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Byrichard

According to Apple Health I take an average of 14,553 steps per day, over the last year. It doesn’t stop there. Not only do I take fourteen and a half thousands steps per day on average but I run up, up to fourty five floors per day and I walk at six kilometres per hour, rather than the four kilometres per hour that normal people walk.


Articles like this speak about walking pace, number of steps per day, as well as steps climbed in some cases.


2,500 daily steps is about the point at which the risk of death was significantly reduced (by 8%), when compared to 2,000 daily steps.

2,700 daily steps is about the point at which the risk of both fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular disease events like heart attack and stroke was significantly reduced (by 11%), when compared to 2,000 daily steps.

7,000 daily steps, roughly, is the optimal number for those looking to reduce their risk of both fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular disease events (51% reduction).

9,000 daily steps, roughly, is the optimal number for those looking to reduce their risk of death from any cause (60% reduction).

Each 1,000 additional daily steps, or about 10 minutes of walking, will reduce your risk of death to some extent, though not in predictable intervals.

Each additional 500 daily steps, or about five minutes of walking, will improve the health of those with low levels of physical activity.


During yesterday’s run I switched to running for five minutes for the Nike Running club app. Three quarters of the way through that run I noticed something unusual in a field so I turned around. It was a dog. The dog saw me and then started to walk towards me. I retreated and yelled “leave me alone”. I think the dog’s owners heard me and called the dog back. The damage was done. I changed course and walked across a wet field, rather than risk being attacked.


Long Walks to Avoid Dog Walkers


Plenty of people see dogs as lovely animals but I don’t. I see the signs warning of dangerous dogs on properties. I see them bark aggressively at me. I see them charge me, on more than one occasion in recent years, and now I’m fatigued. I’m fatigued that dogs will approach you threateningly in some cases, and curiously in others. After being threatened so many times in recent years I don’t trust dogs at all.


My walks are huge, compared to those of normal people, in part because I choose routes that have the least likelihood of encountering dogs, and if I see a dog I will ever take a longer detour to avoid them, or a shortcut to circumvent them. The only time I didn’t follow the instinct to avoid a dog it was within three strides of biting me.


The benefit of fearing dogs, rather than trapping me at walk, and discouraging my walking habit, does the opposite. By walking routes that dog walkers don’t walk, and by walking routes, where I can see things, well in advance, gives me the opportunity to go for daily walks, without being afraid.


There is a walk by a river that I loved to walk, and I would often get muddy in the process. After encountering dog walkers with their dogs unleashed I eventually gave up that route, because I had nowhere to flee, and I saw these dogs once it was too late to retreat.


People love to say “don’t be afraid, dogs only attack people who are afraid of them”, and that’s the entire source of my fear. If they threaten me, I feel fear, and if I feel fear they want to threaten me all the more.


In yesterday’s incident I don’t think the dog was going to attack me. I think it was curious, but because I was walking by a farm property, with the people out of sight I thought it could suddenly decide to defend the property and bite. I need help to overcome that fear.


Playing with Personal Activity Intelligence


This morning I ran up three floors three or more times as I moved recycling from the apartment to the car. In the process I got a good workout but it didn’t count as active enough for my PAI score to change. Either I wasn’t active for enough minutes in a row, or it’s not trained to recognise that increase in heart beat as a PAI event.


The Pandemic Boosted my Steps


During the pandemic my step count exploded. I went from walking 10,000 to 20,000 or more, daily. I was walking so much because there was little else to do.


Gender Gap


In the article Why Do All the Men in My Life Walk So Fast? the issue of walking pace difference is brought up. Months or years ago I came to the conclusion that I walk fast because I walk alone so I gradually sped up. I walk fast even by London standards. It’s due to playing a game when I was younger. I would stride from one coloured tile to another at school so my stride became longer. The second reason is fitness. The fitter you are the more powerful your stride and pace. It’s not about gender. I know men who walk slowly. I call it undertaker pace.


I love when women walk as fast, or faster than me. I love when I have to keep up with them, rather than the other way around. To me, this signals that we will have the freedom to enjoy pleasant walks together.


