Too cool!

To be this guy...

3D printed jet engine

Hmmmm, technology...another topic for this blog I guess...

I came across this article on the Kneeslider and had to share.

Truly amazing what 3D printing is starting to achieve.  I'd suggest that development in this area is going to continue to get more impressive and will make us rethink how we manufacture and transport items - why ship things when you can make 'em locally.

I wonder how long before we've all got some sort of 3D printer in the home making basic items...

That's it

Yep, our walking challenge has finished so I can put my feet up eh?

I ended up with 441,994 steps in 6 weeks for an average of 10,524 per day - so I just scraped in to meet the 10,000 per day.

Because I'm a geek I also converted the steps to kilometres using the same multiplication factor as I used on my pedometer - 80cm strides - which I think is about right according to some GPS tracks I also took.  Anyway, the magic total number ended up as 353km.  That's a fairly decent walk eh?

So now I have to decide whether to carry on including increased walking (more than a simple dog walk) or put more work in at the gym.  Currently I'm thinking of a mix of both but am really keen to get back into the gym more often and to push myself.  Time will tell...

Lest we forget

Walking update

We're 5 weeks into our walking challenge and after a couple of weeks where I didn't do so well (I was sick for a couple of days) and the odd bit of bad weather I've picked the pace up a bit.

I'm still getting up early on every work day and quickly knocking off an easy 3,000.  There has only been one day when I flagged that and that was because it was fair chucking it down.  I've a few other wet starts where the rain coat has been pressed into action and the walk done regardless of the weather.

When I get home from work I check out the pedometer and work out how much more walking I need to do.  As long as I'm over 8,000 steps then I generally get my 10,000 just wandering around at home.  If I need more steps it's generally a short walk or sometimes a trip to the gym and some walking on the treadmill.

Last weekend I was determined to bring my average up after a couple of slack days.  So on Saturday, Bart and I knocked out about 4,500 steps in the morning and then in the afternoon a went out for another big walk of just under 6.6km.  I did this in just over 1 hr and the phone's GPS reckons an average speed on 6.18km/h - not too shabby I reckon!  I finished the day with just over 14,000 steps and followed it up with another 12,000 on Sunday.

This week I've been busy at work and covering a lot of ground while working so haven't needed to do any extra walking (except for the early morning trot) to get my total.  Tonight, mowing the lawns gave me an extra 2,000 so I'll end up over 12,000 again - sweet!

One thing that hasn't been so good is that I've been fairly tired (the early start and not following that up with an early night and a good sleep) and this has meant that I haven't hit the gym as much as I would have liked.  When the challenge is over I've got a few ideas on how I'll mix things up a bit so that I can still do plenty of walking but not miss out on the weight training which I enjoy.

Good to know

Still walking

So far so good.  No sore legs either...