I don’t walk much anymore. I run. If you were to follow me around all week, you’d probably interpret the rush to mean that I’m the most tardy person on planet earth. But that’s not why I run, except today when I almost missed my flight.
I run because it’s better than walking. I didn’t stop to think about this until recently, but once I did I became fairly well convinced that walking is a waste of time unless I’m intentionally strolling around in the park or something. So now whether I’m on my way to a restaurant or going from the bus station to my RV, I run.
It’s great exercise. Most distances I run tend to be between half-a-mile and a mile-and-a-half, which is a nice manageable sprinting distance. Walking such a distance wouldn’t get my heart rate up, but flying down the streets, up and down hills and stairs is a good workout. If I have a few runs in a day, my legs will even be a bit sore the next day, whereas they wouldn’t have been if I was just walking.
Also, running is roughly twice as fast as walking. If I’m moving just for the sake of transit, there’s no point in wasting time walking. I haven’t timed myself, but I imagine that I run around 8 minutes per mile and walk somewhere around 16. That’s a 50% reduction in transportation time.
Between those two factors, this begins to sound like an infomercial: “Get a workout in negative 10 minutes a day!”. And that’s exactly what it is: a workout that actually ADDS time to your day. All the time you would have spent walking is now spent running.
I know most people will object to this because they’re worried that they’ll get sweaty and gross. And… they’re kind of right, especially if you live somewhere hot. However, if you wear all wool clothing like I do, the sweat is wicked away and the garments dry so quickly that by the time you’ve stopped panting, you look completely normal again. If you’re REALLY concerned with this, just use the time you saved by running to sit on a bench and cool down before meeting people. I also believe that with enough practice, running short distances like this at moderate paces will become so easy that I won’t even sweat or get out of breath. Time will tell, though; I’ve only been doing this for a few weeks.
Give it a try for a week! It adds a bit of purpose to your foot-based transportation and is more enjoyable than you may guess. I’ve even considered getting rid of my electric skateboard and moped and using running as my only mode of transportation.
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Forgot what day it was and missed posting this this morning. Oops!
Got my new iPod Nano and I love it. Size, interface, screen, etc. are all perfect. I might rip the clip off to make it even smaller.
I’ve got a couple good ideas for posts and about 12 hours of flying time ahead of me in the next 24 hours. You know what that means….
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