Christine Reed, in Alone in Wonderland also wrote about the frustration of others walking faster than her. She wrote about how they made it effortless to move at speed.


One of the reasons for the difference in walking speed is simply that some people walk a lot more than others. The more you walk the higher the speed at which you walk. The reason some people look as if they’re walking fast effortlessly is that they walk enormous amounts. In 2020 I walked five and a half million steps. I would walk from two to four hours a day, every day, to the point of eventually becoming fatigued, and decreasing the distance.


During the pandemic walking was fun because there were no cars, and without cars walking is a pleasure. Cars don’t respect pedestrians by the side of the road. During the pandemic every road was walkable. When the pandemic ended those roads became dangerous again. It’s because of danger fatigue that I stopped walking my favourite routes. It’s why I now have one walk with four variations, that I can do clockwise, or anti-clockwise.


If walking was made safe, along roads, I would have 40-80 kilometres of walk, without ever needing to get in a car. It’s because of dangerous car driving that those routes are not worth the risk, out of lockdowns.


It is for this reason that I argue that we need roads to be dedicated to pedestrians and cycling. We need those routes to be banned to car drivers.


Elena Colgato argued for a world without cars, but the problem is not cars. The problem is how people drive those cars around pedestrians and cyclists, as well as how few routes are safe for pedestrians to walk along.


As a prime example millions are being spent to redo the motorway exit for Nyon, but nothing is being done to make walking between Nyon and Signy safe for pedestrians. If you want people to walk more, you need to make it safe to walk. If you want people to walk faster, you need to make walking a viable option. My biggest frustration is that walking is not safe between villages and towns.


If people want a world with fewer cars, the countryside needs to be safe for walkers, from all villages to all other villages, along most roads.


And Finally


For me, the goal is not to replace cars with buses and trains, because people would still be unfit. For me the ideal situation is to make walking between villages and towns safe, without needing buses or trains. Buses and trains should be so regular that you can go from A to B every fifteen minutes, rather than once an hour.


If you make it safe for people to walk, and cycle, you encourage them to walk and cycle, and if they walk and cycle their walking pace will increase, which in turn will speed up getting from A to B on foot, and negate the need for buses, which would reduce the carbon footprint of getting around.

StepsApp
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StepsApp

Byrichard

Walking and taking steps could be seen as boring. It’s something we do every day, without thinking about it. At conferences we can easily take 20,000 steps a day, when we’re standing for the entire day, with barely any opportunities, or need to sit, except when eating or getting from A to B. The Steps App is a way of seeing step counts in a variety of ways.



With the insights tab you have information about your best week, month and year. It shows you theoretical distance, time spent stepping, theoretical energy burn, and floors climbed, with compatible devices. On my best week I climbed 253 floors, walked 118 km over 24hrs 39 mins and burned 6243 kcals. My best step day was on the 23rd of August 2018. I took 40,142 steps. That was a theoretical 31.3km over 6hrs 45 and 188 floors.



During my best month I walked half a million steps. 453.7km over 90hrs20, climbing 655 floors. This was my walking habit during the pandemic and the reason for such a lot of time walking wasn’t because I was doing anything interesting. It’s because we were in self-isolation and I was using the Apple Watch calories burned per day to indicate how much exercise I should do. The result is a month where I walked for three hours a day for an entire month. One could argue that this isn’t such a good memory.


Badges for Steps per day and total steps.


It’s more fun to look at the pages above. I have walked a million steps 16 times, five million, three times. I have walked at least 5000 steps 1292 times and 10,000 steps 743 times so far. This is fun because it shows how consistent my walking habit is, and how regularly I reach each goal/landmark.


Step count by year
Step count by year


The peak walking year. Five and a half million steps
The peak walking year. Five and a half million steps


And Finally


The longest streak badges
The longest streak badges


They allow you to see your longest steps, calories, distance, duration, floors and superstreak. These are both excellent and crap. Step streaks are good when you’re walking but doing no other sports. If you cycle, climb or do other sports there is a good chance that you will your streak., That’s why the steps streak is just 34 days but the distance streak is 252 days and the duration streak is 918 days, and floors is 390. If you limit yourself to steps then you can only take steps, and nothing else.


