Just a suggestion but could be a nice motivator for some walkers/joggers...if you do track cumulative distance..then see about figuratively walking the length of your state or part of your nation.

One of my employers for an employee fitness program had a great program for tracking employee's cumulative jogging distance...by tracking mileage across our own province, ie. who travelled in total halfway across the province. That is thousands of kms.

I'm not a walker in the same sense as Dotsie, I just walk because I have to, because I don't have a car. I'm a cyclist.

In some years, I did cycle the total annual distance equal to distance of the length of Canada...that is over 5,000 kms. Other years were under or I exceeded.

Just think each group of steps each day, add up to something quite big.

orchid, what a neat idea. I would love to keep track of how many miles I walk in a year. My problem is that I've never found a good pedometer.

Anyone know of a good one that works?

orchid, is cycling a big spot in Canada?

This sounds interesting. I, too have had trouble with pedometers. I guess I could count minutes and translate that into miles.

Orchid, do you have a travel plan in mind? Like miles from Maine to LA? Or just across our own states/countries?

I don't cycle with that type of figurative goal in mind.
I used to put on my bike odometer during lst 5 years of cycling and tracked every day my mileage, meaning wrote in journal and any random thoughts while cycling/sights seen.

But since then haven't used odometer. I just try to cycle 5-6 times weekly during cycling season.

I'm just suggesting to other folks here ,something more creative to motivate you.

Anno, I'll let you know if I find a good one. Although, I don't know if I wnat to be that organized and thoughtful about walking. It may make it more of a chore if I pay that close attention to precisely how much I am walking. I need to think about this one.

I have found that the pedometers may work for a day or so, but they usually crap out. I've never been able to find a good one. The company I use to work for got in a "health" mode once and gave everyone pedometers to track their daily walks. They had to keep replacing them because of malfunctions and finally abandoned the program. Maybe you could just chart the miles in you car FIRST, then walk it???

People should do what motivates them the best. If you try this method of just mechanically jotting down each day what you did and add up over 3 months...you might be pleasantly surprised.

I can calculate approx. how much I cycle annually, based on real measured distance. After all, my partner tracks his cycling mileage everdyay..so I know certain routes and their distances.

Note: I cycle 1/2 of the time solo.

because I have a convoluted daily work commuting route that combines commuter train, bike, bus and walking...all one-way(!), I can say at least for the walking part, I walk 1 way a total of 1/2 hr. ...to and from bus stop...every work day. If I don't bike that day, then it's 1 hr. in total walking during the round-trip commute, plus time on train, then bus. Yes, this is taking time...but at least I don't need to pay additional money to join a fitness club.

Being a slave to knowing every km., mile every day isn't useful for everyone, but it is useful just to even have a dimly vague idea of what you accomplish in 1/2 year.

well i bought my bike....and i have used it lol. I a, also looking for oppertunities to use it more ie going to school on it then me and child walk home....

i am having fun, bit achie soar butt but kinda fun at same time....

its the car milage jj that gives me idea of how far i have cycled....if i know exactlie i would get competitive with myself and try everie week to out do myself...

i still riding bike like a car driver so i think itys about practices...

Some people put raw steaks in their pants to cushion the saddle. ... I wonder if they barbeque afterwards? Yuck.

Happy biking Celtic!

That's what I did Celtic. I drove the distance and wrote down the miles. Then I walked it twice every day. If I used a different area of town, I'd just do the same thing with the car first, then walk it accordingly.