A very boring post on math.

1,366.12. That’s the magic number you get when you divide 500,000 by 366. Which is mildly important because 500,000 is the number of feet of elevation I’m trying to gain this year, and 366 is the number of days I have to do it in (thanks Leap Year!).

So, as today is the 62nd day of the year, I’ll multiply 62*1366.12 and that gives us 84,699.44. Happily, my total gain for the year so far is 92,698 ft. That means I’m about 8K ahead of schedule (yay!). It also means I’m less than 8K away from reaching my first 100,000ft. And I’ve been promised (by myself ?) a reward for every 100,000ft. ?

What is that reward? Not sure yet, but I’m already excited about it. It’s probably cake because, let’s be real.

The other number in the back of my mind is 1,586.28. That’s the number of feet I’d need to do each day to reach 580,580ft (or the equivalent of climbing Everest 20 times). By that math, I’d need to be at 101,521. But that’s a stretch goal, so whatever.

(By the by, I’m going to be very disappointed if I’m mathing wrong here…)

Anyway, this is the mundane math thoughts on my mind as I think about this wacky challenge. I know I’ll be traveling for 14-16 days in both May and June, 7-8 days in October, and likely another 7-10 days in late summer. That’s a total of somewhere around 46 days of travel (or 62,841 ft of elevation I need to do either while on the road OR that I’ll need to make up). That’s more than a tenth of what I’m trying to get for the whole year (because, of course, 64 days is about 17% of the year).

So, I’d like to get ahead because I know while I’m traveling for work I’ll have really limited opportunities to get elevation. It’s not too hard to go for a 3mi run during a work trip, but it’s pretty hard to find a quick 1,300ft of elevation on your 45min lunch break. I’ve accepted that up to 10% of the gain can come from treadmills or stair climbers, but I typically am not staying in places with gyms… so.

ANYWAY. Math is on my mind lately. That’s all.