First, I crossed over 30 million lifetime steps on the FitBit – an astonishing amount of steps. That’s since June 15, 2013 (1191 days), so that comes out to around 25190 steps per day. Pretty impressive, I guess. While I don’t really see the benefit of counting steps like I used to – I just have a sense of how many steps I take in a day – I’ll probably keep counting. In addition to that milestone, I also had the biggest single-day calorie burn on the AppleWatch as well as most minutes of exercise, thanks to a long bike ride. More on that in a sec.
I ended the liquid diet after 4 days. And at the end, I recorded my lowest weight ever, at 174.5 lbs. The only reason I stopped was because I pretty much hit a wall as far as weight loss goes. I still felt reasonably good, but lost nothing in the last 24 hours – starvation mode kicked in, I guess. So, the 5th day, I eased back into, y’know, eating, and achieved normality over the weekend. I know there was a good over/under going on how long I’d keep it up (or whether I’d drop dead) – hopefully, none of you hedged your bets. With that said, I’m starting it again today, but probably just for one day, while I experiment to see what works best (and with the least amount of potential body harm).

Click for Endomondo data, or Movescount
Onward, through St. Elmo, and on to Ruby Falls, via the Guild Trail. This is a great ride, under the Incline, and around the northeastern slopes of Lookout Mountain. Spectacular views. From Ruby Falls, on to the Cravens Terrace Trail, around the “front” of Lookout Mountain, and then onto the Upper Truck Trail, which runs below Covenant College, Sunset Rock, etc, around the western slopes of the mountain. I went as far as the Georgia state line, which interestingly, isn’t marked in any way (save for a piece of ribbon someone had tied to a tree). 18 miles on the dot from Coolidge to the state line. Once cooler weather arrives, I’ll explore this trail further down into Georgia, or maybe take one of the branches up to the top of the mountain (which I did on the epic Rock City ride). Anyway, back to Coolidge via downtown, for a total of 30 miles round-trip. Not a long ride for me, but the trails are considerably more challenging, even if they aren’t very technical.

Ruby Falls parking lot
Now I need to plan my next adventure – I think next weekend will be an urban ride (weather permitting). I have a route in my head that I’ve never taken, which should be good for 40 miles or so. I need to get my map out and plan it, at least somewhat. I don’t need to determine every turn, but because it’ll be on surface streets, I need to at least figure out the safest route.
And a busy week ahead – goodbye, San Diego, hello Escondido!