Pedometer - anyone got one?

[nwgull]

I bought one a few years ago when I was training for a marathon. It was one where you measured your average stride length and it calculated how far you'd ran. It wasn't very accurate though, as even with a conservative stride length it said I that was consistently doing sub 4 minute miles!

 

[cheshunt seagull]

I got one to get some idea of how much walking I was doing in an average working day. Found that it was 8,000 steps and the target is 10,000, so I have tried to build an additional short walk in to my day at lunchtime and always use the stairs at work, that put me up to the target. It was useful but I don't need to wear it all the time.

 

[Waterhall Wizard]

Mrs Wizard and I bought one as we do a lot of walking in the country and coastal paths. We were always guessing as to how many miles we had walked.

To make sure it was accurate we adjusted it quite a few times. We drove the car over a measured distance and walked back on the same route to where we had begun. We only accepted the accuracy after two consecutive walks' and car journeys' distance readings matched.

On a recent trip abroad I was not surprised to discover that we had covered 11 miles on a walk. We caught a bus from our coastal town and journeyed for an hour and a half up in to the hills. We then walked back using ramblers' paths. Not counting refreshment stops we were walking for over four hours and for most of the time we were descending a 1 in 10 decline.

I felt it the next day. The muscles in my calves, thighs and arse really played up. I found as the day progressed it got worse and I felt it more going down the slightest incline or on steps. At dinner time Mrs Wizard had to help me out of the chair as we prepared to leave the restaurant.

I discovered that I was not as fit as I thought I was.