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  • Author Author: dubbie
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100,000 Steps Completed

dubbie

Just finished the Walking Challenge that I set for myself of taking 100,000 steps outside in 10 days. I actually managed it in only 9 days. It has been more of a struggle than I imagined, mainly because I think my step counter only counts 'some' of my steps. I've raised some money for Zimbabwe (http://www.paraclete.org.uk/), enjoyed getting up at 6.30am and going for a walk. I think I will continue to get up early - as long as it is light.

 

Although the step counter was low cost I was still disappointed with it's performance. I think that it missed between 25% - 33% of my steps, all taken outside. It uses a ball making contact with connectors to identify when a step has taken place, with some electronic wizardry that performs some sort of filtering as it only updates every few steps. I am assuming that it is optimised for some standard walking frequency (perhaps even gait?) with the ball and contacts designed to this resonant frequency. I am probably not achieving that standard pace as I do walk very slowly (always have).

 

I am tempted to take it apart now that I have finished the challenge but fear I may not be able to put it together again! Not that I intend to use it again - at least not before consuming more cake calories than I have used up (apparently only 668 kCal! so only one cake).

 

As the UK seems about to enter the Lockdown phase or Covid-19 I might not be able to get much more walking in so now I am thinking I might make my own walking treadmill. There was some activity about this idea on element14 many years ago but has anyone done anything recently?

 

Dubbie

 

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  • Hi Dave,

     

    Your estimate of steps per time aligns with mine. this is about 3 miles per hour for my stride. I took my numbers for today and did the math and I have 3.578 k steps in 30 minutes average. One of the things I like to do when I walk is to try to calculate different math problems in my head. How many meters per second am I traveling?, How long is an average city block in feet? If I widen my step by 3 inches how many fewer steps will my walk take?, etc. This makes the time go faster and helps to keep the gears in the head as well oiled as the joints in my legs ( I hope).

     

    John

  • in reply to jw0752

    John,

     

    I think I'm not in your league. When I'm walking I just like to look at the sky, the birds and the surroundings. Sometimes I think about mobile robots, sometimes about cake and sometimes about gardening and flowers.

     

    Dubbie

  • in reply to dubbie

    Sounds good to me. It is surprising how few appear to notice their surroundings anymore. One thing I noticed many years ago is that few people ever tend to look up. Their world appears to stop at head height.

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