This is a selfie that I took just before we walked this morning. It's cold in Michigan, so we wore hats.
Because of a lack of meniscus in my left knee I stopped jogging more than a decade ago. For a number of years I was a regular at our downtown YMCA where I'd run on a small track with the added benefit of socializing with many people who I worked with.
These are our stats for walking as of this morning.
I even ran in a number of races, including a couple that were 10 miles. Then it all stopped because of daily life and a deteriorating knee. Over the years, my wife and I have walked on a sometimes regular basis and other times more sporadically. It was affected by the activities of a growing family, weather and a dog.
Then we retired. We tried walking everyday, but motivation would come and go. Now the doctor has told me to walk everyday. He said to aim for an hour a day doing a 20 minute mile.
This is where our son Justin enters the picture. He's part of the wired generation. It touches all part of his life and the life of his family. Earlier this year, he recommended my trying the app Runkeeper on my phone.
We did and it has been a godsend. All we had to do was select walking on the app and we were unleashed. We have walked just about every street in our neighborhood and we've walked when we visit our kids where one lives in a different state and the other overseas.
The app on my iPhone 5 reads out in an audible voice our average speed per mile, the distance we've walked, plus more statistics that are helpful.
My inner self reacts positively to maintainly stats on a mobile device. And if we are late in walking, the app will send us a reminder. It also save a map of the routes we take each day.
We are closing in on 300 miles since we started on May 1. I will write more when we reach that milestone.