Pedometer challenge

[darkazana 1,736]

Well not sure whether this should be in hows your day, but here is probably more relevant.

Yesterday saw us shopping in Lincoln and then a visit to the house we are hoping to move into in the near future, and then a pub meal at a lovely pub in the village of Tattershall Thorpe, The Bluebell. Last nights total steps were 7984.

Today we have been shopping in Newark (groceries this time....clothes and shoes yesterday). Also got some citric acid as I notice the elderflower is on the bloom and wanted to get the cordial made. So, after lunch and a visit from my daughter Sam and grandson Alex I went for a walk round the village and found an abundance of Elderflower on the playing field. Back home and we were in production, plus a sponge cake for our warden at work as it's her birthday next week, not forgetting some rock buns to keep hubby happy at lunch times. 6 litres of cordial steeping and tubbed up ready for the trip back to Sandringham this evening and I am on 10181 steps so far today, so that means no need for the treadmill after all

This morning I had a look at the Fitbit site to catch up on my statistics so far.

Since I started using the fitbit I have clocked up 956,264 steps, my daily average for the last 28 days is now 7382 steps, 5.06 miles, 13% up on the previous 28 days and this is purely down to our Pedometer Challenge, so thank you fellow pedometrists for being there

I am now going to have a chill with chilli before we start back to the site.

[carni 10,094]

Wonderful darkazana, You chill away Gel, well deserved.

The experiment I mentioned on #223, turned out to be very hit and miss, with problems popping up all the way through. We went on the cycles to our W-ton West Park, so as to cycle around the perimiter.

It became clear instantly that we would not be able to stick at 7mph. As soon as Chris looked up from the cycle computer, our speed would slowly rise, so he would say slow up, which meant I had to stop peddling, meaning the Pedometer attached to my right trainer would not register anything until I started Peddling again! Here is my result and I think it is very innacurate because of the speed changes.

We worked the 7mph to steps from The Conversion Chart on #20

2pm-2.30pm at 7mph=1,953. Pedometer on my right trainer registered 1,601. Because of all the hitches, I wouldn't put much faith in my calculations.

We are cycling in the Manifold Valley in a few days, so we will try again. BTW can anyone advise where to start so that if there is a gradient, we can get the hard way over on the outward trip. Sorry my experiment wasn't more positive.

[Chulla 4,946]

Looks to me liked it worked a treat, carnie. I trust the meter reading more than the calculation. If you stop pedalling and the meter doesn't register, so what; it doesn't register when you stop walking. All that matters is the number of steps taken, not distance travelled, or speed travelled at. Just read the meter and add its total to the other daily readings.

[carni 10,094]

Another little thing that baffles me Chulla, is, If I have the pedometer on one leg. What about when the other leg peddles? When walking with the Ped attatched to my waistband, it registers each leg step?

[Michael Booth 7,364]

You shouldn't be piddling while your riding your bike, carni. Oh,

[carni 10,094]

Did you really see my mistake before I edited it Michael. I thought I had been quick. OR are you being a cheeky little B....r

[Chulla 4,946]

#229. Good point. Had a test and it showed that the 'steps' pedalled by the leg without the meter attached did not register. You could, therefore, double the total. That said, the total registered wasn't all that far off the calculated total. Where do you normally clip the meter? I clip mine to the waistband immediately above my right hip. Seeing that the left leg step is also recorded, you might like to try putting the meter there and see if cycling motivates as with walking. Try a few experiments - walk 100 paces and check reading, then pedal 100 pushes and do same and see how they compare. If latter only records 50 steps, then double total. Will be interested in hearing results. BTW I do not have a bike, my pedalling is by sitting on a high-stool!

[carni 10,094]

What I have been doing through the Challenge is this: during walking times I have worn my Pedometer attatched to my waistband and taken it off when we go on the cycles. We would note the time down of the beginning of the cycle ride and again on returning. I would then convert the times to steps with the chart on #20. I would reattach my Ped to my waistband and it would carry on recording from where it left off. At the end of the day I would add both totals together.

