

The plan was to do that today and invite some family to join him.  For this walk, Tortoise was joined by his brother Steve, along with his wife Marnie and three of their children, Hillary, Sam, and Sydney.

For the rest of the story about this walk on the Cottonwood Wash Trail in Washington, Utah, including more pictures and today's walking thought by J. Ballard Washburn, please click below ...

Cheerio!

Hillary and Sydney got here before Tortoise and are clearly full on energy!

For now, this is as far as the trail goes, although you can follow a dirt
road from here to the landfill road if you'd rather park there to join this
trail.  A future extension to connect with the Coral Canyon trails is planned.

We finished the walk and still have smiles!

This walk was 3.71 miles, with 428 feet climbed in 1:22:45 hours.  Average tortoise rating was 3.5 on a 1.51 mile uphill segment of the trail.  Average grade for that portion was 5.37%, average elevation was 2,846 feet.  So this month's goal was met, and as it turned out, the goal was also met yesterday.  579 calories were burned along the way today. 

My walking map provider, www.mapmyfitness.com, has changed formats recently and the maps haven't transferred to this blog as well since.  Instead of embedding the map, let's try this link and see if that works better for you to see where Lou walked today:

http://www.mapmyfitness.com/routes/view/614787090

Here are the overall stats so far for 2015:

51.46 miles walked, which is 5.14% of my 2015 goal. On this day in 2014, Tortoise had walked 52.28 year-to-date miles.  (Last year's number is the same as yesterday because it was Tortoise's first of 15 days he would miss in 2014).

15:16:42 hours walked, which is 4.88% of my 2015 goal (which is to walk 1 hour a day on the 313 days other than Sunday in the year)

2,243 total feet climbed, compared with 2,639 feet on this day in 2014.

7,740 calories burned

4.79% of the year has passed

I've walked 23 consecutive non-Sundays since my last missed day on December 22, and overall have walked on 313 of the 328 non-Sundays since the beginning of 2014, a 95.43% consistency rating.

The purpose of the percentages is to have a higher percentage of distance and time walked than of the year. This tells Tortoise that he is on track. Yes, this is more numbers than you are likely interested in, all Tortoise can say is he's really good at setting high goals and having them slip away because he doesn't do them every, every day.  (If you doubt this, compare Tortoise's 2013 walking record with 2014)

And now for today's walking thought, initially presented in April 1995:

"When Jesus was twelve years old, his parents took him to the temple. I think it is more than coincidental that our sons and daughters can go to the temple with us when they are twelve years old. Joseph and Mary did not say, “Bishop, will you take our son to the temple?” They took him."

To watch, listen to, or read this message in full, please visit https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1995/04/the-temple-is-a-family-affair?lang=eng #ShareGoodness

The tortoise is smiling!