Lunar Bovine - Jason Cobill's Weblog » walking

I Would Walk Five Hundred Miles…

jcobill — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:11:51 +0000

Our walking challenge at work is over! Collectively we’ve walked about twice the distance between Ottawa and Easter Island, where our mascots the Maori stone (bit)heads come from. I personally put in 1,500,000 steps over about 100 days, putting me in around 15,000 a day on average. It would have been higher except for a sick spell I had early on, and then around week 8 pedometer-wearing-fatigue set in for a little bit and I “forgot” to put it on for a few mornings.

In total, I walked 1,100+km in 3 months. I came in second in the office to a hardcore treadmill walker, so I feel pretty accomplished.

The Walkerator

jcobill — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:43:13 +0000

The numbers keep rising on the third week as I find more ways to push my total footsteps up every day – but I think I may have hit my theoretical walking limit on Saturday, counting 24,900 steps around the Bayshore mall searching across the tops of the clothing racks for the mop of brown hair that’s attached to my wife. Sunday found Natasha and I out in Barrhaven on an awesome walk to the grocery store with Lisa, Jen (visiting from exotic Toronto) and Kiriel, taking in some of the sunshine. My total is up past 200k since starting three weeks ago.

The numbers are likely to level off for a week, but may jump one more time as I make a concerted effort to get ready for the half-marathon that Greg wants me to run with him this spring. The sad thing is that I’ll be spending way more energy running, but counting about a third fewer footsteps as my stride increases.

Walkathon

jcobill — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:32:04 +0000

We’ve been wearing pedometers for nearly the past two weeks at work as part of a challenge to be aware of our activity levels and get moving. Collectively, the whole gang of us are trying to walk enough to cover the distance to Easter Island from Ottawa, and we’re well on our way in the first few days.

I’ve been surprised at the big numbers I’m clocking in – which are only getting bigger this week as I’m finding ways to take long-cuts wherever possible. I’ve been getting off the bus a few stops early, and walking a little further to catch it. Natasha and I have also made an effort to get out for a few walks around the neighborhood and down along the river. I think being aware of how much activity you’re doing really makes it easy to make simple changes.

This is also a fun excuse for me to experiment with Google Charts. Here’s my week and a half so far. Notice Wednesday was a writeoff – being sick, I slept through the entire day. But this week’s light blue bars are all up above 10k and on the rise. I think I’m going to break 20k at least once this weekend, for sure.