Walking in June

[magid]

There's a 'fitness challenge' at work this month, trying to get people to be more active. The goal: walk 25 miles in 30 days. Er, yeah. Not a particular challenge, given my usual walking patterns. Still, it's worth signing a waiver and entering; there will be a prize drawing for those who complete it.

Interestingly, the brochure about this not only includes ways of estimating distance based on time, but some 'exercise equivalents' of walking a mile:
1 mile jogging, 0.25 miles swimming, 4 miles bicycling, 2 miles of in-line/ice skating, 15 minutes of basketball or soccer or hockey, 20 minutes of aerobics, 15 minutes of step aerobics, 15 minutes of racquetball or handball or squash, or 20 minutes of singles tennis.

It feels off: I know that half of my bike ride the other night was far more exercise than walking a mile. On a stationary, perhaps. Any kind of running is much harder than walking, so running a mile would be noticeably difficult. And since I haven't been swimming in... a very long time, that would be a lot more work, too. Still, it's interesting to see what someone thinks of as equivalent.

Comments

[jaq.livejournal.com]

Hmm. 25 miles in 30 days doesn't sound like much of a challenge. It's a bit worrying.

Anyway, I remember having some discussion with a friend when we were students (and I used to cycle everywhere) about why bicycles are much more efficient than walking. I guess it depends on how much effort you put into it, but I could believe that if you're just trying to get somewhere then a gentle bike ride needn't be so much exercise.

[pinkfish.livejournal.com]

Often they do these equivalencies in terms of caloric expenditure. Up to a certain speed, running a mile takes similar calories to walking that same mile, partly because you finish it sooner, so there is less time spent metabolizing. The curve goes off when you start to run at top speed (like racing), but that's not what they expect someone who enters a 25 miles in 30 days challenge to be doing.

When they do calorie burning versions of this, some tables like to include sex as exercise, and make some connection to how much sex corresponds to walking one mile. I don't know how serious those are, as they say, your mileage may vary :)

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

Remember how I tried the Hobbiton thing and it didn't inspire me enough? Well, I started this walking program in the Family Circle magazine that we subscribe to (laugh, laugh at me- I dare you!) and I've been walking every day for a month so far! It starts slow with only 10-15 minutes a day in the first week, which was totally easy, but now I'm walking 40 minutes/3 miles a day. (I know this isn't too impressive for you- you walking self, but I've been sedentary most of my life, and I always said I hate exercise. Suddenly, I'm looking forward to walking time!)
And it's just the first month! (The program goes on for 3 months- next month it ramps up to 50-75 minutes a day, with increasing intensity and hills. We haven't gotten the July magazine yet.)

I should calculate the miles for this month, and see where I am on the Frodo Challenge, just for fun.

[magid.livejournal.com]

With exercise, whatever works is good. I don't manage walking every day, alas, so you're well ahead of me there. And I've got less ability to just take a walk, rather than errands on foot, or socializing while walking, stuff like that.

Which is to say, go you! It's great that you've found exercise that fits you. (I tend to think that everyone's got at least one form of exercise that suits them, if they can just find it.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

Caloric expenditure makes sense, except that different people, even people of 'average size' (whatever that is) will expend different calories doing the same thing, if their bodies are used to it or not.

I've seen some that include calorie expenditures for sex, though I'd've been rather surprised had it shown up on the list from work. (And it makes me wonder just what constitutes sex, for the calorie expenditure.)

And really, there's a huge difference between stationary and road biking.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it doesn't sound like much of a challenge to a bunch of people. I figure it's an attempt to get the truly sedentary off their keisters, and the rest of us can sign up in the hopes of prizes :-). I haven't quite figured out how someone working downtown can be totally sedentary, with walking to and from the train or bus or whatever, but who knows.

Yeah, bikes are more efficient on average (wheels, after all), but if one is trying to move quickly, it can expend a lot more calories. (I'm the kind of bicycler who breaks a sweat within minutes; I don't understand how people bike to work in work clothes.)

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

I guess it puts my own fitness struggles in perspective to realize that it would be hard for me to walk less than 25 miles in a summer month. Are the prizes any good?

[magid.livejournal.com]

I have no clue about the prizes, other than that they exist, and are therefore worth wanting. Or something.

It would've been easy for me to walk less than 25 miles a month when I had a car commute, if I didn't make myself do walking errands and such, but now, fairly difficult.

Oh, and I was entertained to see a poster down by the work cafeteria encouraging 30 minutes of walking per day... You'd think they'd decide on one coordinated message...