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Virtual Hike
Finally, Mt. 141 is over and it's on to Mt 12. Mt 12 has a wide shoulder. There are enough businesses so it should be easy to find water. There may even be some small stores to get a few snacks. I'd recommend carrying enough food to get from Missoula, MT. to Helena. It should take four or five days. It's only 127 miles. | .jpg) |
Pedometer War Strategy: Constant Daily Steps
A pedometer war is a competition where the contestants attempt to walk the most steps during a calendar month. Soon I'll create a page for a top tab with more details.
Introduction
Runners achieve record times most often when they run a constant pace throughout the race. This assumption is for relatively flat courses. For this strategy, I'm assuming the walker will achieve the highest step count per month by walking the same number of steps each day. I don't claim any of these strategies are the best as there is no research. I am drawing on over 2,200 miles of experience to choose strategies.
Setting a Goal Based on Ability
The walker who uses this strategy will have to know their body well after many miles of experience. They will have to be past the stage where they feel any pains from walking. Otherwise, they may walk themselves into a chronic injury.
They will also have to know how many steps a day they can walk each day without inducing chronic fatigue. The only way to know this is to test the limits and experience minor chronic fatigue a few times.
Choosing a War
The walker should choose a war which will test their abilities, but also which they are pretty sure they can win. This will mean searching through the Fitbit Activity Groups to find a group where last months winner walked approximately the number of steps the walker is planning to walk in the month.
I chose a war where the winner in October averaged 20,683 steps a day. I only averaged about 17,000 a day in October, but I knew I could do better as I took some extra days off in October.
I elected to walk 25,000 steps each day which is about 12 miles with my stride length. Unfortunately, some things came up on Nov 1, and I only walked 17,000 steps. I have some catching up to do.
Strategy and Tactics
This morning I read that strategy is what to do when there is nothing to do. Tactics is what to do when there is something to do. This is the best definition I've read for walking. I didn't keep the source, but it was a quote from an old book.
My strategy is to walk 25,000 steps a day. I will do this regardless of what the competition does.
My tactics are to adjust the number of steps each day so the daily average is as close to 25,000 steps a day as possible.
What about the Competition?
My theory is this strategy will result in the highest number of steps I can walk in a month. The competition will have to beat my best to beat me.
It's easy to get sucked into mind games with second place and have the third place contestant walk a long day and take the lead. It's also easy for the walker to get sucked into outwalking their abilities and needing a day of rest.
Conclusion
I consider "Constant Daily Steps" to be an advanced strategy for the walker that knows their body well. It is also for the mentally indifferent walker who won't pay any attention to the competition until the last few days of the month.
You can follow me on Fitbit here. Although I appear solidly in the lead, yesterday I invited Bill to the competition. Until I invited him, he had been taking it easy. He is quite capable of closing the gap in the next day or two. My theory is he will eventually have to take a break.
I'm tired at the end of the day, but not so much that I don't recover by morning. I'm working on a method to reduce the effort each day. I'll discuss this tomorrow.
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