Discussion Board

Over in my journal Kirk and I made a pact to start walking a little bit in September and Hamster chimed in with this wonderful idea.


I found the idea intriguing so I did a little internet search. Not as much info as I’d hoped for but I did find one pretty good resource.

http://walking.about.com/cs/measure/a/webwalkingusa.htm

I’d love to make this the focus of my second year on the McDougall program and I would also love to turn it into a positive group experience, similar to the Monthly MWL threads.

So I’d like to know who might be interested and also any suggestions you might have for making it fun and keeping folks interested.

Here are some of my thoughts:

Like the MWL thread, I think we should keep it loose, where people can come and go, do a little or do a lot. Everyone can record their miles walked (daily/weekly) and once a week we’ll add them up and see where the group lands down the trail.

I’m thinking a new thread for each trip across the US. I’m not sure how many people we would have or how long it would take to get across the US or what we should name the thread(s)

There are two ways to track your miles. You can record the actual miles you walk and record that as actual miles on the trail. Or, you can count minutes or steps. You record each minute or every 100 steps as a mile on the map. Obviously, counting a minute walked as a mile is easier.

Now here is an idea I had about this. Let me know what you think. I propose we have two groups. For this discussion we’ll call them the tortoise and the hares but we can rename them later. The hares group is for folks who are already pretty fit and they would record actual miles walked to determine how far they have walked down the trail. The tortoise group, on the other hand, would be for folks who find walking a little more challenging. The tortoise group would record minutes or steps and translate that into miles using the formula above. We could even do a little friendly competition between the two groups to keep it interesting.

I really like the idea of researching the local area we’re walking through and sharing that on the thread. We can talk about where we’re walking and things that happen to us in real life, or we could make up trail stories about our virtual location on the map. Fun, silly, interesting.
Anyone???
Letha

My work did this last year. We were each given pedometers and "walked " from corporate headquarters to Disneyland.

We could each map our trip from our own front door to a McDougall weekend in Santa Rosa. We'd be virtually so much more fit by the time we arrived for the yummy buffets. (The Flamingo hotel is about 5 miles from my front door - but at my current rate of walking, I won't get there much before you.) I am definitely a tortoise!

Hey Letha, what a great plan. I do Curves 3x/wk and would like to walk on my off days but haven't made it a habit. This incentive would certainly help. I'm on board for it.

There are so many possible routes. I like SandraK's idea of walking to Santa Rosa but we would have to start somewhere as a group to do the history aspect. I'm an eager tortoise!

All of this sounds great! I'd love to contribute to this. I just have one suggestion, though. To keep the "tortoises" in a more realistic distance range, maybe we should allot one mile to every 10 minutes walked. That would give the same accomplishment as actually wogging at 6 m.p.h. This would allow those of us who can't walk for more than part of an hour each day to still achieve reasonable distances, but wouldn't distort them to the point where the fit walkers who do 5 - 10 miles per day couldn't keep up with those of us who only walk for 20 or 30 minutes. I also won't feel so compelled to try and get the exact distance from the back of my bedroom to the front door, meticulously count my laps and then try to compute foot distances into miles. I'm actually that much of a nut for accuracy.

We could even allow those people who cover virtual distance in other activities (like Hamster who uses rowing machines and the like) to log their actual miles. Once I start using my recumbent bike, that would work really well for me because it gives distance ratings which are very similar to those of an actual bike.

The best part of this is that it would give those of us who are more sedentary a real reason to start checking in to the Exercise and Fitness forum (if that's where we choose to put this, though MWL would be great too). I think it would also help with the stats in the weekly weigh-in thread. You've gotta lose more pounds when you're moving around more, after all.

As for our virtual goal for some kind of starting point and destination, any creative idea would work for me. We could do cross-country, cross-continent, round-the-world at the equator or anything else we choose. I guess the equator one would be kind of quiet for a while, as far as checkpoints go, once we hit the Pacific Ocean, though.

