Our company puts out one of those eminently forgettable newsletters for employees that focuses on things supposedly important to the busy corporate drone. Usually they include some healthwatch note with a couple of recipes. Recently, they had a little note that essentially said “To promote good physical health, you should take upwards of 10,000 steps in a given day.”
“Whoa” says I. That sounds pretty much impossible. That’s a whole lot of steps for people routinely chained to their desks. I mean, I am an active person, but that just seems beyond the scope of normalcy. I sort of figured it was a load of hooey designed to make us feel bad about ourselves. Lo and behold, it turns out this is actually a government based suggestion that has spawned programs. I was shocked.
So, to test out my theory that 10,000 steps in a day is really only possible for people who spend all day in protest marches, I’m going to track my steps per day for the next week and report them here. I chose a week because that gives me both weekdays and weekends (which should have some difference between them) and gives me multiple instances of each so I can have a smoother result to judge my hypothesis against.
What’s a step?
Running, walking, forward, backward, stairs, etc. Basically anything that transfers my weight from one foot to the other while I propel myself in a direction.
When does this start? I’m going to do this on a midnight to midnight basis, so day 1 will be 12AM Wednesday through 12AM Thursday and continuing for the next week. I will update here every day (and sometimes throughout the day). Frankly I just want to see how close I am and what might be needed to reach 10,000 in a day. And, it’ll be interesting to see (based on my normal stride) the raw distance I would cover as well.
And of course, you can feel free to guess on any aspect of this project. Side bets will be guaranteed by Lloyd’s of London, Kentucky.
10,000 sounds like a lot, I know as a college student I routinely surpass that since I have to walk nearly 6 miles a day going from house -> campus -> through classes -> back to house. But as an office worker, you’re going to have to take walks in the evening or morning before work (depending how motivated you are).
For me? Based on stride length (front edge of right foot to front edge where right foot ends up), I cover about 77". So, for 1 mile I am taking about 823 strides per mile which equates to 1,646 individual steps. To reach 10,000, I would need to hit 6 miles in a day. I know that random walking can add up, but I think I’ll get hammered on time. I doubt I spend enough time walking on a normal weekday to reach this. But, we’ll see. For the purposes of this project, I want to stress that I will be doing nothing out of the ordinary in an attempt to make a milestone.
I dunno – over three feet per step seems quite a lot. I’m a lot closer to a couple of feet per step which would bring it down to four miles which I probably do most of the time in the summer but not so much in the winter when I don’t walk anywhere for lunch.
The local paper had a reporter do this a little while ago, along with some other randomly chosen people. The reporter only had about 3,000 steps/day much to his surprise. He thought it would be more since he walked around downtown every day. On the other hand a maintenance man at the newspaper building regularly exceeded 10,000 steps/day, just on the job.
Well, judging by the lack of activity in the thread this may end up devolving into me posting numbers in a pseudo-diary format. Which, odds are, would further degrade into a maniacally written, self-loving paean to myself which could then be used to illustrate the dangers of doing something that ends up turning into a thread where one posts only to onself. So, at least something good will come of this.
Anyway, exactly halfway through day 1, and I currently stand (well sit technically) at 4,360 steps. Frankly, I’m a little surprised. That is pretty close to the number I would have guessed for a full weekday so I may end up a lot closer to 10,000 than I thought. This makes me pretty curious for the weekend when I know I cover a lot more ground on my gangly legs.
The wife and I bought pedometers to keep track of just this kind of thing at conventions. I think we clocked about 12 miles a day at the last Comic-Con. Otherwise, we are both pretty desk-bound. Time to start taking a walk after dinner!
And, day 1 is complete with the grand total of steps at 8,892. I’m more than a little surprised because that’s a good bit higher than I would have guessed. Yesterday was exceedingly normal which means with no extra effort I am pretty close to a 10,000 pace through the course of normal activity. And, I know I have the weekend coming up that will pick up a good bit of slack (I assume). It is somewhat amazing how quickly walking to the bathroom, the copier, or someone else’s office can add up.
Some stats:
Total steps, most recent day: 8,892
Steps per day: 8,892
Distance covered: 5.4 miles (est.)
Percent of 7 day goal achieved: 12.7%
Ahead/(behind) pace by: (1.6%)
Yep, 6’9" and mainly in the legs if my 38-40" inseam is any indication. I also walk pretty quickly which stretches my stride out as well. I’m not exactly a giraffe loping through the veldt, but I do cover a good bit of ground.
A very similar day. 2 fewer meetings, more printer trips, a slightly longer dog walking trek.
Some stats:
Total steps, most recent day: 9,110
Steps per day: 18,002
Distance covered, most recent day: 5.6 miles (est.)
Distance covered, total: 11.0 miles
Percent of 7 day goal achieved: 25.7%
Ahead/(behind) pace by: (2.9%)
The weekend coming up should give me a chance to get ahead of pace and build up a little slack for the remaining 3 weekdays.
Day 3
Total steps, most recent day: 7,771 (dang, should have squeezed out 6 more)
Steps, total: 25,773
Distance covered, most recent day: 4.7 miles (est.)
Distance covered, total: 15.7 miles
Percent of 7 day goal achieved: 36.8%
Ahead/(behind) pace by: (6.1%)
Think anyone else will surprise us and share in the Mully self love?
Nah, just me, me, and that video camera over there. Now, talk dirty to me and tell me today’s stats.
Day 4
Total steps, most recent day: 16,182 (and the weekend bump begins)
Steps, total: 41,955
Distance covered, most recent day: 9.8 miles (est.)
Distance covered, total: 25.5 miles
Percent of 7 day goal achieved: 60%
Ahead/(behind) pace by: 2.9%
Kinda ready for a nice, restful weekday. We’ll see how that plays out.
Day 5
Total steps, most recent day: 13,570
Steps, total: 55,525
Distance covered, most recent day: 8.2 miles (est.)
Distance covered, total: 33.7 miles
Percent of 7 day goal achieved: 79.3%
Ahead/(behind) pace by: 7.9%
Day 6 sucked, in more ways than one. Is there anything more boring than an all day meeting that you realize you could have skipped once all is said and done? Ugh. That said, the downfall from Day 6.
Total steps, most recent day: 4,026
Steps, total: 59,551
Distance covered, most recent day: 2.4 miles (est.)
Distance covered, total: 36.1 miles
Percent of 7 day goal achieved: 85.1%
Ahead/(behind) pace by: (0.6%)
