Completed ElliptiGO Every Day in May Challenge

The goal in May was to complete the ElliptiGO Everyday in May Challenge. You could ride every day for 5, 10, or 20 miles per day. I chose the 20 miles per day challenge and successfully met the goal with no day offs. I rode through rain, cold, wind, and one early morning ride to make sure I didn't miss a day. It wasn't bad at all. I actually averaged over 30 miles per day while hitting the minimum 20 every day and finished with 1004 miles for the month! My longest ride was May 31 when I went 63 miles. I rode my ElliptiGO for a total of 66 hours and did 24,537 ft of climbing. The biggest challenge was keeping my ElliptiGO GOing. It now has over 5500 miles on it and it needs a tune-up and some new parts. My gears were off the last week and my riding was not as smooth or as fast as it could be due to the gears grinding and skipping. I kept trying to fix them, but never got it right. I am close to being an expert at assembling the rear wheel and components now. That is not an easy thing on the ElliptiGO. The best part of the Challenge, besides just getting out there and having a challenge, was the support and enthusiasm of the ElliptiGO community around the world. We were all cheering each other on and barriers kept being broken as people did things they never thought possible or challenged themselves to ride farther than they ever thought they could.

I have now had the ElliptiGO for 11 months and have been thrilled with what it has allowed me to do. It provides an intense workout, but it is truly fun and pain-free to use. I actually enjoy it more than running, because even after a couple of hours of pushing as hard as I can in a workout, my body does not break down at all. I can feel fit and fast without feeling hobbled. When I got the ElliptiGO, I said I would give it a year to see if I could revive my running. I have run about 100 miles in the months I have had the ElliptiGO and most of those came in the snowshoe races I did this winter. It is time to see if I can get back to running! This weekend I am going to do a low key obstacle type race called the Reviver Challenge in Rhode Island. My sister worked the race last year with her boyfriend helping kids climb over the final wall on the course. A couple days later Mike died on his 50th birthday. We are going to support my sister as she work's Mike's Wall, but my daughters and I will also do the race. I am also looking forward to running the Falmouth Road Race again this August. I also realize that while I am pain-free these days, my tight weak glutes and hip stabilizing muscles get sore if I run and cause me to limp, I don't want to run with that pain so I have to get that fixed if I can.

I decided to go in for a Functional Movement Screen at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning here in Nashua. Today I had my first workout based on what they found. It took a lot of time to get through the workout and learn how to do the movements, but it was helpful to have a trainer watching me and showing me how to do things correctly. I like that they use some Postural Restoration stuff as part of their therapy. I have some experience with PRI a few years ago with a local physical therapist and I have written about PRI a few times in the past. Together with the strength drills targeted for me, I hope that this is the final piece that will get me back running. If not I hear there is  July ElliptiGO Challenge being announced soon!