August average

My walking average continues to improve. There's got to be an asymptote somewhere: a limit that I'll approach but never quite reach. I haven't found it yet, but I'm going to guess that it's something like 15,000 steps per day. I doubt I'll ever make that.

My progress over the recent months:

April: 5,940 steps/day
May: 6,049 steps/day
June: 6,197 steps/day
July: 10,692 steps/day

And now...

August: 11,458 steps/day

I'm going to see whether I can reach a 12,000-step average this month. It ought to be possible if I walk the mountain almost every single day, with only occasional breaks. A typical walk up Namsan generally takes about 13.5K to 14K steps.

One caution, though: last night, I felt a twinge in my left hip—a reminder of recent agony from just a few months ago. I don't want to push myself to the point of uselessness, so I might have to moderate my walking output. If things do start to get painful, I'll let up immediately, even at the cost of fattening up again. Perhaps my hip will define my asymptote.

Speaking of fattening up: when Sean and Jeff were here in mid-August (they're safely back in DC now), I bought a long leather belt from a street vendor in Jongno. I had challenged the old man by noting that almost no shops had belts in my size; he smiled a grim "Challenge accepted" smile and produced an enormous strap of leather that would have made any masochist melt with desire. I told him that I'd been losing weight from all the walking I've been doing lately, so he dug into his toolbox and took out a hole-puncher specially designed for holing leather belts. He punched several holes into the belt, and I'm now happy to say that I'm already on the final hole: I can't cinch the belt any tighter because there're no more holes left. It's hard to believe that I've gotten to this point so quickly; in the mirror, I really don't look any different: I'm my usual pudgy-looking self. But something must be happening if the belt holes are any indication. I'll just chalk this up as a good thing and keep soldiering on.


_