| How To Measure Your Own
Walking Route
One of the best things about walking for
health is how easy it is. You don't need special equipment, clothing,
facilities, or a certain time of day. You don't even need to go anywhere
special to walk. We asked several walkers if they knew of any local walking
routes we should include in this information and they said, “Sure, but all
the routes I know begin and end at my home!”
If you decide to make up your own courses as
well, it's useful to measure how far you walk. Here are some ways to do
that. If you know that you can cover a mile in 20 minutes on a measured
course, simply walk on your unmeasured course for 20 minutes at about the
same effort. You'll be very close to a mile. Be sure to allow for the longer
time it takes to walk up hills, if you don't encounter them on your measured
course.
Pedometers or step counters are very popular
these days and they can work well too. It’s a good idea to check a
pedometer’s accuracy over a known course first, such as a quarter-mile
college or high school track. That’s also how you would calibrate a step
counter: Count the number of steps you take over a known distance, for
example 500 steps per quarter mile. Then, if you traverse your route in 4357
steps, you can calculate that it’s about 2.2 miles long.
If you’re into high tech, several mapping
software programs such as Microsoft Expedia have fairly accurate distance
tracing features. You just trace your course with the computer mouse and the
software calculates the distance for you.
Of course, you can always get the car out of
the garage, set the odometer to zero, and drive your walking course to see
what the distance is. But that would be too easy and not nearly as much fun!
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