Suburban Assault

In case you don’t remember, I decided to participate in more active transportation this year – including more walking. I gave myself the goal to reach, at least, 10,000 steps per day – which is twice the average for most people. For the past 64 days, I was able to do so – and then some. Having a fitness challenge at the office was a great motivator, which kept me going for most of it.

Unfortunately, walking takes its toll in both time and wear-and-tear on my body.

Walking is sloooooooow. Some days, in order to reach my goal, I found myself waking up an hour earlier. Other days, I found myself having to take long walks on cold and rainy nights. Sometimes, I found myself so obsessed, I would walk around the house in circles – just to get the next few hundred steps. I realized that this isn’t active transportation, but rather, a gerbil in a cage lifestyle.

Also, walking hurts. When you walk a few hundred steps a day, you don’t really notice. But when you walk a few thousand steps a day, for many days in a row, you really start to feel your age. All of my leg and feet joints were in pain, all the time. There were times when I couldn’t get out of bed quickly. I’d even have to slowly work my body into back into standing. However, In just a day after breaking my streak, the pain had gone away.

Once again, this proves that bicycling is a better form of active transportation for both time and body. It’s nice to put things in perspective.

I do feel better about myself for walking more. I still plan to continue doing it – but only when it’s practical and serves the purpose of transporting me. When given a choice, I will strive to choose the option that gets my body moving under its own power.

Side note: In case you were wondering, for the year, I’ve walked over 906,000 steps totaling over 441 miles.