My Walking Thing Wk3: If You Think You Can, You Can!

 

Pic: Week 2 vs Week 3. One of the pleasant side effects of exercising is that my complexion gets better and clears up almost immediately. And yes that arm is the result of  lifting 1.3lbs freeweights (very light yet good result. I am sold!). Love love.

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Hola!

My post last week shamed me into immediately putting on my walkout, I mean workout, clothes and shoving my lazy *ss out of the door.

I am posting the update for Wk 3 a bit early coz I am leaving for a short hols and I am not sure if I have internet access where I’d be. I mean, I will have internet access but being on holiday and all I doubt blogging will be very important to me.

Walkthrough:

1. Since the last post, I managed to walk more than 30mins daily except on Saturday when it started to drizzle so I turned back after walking for about 2km. It was a total of 5 walks (well 6, if you count the day that I turned back) and 1 off day coz I have a plane to catch – I logged a little under 10,000 steps each time and varied the routes to see which one will yield the right distance. On the 5th trial, I reached 11,792 steps or about 9.4km. Nice. As I suspected 10,000 steps each walk is very doable and I did it in good time too (about 90mins more or less each time). My daily total would have been in excess of 10,000 steps but I don’t wear the pedometer after my walk is over so I don’t know the real tally.
2. I only did free weights twice, and HIIT once. These fell short of my goal: I intended to do 3 free weights a week and 3 HIITs and 1 off day where I would walk for leisure (i.e. shopping!).
3. The next goal would be to achieve item #2 above, and continue to walk daily for the next 2 weeks (i.e. Week 4 & 5). Yes, even when I am on holiday. I am packing my walkout, I mean workout, clothes and trainers, I’d be staying right at the beach so it’ll be a nice change from the greenery that I am used to over here.
4. At this point I don’t want to worry too much about speed. Right now my pace is considered as moderate in intensity; to upgrade it to “vigorous” I need to shave off my time to 77 minutes (source: Livestrong – How Long Does It Take to Walk 10,000 Steps). Basically, the math is like this:
   1. < 5,000 steps daily = sedentary
   2. 5,000 – 7,499 steps daily = low active
   3. 7,500 – 9,999 steps daily = somewhat active
   4. 10,000 – 12,499 steps daily = active
   5. > 12,500 steps daily = highly active
   6. 10,000 steps in 100 minutes = moderate intensity
   7. 10,000 steps in 77 minutes = vigorous intensity
5. Public health recommendations state that for substantial health benefits, 15,000 steps per week of moderate intensity activity, and 9,750 steps per week in vigorous intensity activity are required. So that means, I only need to walk briskly at 130 steps a minute ONCE a week and the rest of the walks could be at my regular speed.  I will not attempt the brisk version yet but hope to be able to do so by Week 6. Right now the aim is to be consistent.

I stopped along my walking routes to take pics with my phone – these are really quick stops (a few seconds) and I don’t think they affected my heart rate that much. It was done on purpose because I forced myself to look around and notice my surroundings as I walked. And you know what, I quite enjoy living here though it is a far cry from the crazy fast-paced brick forest life that I was used to.

Off to fly over the clouds now!

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