Walking pedometers and such

The pedometer I lost somewhere along the way to TNNA is just one in a series of foot notes [insert groan here] about life and fitness.

In a huge flair for the obvious (note name of blog, domain, email and other junque) , walking is a big part of my life. Trying to measure my mileage has been an ongoing challenge.

I started with analogue pedometers which, while not always very accurate, were better than nothing and they gave me the option of taking them off and not measuring the short little jaunts into shops etc. where the stride measurement would be totally distorted.

Even the most accurate pedometer needs to be placed on the body in a fairly vertical position at the waistline and in line with the knee. That has an inherent wardrobe bias (toward slacks, shorts, skirts etc.) but it also means that if, say, your waistband rolls or something else happens to put the pedometer out of proper body placement and it doesn't measure properly. Worse still, it has a tendency to fall off and that gives rise to a universal truth about all pedometers -- drop them often enough and they stop working.

After killing a few analogue pedometers, I grudgingly ventured into the land of the digitals and discovered additional odd problems, like if it has a cover it won't count steps unless the cover is closed/latched and if the latch fails duct tape doesn't always work.

The most recently lost pedometer was already on a highly probationary list with its mileage being checked against my truck's odometer and/or the google g-maps hack. Some days it measured high, some days it measured low and some days it didn't measure at all.

I've been looking for a replacement and mulling over more accurate options but for now, I'm sticking to my known routes and logging the mileage in my notebook, spreadsheet and, in a surprise to many since I am so not a joiner, at Runagogo.