The penultimate day of Walk to Work Week is here and upon logging my data with Living Streets this morning, I was delighted to see that I had achieved the 13 mile badge!
With a busy schedule, today I needed to be in work at an earlier time, so rather than walking all the way (1.5 hour journey), I got a lift part of the way which saved me about 30 minutes walking. Unfortunately this meant that the bit I missed out was the lovely downhill and scenic part, but needs must.
I have to admit that the walk today felt a little tough; my continual struggle with sore calves meant that tackling this uphill route was difficult to fully enjoy, but I knew it was doing me good, burning around 360 calories again! It was also easier to pinpoint how much further I had left to travel, now that I was more familiar with my route from home.
Now that I’m at my desk, for the moment I’m enjoying resting my legs; later today I’ll be adding on another 30 minutes by travelling the 15 minutes to and from a meeting. Another 1.4 miles to the tally.
Today I thought I’d speak about some of the gadgets and apps I’ve been using during my walks. But before I start please note that “other brands are available!” these are simply the tools which I used.
First up is Strava which is a GPS tracker compatible with most Android and iPhones, as well as other devices such as Garmin’s and TomTom’s etc. (full list here).
I’ve been using the iPhone app which lets you track activities such as running, cycling and of course, walking. The app is free for the basic version, but you can upgrade to Premium for more advanced and in-depth features, including aptly named ‘Suffer Score’ which will link to your heart rate and tell you how hard you are pushing yourself.
I found that for the purpose of this week, the free version was more than enough. It tracked my route, distance, elevation gain, the time taken and my average speed. Each trip is saved and these are linked to your account. You can also share socially with channels like Facebook, Twitter and Path as well as connecting with friends and seeing their activities.
Other tools like this include Map My Walk and Endomondo which also track similar stats.
The other main gadget that I’ve been using is a heart rate monitor. The model I use is a Polar FT4. This happens to be a gadget that I already own, as I use it to track my exercise and calorie burn at the gym.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, it uses an ECG chest strap and watch to measure your heart rate which will calculate your calorie burn (based on your height, weight, age, gender and the intensity of the psychical activity).
Similar activity trackers (with and without chest straps) also include models from Garmin, FitBit, Withings, Jawbone and of, course, the much talked about Apple Watch, as well as many, many more. If it’s something you are interested in getting, it’s well worth doing your research before buying as they all offer so many different features, from sleep monitoring to waterproof ones for swimmers.
My final top gadget this week has been wireless Bluetooth headphones – again this is something I already own which I use when running. It has meant that I could pop my phone in my bag or pocket without getting tangled in wires and happily listen to my music on the way.
When using headphones, it’s important to remember that whilst enjoying your tunes you should keep the volume level down to one where you can still be aware of your surroundings. Could you hear a car coming or someone trying to catch your attention?
Your awareness is something to keep in mind when using any type of gadget – whether it be fiddling about with a watch or checking an app – make sure to keep your eyes up and your focus on where you are going! How many times have you almost walked into another person or even a lamppost because you were checking your Facebook? (Or is that just me?).
Walking in 2015 can definitely be enhanced with gadgets just remember not to get too distracted from the main activity!
Todays stats
- 4.2 miles in 1 hour 20 minutes
- Two routes – one to work and another to a meeting in town
- Over 10,000 steps
- 443ft elevation gain (all the climbing done over the course of the journey)
- 542 calories burned (using a heart rate monitor with a chest strap)
Peaks: Seeing a heron at the River Don and some sparrows enjoying a dirt bath.
Pits: Other than my calves (which is an issue all of my own!), I don’t think there was much wrong with today!
So with four days behind us, I hope that you will join me tomorrow for my final Walk to Work Week blog for a look at the overall stats and reflection on the week!
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