Walking moose

[owlmoose]

So my work is doing this thing where they give us a pedometer and we try to take 10,000 steps per day. I signed on mostly because I was curious to see how far I walk on average, but of course really it's a toy for me to play with. How many steps is it to the bus stop? (About 500.) How about to the parking garage where I keep my car? (Not quite 1000.) Between the library and the main building? Does it understand stairs? Would it be confused if I ran? What if I stepped sideways like a crab all day? I must experiment.

Yesterday was the first day, and I got about 7600 steps in. But I didn't put it on until after I got to work; then again, I wandered all over downtown Palo Alto last night, so I'm not sure how that balances out. On the third hand, I don't think I was wearing it right at first -- I walked five or six blocks from the train to my mechanic yesterday (a minor problem, the car is fine), and it barely registered. So I'll need to play with it some more.

Comments

[steluch.livejournal.com]

enf, who is a borderline walkaholic, just noted (after he asked why i was snickering *crab walking* and i read your post to him) that 10,000 steps is about 6 miles...or about 2 hours worth of walking. just thought that was worth sharing...

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks! I think the literature from work said the average person goes about 5 miles in 10k steps, which is in the same ballpark.

Of course, today I just puttered around the house and got... *checks*. Uh. Not... very many. ;)

[enf.livejournal.com]

I'm probably rounding the numbers too much because of the temptation to make estimates easy by assuming 3 feet per step and 3 miles per hour. But even 5 miles seems like a lot to do in a typical day unless you're really trying.