Walking from Village to Village, and Village to Town
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Walking from Village to Village, and Village to Town

Byrichard

The conversation is too often about designing cities to be car-free, but I would argue that designing the countryside to require less frequently would be more advantageous. The reason for this is that walking from village to village, and from villages to towns eliminates the need for, and appeal of the car. If the need for a car is mooted by making the sides of roads pleasant for pedestrians and cyclists, we reduce the allure of the car.


From March to June I walked around one million eight hundred and fifty thousand steps between villages according to the pedometer++ app. In that time I have walked through rain, wind, mud, and streams. In the process, I have come to the conclusion that the grass on the sides of roads needs to be cut more frequently.


When the grass at the side of the road is not cut we are forced to walk through increasingly longer grass from week to week. On a dry day this doesn’t matter so much but on a rainy it does. On a rainy day if the grass is cut regularly you’d get wet from the rain over a period of time.


When the grass is long you get soaked within a few steps. Rainwater goes from the grass, to your shoes, and onto your trousers, and other time it works its way down to the soles of your feet and up your trousers, through to your t-shirt and beyond. By the end of a walk you’re drenched through.


If the grass had been cut you’d be wet, but it would take longer. If you’ve been drenched from walking through long grass frequently enough the idea of getting soaked yet again encourages you to walk on the side of the road, rather than the grass bank. This affects traffic fluidity because a pedestrian on the road has to be avoided. If they’re in the grass then the problem is resolved.


When I drive along narrow roads and I see pedestrians or cyclists I slow down to the speed at which I would like to be passed, if I was the one walking. This is also true of cyclists. Drivers seldom understand the effect that their speed and proximity has on vulnerable road users.


When you’re walking between villages you sometimes have to walk on the road because hedges and other vegetation make it impossible to walk off of the road. In some cases, when walking at the side of the road I have come across thorny plants. Walking into them, without knowing that they were thorny is a one time mistake. After that you walk on the road.


We could walk along agricultural roads but there are two issues with agricultural roads. The first is that people drive cars down them at speed so it’s no better than walking by the side of the road, but the second is people with dogs.


When you’re afraid of dogs it’s more interesting to walk in the grass by the side of the road than agricultural roads.


I should add some context. I walk along the sides of roads, rather than agricultural paths because I like to walk for two to three hours at a time. To walk for two to three hours I need at least ten to fifteen kilometres of paths and routes to walk along. I could get in a car, drive for an hour or two and walk in the mountains, but over the last two years I have found that I can get the same workout without the use of the car.


I have found that there are plenty of nice things to see, without burning fossil fuels.


The reason for which people do not walk or cycle between villages, and from villages to towns, is that they see roads as dangerous. Drivers too often, see pedestrians and cyclists, as a nuisance. If the grass at the side of the road was kept short enough for pedestrian trails to form and be used, then the need for cars would be reduced. If the need for cars between towns and villages is reduced, so is the need within towns. Urban planners, before removing cars from towns, should think about getting people into the habit of walking between villages and towns. If you get people out of that habit, then it is easier to get them into the habit of catching the train.

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Tourism and Ingress

Byrichard

If you’re a geek and you like mobile phones with a data plan then ingress is for you. Over the last two days I walked 18 kilometres playing ingress and winning back the City of Nyon for the Resistance. It didn’t last long. The same evening the enlightened players destroyed my hard work. I will just have to go back and liberate the city later. I have more important tasks this weekend. Tomorrow Ingress FS Neuchatel will take place. At least twenty of us will be playing, walking around the city, looking for portals and trying to take over the city.

Staring at a phone while walking around a city may sound counterintuitive, or absolutely normal for those who still use text messaging apps or tweet. In this case though you discover details of cities that you would not notice. You notice plaques, the names of places which you always walk by but never knew about and more.

Playing the game has two parts. Attack and defence is one part and farming the second. Attack and defence are good because they don’t require much walking around. They just require having a lot of “toys” to play with. The drawback to having a lot of toys to play with is that you probably walked around like I did going from portal to portal and hacking it. You get weapons, modules, resonators and more. They are good for game play.

