Give it 110%

By: Tessie

Mom tracks her activities on her watch. She gives herself a star on her calendar whenever she reaches her weekly intensity-minute goal. The number of intensity minutes she earns depends on her heart rate during an activity. When her heart rate enters the higher zones, she earns double minutes.

In most weeks of the year, she reaches at least twice the recommended goal of 150 minutes. Since we began training for our big hike last summer, she has been achieving three or four times her goal because our activity level has remained high.

Whenever we go for a hike, Mom tells me how many minutes she needs to reach the next level in intensity minutes and earn her another star. I take that goal seriously and set a quick pace up the mountain. Sometimes, I surprise her by going so fast that her heart rate stays high enough to keep adding minutes even when we’re on flat ground or going downhill.

Mom told me that I’ve been setting new speed records on nearly every hike lately. I’m just giving it my best effort. Even though I’m a cattle dog, I can relax and don’t mind napping during the day when my parents are working, but when we’re out on the trail, I give it 110%. I believe in going all in on any endeavor. She teases me that I have summit fever and reminds me to stop and enjoy the journey now and then. I do have to stop and look back occasionally because Mala tends to fall behind early in our hikes since she likes to stop and sniff.

I’m not sure if my parents are planning to take me on another big adventure this year, but I hope they do because I’m ready!

You can read about last summer’s big hike here: