Ever since I adopted the world's cutest Labradinger (that's a Labrador/English Springer Spaniel mix for the uninitiated) I've found myself doing longer walks and shorter runs. Next month (August 6) will mark Drake's Eight Year Adoption Anniversary or "Gotcha Day."
Don't get me wrong, Drake was running 13 miles before he was a year old. I was a little leery about running that much with him when he was so young, but he had (and still has) seemingly boundless energy and is whip-smart. He always lets me know if/when he's had enough on any given run (or walk, for that matter). A number of trainers, vets and vet techs, upon meeting him, have said, "Run him. Run him hard!" He needs the mental stimulation and loves the exercise.
That said, he is slowing down a bit. Not much, but enough that our runs have been shortened. But he'll still willingly do a 2-hour, up-tempo walk in all kinds of weather.
I've been a fan of walking-as-transportation since my earliest days at the University of Minnesota. Back then, it was out of necessity – I didn't have a car during college. But I learned to embrace the concept of walking for both exercise AND as transportation for errands, etc. It was a great habit to start early-ish in life and has served me well for many years.
One of the (many) reasons I wanted to adopt a dog was so he would do long walks with me. I really lucked out. This little dude can walk a LONG distance and still have energy left to bark at cats, motorcycles and skateboards. He also loves to "flirt" with everyone. It's fun to have the world's cutest dog, because all he has to do is look directly at people and I immediately see their face melt into a smile. Male, female, young and old - they're all VERY susceptible to this little guy's charms.
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Creative ways to walk smarter...
This article from The New York Times, 6 Ways to Level Up Your Daily Walk, was part of the publication's "Why Not Try" columns. It offers some good advice for creative and well-tested ways to make your walks even more productive.
Any writer who can work the phrase "Embrace the Fartlek" (#6 on the "6 Ways...") into a general-audience article, is a-okay with me. (I'm looking at you, Emily Pennington.) As anyone who has coached high school athletes can attest, the first time you say the term out loud, be sure to pause and wait for the inevitable laughs and smart-aleck comments.
Embrace the fartlek.
Swedish for "speed play," fartlek workouts use a type of interval training that involved a series of high-intensity bursts with recovery periods between them. The beauty of the fartlek is that, unlike in traditional high-intensity interval training workouts, walkers or runners don't have to glue themselves to a watch or a fitness tracker to boost their muscular endurance. Just amp up your gait to a light jog or a power walk for a short stretch to get your heart rate up, slow back down until you feel recovered and repeat.
Have you ever used Fartleks in your workouts? I can tell you, doing them as a team, on a track, is the MOST fun way to enjoy this workout. I challenge anyone who thinks overwise to convince me why that's NOT true. [Feel free to try in the comments below.]
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10,000 steps/day - Marketing hype? Scientific fact?
Speaking of The New York Times and Walking...
Do We Really Need to Take 10,000 Steps a Day for Our Health?
The advice that we take 10,000 steps a day is more a marketing accident than based on science. Taking far fewer may have notable benefits.
According to Dr. I-Min Lee, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and an expert on step counts and health, the 10,000-steps target became popular in Japan in the 1960s. A clock maker, hoping to capitalize on interest in fitness after the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, mass-produced a pedometer with a name that, when written in Japanese characters, resembled a walking man. It also translated as "10,000-steps meter," creating a walking aim that, through the decades, somehow became embedded in our global consciousness – and fitness trackers.But today's best science suggests we do not need to take 10,000 steps a day, which is about five miles, for the sake of our health or longevity.
Creative Crosswalks to mitigate pedestrian/vehicle accidents?
Tourist-friendly Savannah, Georgia is looking at ways to reduce vehicle vs pedestrian accidents. Historic Downtown Savannah is an amazing place to walk around. I've done MANY loops from River Street south all the way around Forsyth Park. In general, my experience has been positive – drivers not only stop for people in crosswalks, but they'll stop and wait for pedestrians to approach the intersection. (In other words, not just when pedestrians are standing at the crosswalk, ready to make their move.) That said, there has been an increase in the city in general with fatalities involving cars and pedestrians and some city leaders are looking for solutions.
Pedestrian fatalities continue to be a problem in Savannah. Could creative crosswalks help?
For those not familiar with the term, creative crosswalks are functionally the same as your typical, painted white crossing points that we see everywhere, but with a twist: The spaces between those white lines, instead of being empty spaces revealing on the street below, are filled with beautiful artistic designs...
It's not a new concept – over the past several years, municipalities all over the world have embraced creative crosswalks as a way to grab the attention of drivers and save lives.
Have you seen creative crosswalks when you've been out-and-about - either in your hometown and/or while traveling? [Comments and pics are always welcome.]
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