There is a cultural aspect to farming. Missions designed by L9 players of ingress have portals related to a certain theme. If you walk in the old town of Geneva you can follow the Calvin track, the park brunswick mission or the Geneve, around the Cathedral mission. There is a good chance that you will know some of the monuments and you will discover others. With each portal players can write a description. These descriptions can provide you with a new understanding of the places you pass by. In essence it could serve as a guide book for those who like to see things in a different light.

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On meeting Robert Scoble at the London Geek Dinner

Byrichard

This afternoon Nik Butler, Loudmouthman sent me a text message asking whether I was free to go to the London Geek Dinner where Robert Scoble would appear. Of course I was free so I decided to go to the event and met a number of people. The first person I met was Robert Scoble for this particular event. He was standing at the door and as I came up he welcomed me into the room, we shook hands and I got his business card.

That was quite unexpected, so approachable. I spent some time talking with Loudmouthman, Michael Beddows, Liz Strauss and Giles Thomas.

The London Photowalk itself saw us walk from The Geekdinner venue down towards Southbank and the film cafe. It’s the first time I went to the bar and I’ve been living in London for over three years now. It’s amusing to see how many photographs were taken and videos recorded. It was the photographer photographing the photographer. Scoble interviewed people as we were walking down the street and others were filming the filming.

I enjoyed the evening and meeting Scoble. For a while I nicked his video camera and filmed some shots of London for him. One of those shots was the Midnight ring of Big Ben. That’s about it for tonight.

 Video 1 Video 2 Video 3

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Walking Through A City You Are Leaving For A Bit.

Byrichard

During a shoot a few years ago a person was speaking about human development and how an expert from an economically more developed country wanted to teach the person from an economically less developed country about the topic. The local told the economist “you want to teach me about the economy but whilst you took five steps to make it to this table I took two”. One thing you may take away from such a comment is that you’ve got to find more efficient methods by which to do daily tasks.

Now, I wonder, how many of you take the bus two or three stops rather than walking. There are times when the distances are massive and walking would take six to seven times as much time but there are other times when walking is a great way of getting from one location to another. I was in Central London today and wanted to walk properly therefore those half strider surrounding me were impeding the pleasure to be had from a nice walk. I walked towards Green Park but soon turned left and down towards the Thames. The streets were empty and my legs could reach their full potential.

I was relaxed and decided to go through many of the smaller side streets. As a result of this I saw some historic buildings where famous lawyers lived, where pubs are named after poets and where a disaffected tube station can be seen.  I also found some hidden parks and such.

It was a nice walk because whilst the main street has masses of people and traffic just one side street down the path is clear and the small passages are interesting. It is through the smaller hidden away places that you see the character of a city and I want to get to know this one better.

I’m in the usual pre-trip mood. I’m happy to be going back to Switzerland to get my new laptop but I’m disappointed that I may miss the Finsbury Park Festival and a house party on Sunday, therefore, I may fly back. The reason it’s a “might” rather than a “will” is the price of tickets when you book them late. I’ll decide according to how things go in Switzerland.

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Strolling From Picadilly To Bermondsey On Foot

Byrichard

My latest trip of the day has been a walk from Picadilly Circus after dropping by the bank before going along the bank and getting to Bermondsey. It’s a nice walk and luckily I didn’t have too many people to avoid. As I walked by Greenpark it started to drizzle a little but it didn’t do much so I continued my root. I got towards the Parliament Tesco, bought two cokes, and continued on my journey. The usual sights were there but the street performers lacked an audience. The classical musicians under one arch had no audience. Practice I suppose.

The interesting part of the walk is between Tower bridge and Bermondsey because you pass by the Thames walk and it feels less public. You see a small bridge which I think can be raised and upon this bridge a group of friends being photographed by a self-timed camera. I waited for the picture was taken before continuing on my journey. It’s not a bad part of London from what I glimpsed briefly.

The sardine express tube carriages were full due to a security alert encouraging delays on the line. I was in no rush so I sat down and watched as train after train filled with people passed. After a while, I got tired of waiting and caught the tube to Green Park and walked a little further. I passed by Covent Garden where Charlie Chaplin the second was performing, getting a child to throw him coloured plastic bricks. I didn’t stay for the rest of the trick.