Anyway, those are just my ramblings. Let me know what you think.

Kirk, I think you’re right about making it 10 minutes of walking = 1 mile verses 1 minute of walking which would just be too skewed compared to folks who are waking the actual miles. I also like your idea of including folks who are biking or rowing. Based on my observations of these kinds of things, the more inclusive you can be the more synergy you generate.
Letha

Wow - all I did was to throw an idea out there and overnight (for me anyway) it seems to have taken root and grown into a strong sapling.

I have found Wendy's Bumgardner's site to be excellent and it contains a huge amount of walking information.

http://walking.about.com/

Joshmathews has also posted some well thought-out guidelines on starting an exercise program.

http://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12948

Starting gentle is (I believe) really important. It is far easier to increase one's mileage tomorrow than it is to recover from an injury. My reading on exercise and weight-loss suggests that duration is more important than intensity. So 15 minutes of gentle exercise is better than 5 minutes of frenetic activity. Feeling tired after exercise is ok (that's the idea right) but feeling utterly exhausted isn't. The next day it should be possible to go and do it all over again without having to force sore muscles into activity. Forcing an unnaturally fast pace risks an injury and virtually guarantees sore muscles.

Speed tends to increase naturally so there is no need to force the pace - whatever seems comfortable is the right pace to walk at.

I really like the idea of equating minutes of exercise to a distance. This should allow everybody to contribute fairly equally. What constitutes exercise can be anything beyond what we would normally do. So members can decide upon whatever they want to do and then just count the minutes. Simple and effective and everybody can do it.

One more thing teams probably should be between around 4 and 6 participants any more than around 6 and I suspect it would become too difficult to organize and any fewer than around 4 the weekly mileages would be disappointly low. There could of course be any number of teams.

Hi Hamster,
Thanks again for the most excellent suggestion. Tell me what all do you think would be involved in the organization? I’m thinking it’s just a matter of reading through all the posts every week and adding up the miles. My only concern with small teams is that I’ve seen lots of exercise challenges die because the group is small and a couple of people got busy and didn’t post for a while and the one or two people left just felt abandoned & lost interest. With two large groups, or even just one large group, it won’t be a big deal if ½ the folks who express interest get busy and stop posting. If we could get 10 regular posters and an additional 20 people who come and go I think we could keep it going for a while. If a team had 15 people who averaged 10 miles per week, that would be 150 miles a week and it would take 33 weeks (about 8 months) for the team to walk the entire 5048 mile American Discovery Trail... if I've done my math correctly.
Letha

If we decide to walk the American Discovery Trail these would be the milestones.

Delaware: 44.6 Miles
Cape Henlopen State Park to MD State line: 44.6 mi.

Maryland: 270 mi.
Delaware State Line to Chesapeake Bay: 41.9 mi.
Chesapeake Bay to Greenbelt Park: 43.5 mi.
Greenbelt Park to Georgetown, Washington, DC: 17.4 mi.
Georgetown to Old Town, MD (C&O Canal Towpath): 167 mi.

West Virginia: 280.5 mi.
Maryland State Line to Streby: 59.5 mi.
Streby to Nestorville: 69.7 mi.
Nestorville to Wilsonburg: 84 mi.
Wilsonburg to Ohio State Line: 67.3 mi.

Ohio and Kentucky: 511 mi.
Belpre (WVA border) to Chesterhill, OH: 33.3 mi.
Chesterhill, OH (Buckeye trail) to SR78: 16.1 mi.
Sunday Creek Road/SR 78 to Ohio SR 664: 55.9 mi.
Ohio SR664 to SR327: 41.7 mi.
Ohio SR327 to Pike Lake State Park: 57.6 mi.
Pike Lake State Park to Road Junctions: 53 mi.
Mineral Springs Roads to Sunshine Ridge Roads: 41.8
Sunshine Ridge Road to SR 774 and Grant Lake: 54.6
Ohio SR774 and Grant Lake to Eden Park, Cincinnati: 64.3
Eden Park, Cincinnati to Elizabethtown: 33.6

Indiana (Southern Route): 366 Miles
Ohio state line to Clifty Falls State Park: 70 mi.
Clifty Falls S.P. to Deam Lake Campground: 54 mi.
Deam Lake to Corydon: 48 mi.
Corydon to St. Meinrad: 96 mi.
St. Meinrad to Evansville: 65 mi.
Evansville to Illinois state line (Wabash River): 33 mi.

