Biking with Activity Tacker

It has been a while since I have been able to put any thoughts down.  Last Easter I had three boys (ages 1, 2 and 5) enter my home through the NH DCYF.  They went home before Thanksgiving.  On December 18 I received two boys ages 3 and 8.  When June came around I realized I was at zero energy and not able to meet all the commitments the boys brought to the home so they were transferred out of my home the middle of June.

I've spent the last month or so recovering and then this past Saturday I was looking forward to taking a bike ride to our Men's Breakfast at our church.  Saturday morning I woke up an hour early and got ready and was heading out the door when I realized what time it really was.  Went back to bed and got some more sleep.  Then headed out the 10 or so miles to our church. I've only done a few errands on the bike the past week and just started running again last week as well.  During the past year I gained back the 10 pounds I had lost in my fitness program.

Biking to the event was good.  I had some energy left and even managed not to pig out at the breakfast buffet.  But after an hour I was not ready to bike home, but had no other options, so back I went.  It was tougher, and took a little longer, but I made it back and was pretty useless for the rest of the morning.  Ended up taking a nap at noon.

As part of my routine to encourage me to stay active I've been wearing my Polar activity tracker and it does well, but on the bike ride - very disappointing.  I realize that it doesn't track when my arm is still so i stuck it in my pants so it would get the motion from pedalling.  Well after the trip there and back it barely registered 2,500 steps.  You got to be kidding, 20 miles later and I had nothing to show.  I do realized I coast at times, but that was just plan disappointing.

I have now switched to the new Garmin Vivoactive, which has a biking and running feature so I get credit for what I really am doing and it has a GPS unit to track my mileage, speed, pace, cadence (for biking I think you need to purchase a separate sensor).

Staying fit is not cheap.