The time I took was useful because by the time I went back down to the tube it was empty once more and I could return home in relative comfort.

I’m tired now, and my laptop is apparently in Eindhoven in Holland waiting to be transferred to Switzerland. On the 6th I should have another status report. I really want it now, want to play with DVD studio pro and make a good quality DVD.

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An Energetic Walk Through London

Byrichard

Today is a day of rest for me. I caught the tube into central London and went for a nice hour long walk through the center of London. Starting from Oxford tube station I walked through the throngs of people, dodging them and trying to fray the quickest path through them as possible without having to cut down on speed. I passed by Pall Mall and the Cabinet War rooms before walking along the South Bank where all the entertainers were

Masses of people were queing for the London eye whilst others were eating at Wagamama, strada and other restaurants. I passed the Tate Modern and saw the guy with the birds, not a pimp, the reptiles that evolved into feathered creatures. He was there with his public.

I pased by a few beggers, some looking worse than others.

There was an opera singing girl under one arch and that did make a change, a nice one. Tired of always seeing the modern artists so seeing a more classical application is more interesting. I didn’t stop, and didn’t hear. I was listening to the i-pod.

I passed by more objects before finally getting to London Bridge. By then I was getting tired, after all when I got down to the tube I had been walking for an hour at my cruising speed, above 8km/H. Think I covered quite a nice distance and saw many sights.

Now I’m content, sitting in my room and I saw that the Digg word stock I bought on trendio went up by 7 points and s

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On walking more than five minutes

Byrichard

person “you walk fast”

me “I like to walk”

person “I thought you were rushing somewhere”

me “nope, just stride as I walk”

On average every step I take is two and a half times longer than most people therefore I cover distances in half the time it takes others to do the same. That’s because I love walking. I used to walk an hour a day after high school and the distances expanded over time. One day I wanted to create a gps track to see what it looked like so I walked nine kilometers within the space of an hour. I wasen’t even tired at the end.

Last night I went to a house warming party and the night finished around 2 or three in the morning and walked with a friend to the bus stop. I waited, and waited until I got bored. A bus came but when I asked whether he was going my way he told me “look at the front of the bus”. His arrogance made my mind up. I’d walk from Aldgate east, via Bank and temple to Traf. Square before catching the night bus I wanted to catch and going home.

It’s a long walk. At moments I ran, then I walked. I was listening to music so that was fine. At one point an accounting student asked me the way to where he was going so I chatted with him for a while. He was walking too slowly and it’s too late at night to hang around chatting so I told him which landmarks to use for navigation and started walking at my cruising speed again.

I covered big distances. I saw St Paul’s, I saw the Tate Modern tower and I saw the London Eye, quite far, I thought. Didn’t deter me. I walked past the club boat and people were standing on the pavement whilst others were making the way home. Caught up with them within thirty seconds. They turned right away from the bank but I continued.

The London eye was getting bigger. I passed the Savoy where I saw a few police cars and some people chatting. I don’t know what it was about. I  passed the royal horse guard hotel, good memories of two nights spent there before a flight to New York.

I turned and started to head from the river towards Trafalgar Square and spotted the N18 in the distance. Great. I ran, with big strides that conserve energy by covering a lot of ground. I got to the bus and saw whether he could let me in before the bus stop. No luck.

I started to run. I ran across the roads of Traf Square, watching out for traffic of course, and got the the bus stop. I was slightly out of breath but I had run fast enough so that I was waiting for the bus. Conventionally other people  have to run to keep the bus from running. I got on. Sat down at the front and looked at London as it slid beside me, one bus floor below mine. Cars were around, drunks were waiting for their respective buses and heading home as well. Time to daydream.

I arrived at Sudbury as the sun was rising. 7 minutes till the next bus, ah well, that’s not so bad. Finally I got home, decided to have some crisps before going to sleep for a few hours.

That was a nice walk. I really needed it. Hardly any traffic, no slow movers in front and no people to avoid. Just the way I like my walks to be.