Illinois (Southern Route): 296 mi.
Indiana State line to River to River Trail: 39 mi.
Harden County line to Grand Tower: 142 mi.
Grand Tower to East St. Louis (Missouri state line): 116 mi.

Missouri: 343 mi.
St. Louis to St. Charles: 33 mi.
St. Charles (Katy Trail) to Boonville: 154 mi.
Boonville to Kansas City (Kansas state line): 156 mi.

Kansas: 563 mi.
Leawood (MO line) to Lawrence: 52 mi.
Lawrence to Herington: 127 mi.
Herington to McPherson: 58 mi.
McPherson to Great Bend: 75 mi.
Great Bend to Kinsley: 56 mi.
Kinsley to Dodge City: 53 mi.
Dodge City to Garden City: 64 mi.
Garden City to Coolidge (CO line): 78 mi.

Colorado: 912 mi.
Kansas to Canon City: 219 mi.
Canon City to Denver: 158 mi.
Denver to Buena Vista: 227 mi.
Buena Vista to Redstone: 130 mi.
Redstone to Utah: 178 mi.

Utah: 644 mi.
CO Border to Moab: 116 mi.
Moab to Hite (Colorado River): 175 mi.
Hite to Boulder: 112 mi.
Boulder to Circleville: 90 mi.
Circleville to Beaver: 30 mi.
Beaver to Garrison (state line): 121 mi.

Nevada: 496 mi.
Utah State Line (Baker) to Preston: 87.4 mi.
Preston to Duckwater: 45 mi.
Duckwater to Moores Station: 55.5 mi.
Moores Station to Pine Creek Campground: 43.9 mi.
Pine Creek Campground to S. Twin Campground: 36.2 mi.
South Twin Campground to Ione: 43.7 mi.
Ione to Middlegate: 40.7 mi.
Middlegate to Virginia City: 98.9 mi.
Virginia City to California Line: 44.6 mi.

California: 380 mi.
Nevada State Line to Hwy 89: 22 mi.
Hwy 89 to French Meadows Reservoir: 27 mi.
French Meadows Reservoir to Foresthill: 46 mi.
Foresthill to Auburn: 33 mi.
Auburn to Sacramento Discovery Park: 54 mi.
Sacramento to Antioch: 73 mi.
Antioch to Walnut Creek at Heather Farms Park: 35 mi.
Walnut Creek to Golden Gate Bridge at north end: 47 mi.
Golden Gate Bridge to Point Reyes Nat'l Seashore: 43 mi.

I want to do this. I do my Leslie Sansone Walking away the pounds videos. This would actually motivate me to do it more.
As for my Gazelle(walking on air), 10 minutes would be a mile then? I can go quite fast on that thing or slow, depending on my mood. 10 minutes on my upright bike and I get a sore butt. (small seat)

I will have to drop off a pedometer for Kirk (if he wants one or two)once I find them all again. I somehow ended up with a bunch of them, freebies from here and there, plus my Mom gave me one for a birthday awhile back. They may need batteries.

Hey there! I'd love to have you come by again, even if it's just to say hello. Plus, you'll be able to see the changes in me since last time! They're not huge yet, but they're definitely noticeable. A pedometer would be pretty cool to have also. If yours don't work, I know they're a dime a dozen nowadays and can be bought almost anywhere. There's even one for the Nintendo DS which you can plug into the pocket game system and journal your progress. Pretty cool!

The organization can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. All that's needed is a simple record of names and weekly distances as well as a group weekly total. Could use a simple spreadsheet or a school exercise book whichever suits best. A map of the proposed journey in reasonable detail plus felt-tip pen to mark our progress. So nothing complex.

Personally I'd setup a free email account (googlemail is good) and have the participents email their weekly milages to that which would save having to search through a whole heap of posts. The thread would then become more for encouragement, friendship and descriptions of places that we're passing through.

I'm pretty relaxed about team sizes. Small teams could be a problem, but there is of course no reason why a small team could not amalgamate with another so no reason why anybody should be left struggling along by themselves. A single large team would probably work and could remain open for new members. If it became too big then again nothing to stop it being split into two smaller teams.

The America Discovery Trail sounds good - it's far enough to present a real challenge but not so far that it can't be completed in a reasonable period of time. It's difficult to estimate how long it will take, particularly because participants could be expected to drop a fair amount of weight over the 6 or so months plus improve their general fittness.

I'm really please to see that this suggestion has taken off.

Hamster,
I keep thinking about what works well in the MWL group thread. It is really remarkable that we’ve kept it going for 10 months and that the group has reported losing over 1100 pounds so far in 2009. In that thread we post our weekly weight loss results on Thursdays. More people participate on Thursdays than any other day of the week. We do encourage one another and share our challenges but I’d have to say the focus of the group is that Thursday weigh in.

I bring this up because it appears that people really seem to like reporting their results for the week. If I understand your suggestion, we would only report our exercise privately via email. None of the other group members would see it. My impression from the MWL group thread is that folks really like the accountability that comes from sharing their results publicly.

I’ve been thinking today about another suggestion you made in an earlier post. That for the sake of simplicity, we just pick a set number of miles for a set number of exercise minutes. So, for example, we could say that 10 minutes of exercise = 1 mile on the trail. That would include walking, bicycling, rowing, swimming, roller skating, yoga, or any optional physical activity that you do for your health and well being. The more I think about it the more I like that idea. I think it would increase participation. For someone like me, where I’ll be walking maybe 5 minutes per day four times a week, I’d probably contribute 2 miles a week to the group’s progress on the trail. Now someone who walks/swims for an hour a day, 6 days a week would contribute 36 miles each week to the group’s progress down the trail. If the average is somewhere in between, say 20 miles per person per week, and we have an average of 10 people in a group, that group would move 200 miles down the trail each week and it would take the group 25 weeks (about 6 months) to complete the 5048 mile American Discovery Trail.

I so wish we could do tables on this forum but we can’t. Tables are so handy for logging weight loss or exercise. The American Discovery Trail website has a big map of the entire trail and also smaller maps of the trail in individual states. Those could be copied and pasted into the forum thread. However, I’m not sure we can find a way to mark them or visually highlight our progress on the trail. If someone knows how we could mark a map and then post it on this discussion forum, please speak up. That would be great.
Letha

Letha- I'm very interested in the walking idea! I would love to join - I want to walk more, and this would encourage me. I love bike riding, sometimes do the elliptical, and haven't walked much due to stiff knees. I could see some advantages of not splitting into two groups, but I haven't thought it through very well. I was wondering if that wouldn't be a lot more record keeping. Also, what about when a beginner walker becomes more experienced? It might be more fun to put that emphasis on virtual walk locations etc. As I said, I haven't really thought it out, and would love to participate however it is done. Keep me posted! Laura

As I just said, I love the idea. After my post, I read other replies. One thing that really helps MWL is that people can join in or out, stay or go , and our total loss still mounts. This is one reason I'm not sure that teams would work. I really love the idea of counting other activities - I love bike riding and I love curves! This is a great idea!! Take care, LauraA

Hi Letha,

I'd be interested in walking and being part of a group also.

Felini