I will wear my Ped while cycling today and do a few tests. I'll try your suggestion first off. Thankyou Chulla.

[plantfit 7,597]

darkazana,If I'd have know you were going to the Blue Bell I would have nipped in for a lemonade and to meet you and yours, our site is on the bend as you leave Tattershall Thorpe on your way to Woodhall Spa, good amount of steps achieved and no need to go on the treadmill,result

Chulla some good points raised there,I must have a go myself when I get the trike out

carni,don't worry about how to calculate steps covered,you're doing just great the way you calculate them anyway,the important thing is you are doing more excersize and enjoying it,well done on your steps

Tuesdays score was 11399,a good day, yesterdays was a megre 7898 but I did spend nearly all day in the office and on the phone.

Keeeeeep stepping pedometerists

Rog

[carni 10,094]

Thankyou plantfit, I am going to carry on as I have been doing, because I am happy with the calculations. I am not too bothered how accurate they are, because they are showing that I am doing ok, and are consistant, so that's close enough for me.

I couldn't resist having a go at checking if my Pedometer registers while cycling. It gives me chance to use my retired thinking machine abit! You will soon see, it is not reliable. At times it didn't register the leg movements, when the ground was smooth, also it registered as an extra step when going over bumps.

Here are my findings. Pedometer attached to waistband.

100 revs counted on R leg, registered 56first time, 5? 2nd. 100 revs R and L legs 46 first and 37 2nd.

Pedometer on Right Trainer

100 revs counted on R leg registered 156. 100 revs R and L legs registered 80.

Pedometer on waistband

Walking 100 steps counted and 103 registered. So My Pedometer really is only reliable for Walking. I'm happy with that. i'll stick to the way I have been calculating. Thanks for the idea chulla. I enjoyed checking.

BTW, I have noticed Plantfit and darkazana, are you still adding daily totals, are we still stepping, if so I will add mine again later.

[darkazana 1,736]

Rog the Bluebell is going to almost be our local soon, hopefully moving to New York when the solicitors get their acts together.

[denshaw 2,872]

The Bluebell at Tattershall Thorpe is a very interesting pub, good food too.

[Chulla 4,946]

carni. I think it was worth a try, and think there will be a way to make it work. It is just a case of placing the meter in the correct place to pick up movement. As I said, I put the meter on the waistband above my right hip. I have just put it on the waistband at its rear centre (ie, above my bum's cleavage!). It registered the same number of steps as when over the hip. So, it seems that it does not take much movement to activate it.

From what you say, it looks to me as though the meter was trying to record both legs - it was trying to double the strokes of one leg. Something is preventing it from doing this accurately. I first thought that the meter recorded the right-leg step and doubled it, but this cannot be so as I can record an odd number on the meter; which is not possible when you double a number. It will be interesting to see what results come from other that are giving it a go.

[plantfit 7,597]

carni, still carry on posting steps and what activities you do,we find them interesting,especially the conversions from the cycling,I will use your idea's when I eventually get the trike out,

darkazana, New York not too far from our site, and as you say near to the Blue Bell, the previous owner is a member on this site (looselegs) a good friend of Fynger, we've had a few aviation mini meetups in there for lunch,

Chulla,I will have a go using your ideas when as I said get the trike on the road again, might try to get the grey cells working a bit harder

steps for yesterday 9487, a bit low as some of the day was spent driving to another site in north Lincolnshire for a meeting

keeeeep stepping

Rog

[carni 10,094]

Thur 4th June. Here goes with my todays efforts, which turned out to be very pleasing. We had a really pleasant cycle ride yesterday, taking in, Towpaths, Country lanes and part of the A449, which is very noisy because of the heavy traffic. There is a cycle path so we feel quite safe, soon back by the canals.

The Barge holidays are in full swing now, so plenty of hand waving along the way and happy people having little conversations with us as they passed by. We were out cycling for two hours and apart from about half an hour stopping and starting while I wrote down my Ped test results, we actually cycled nonestop.

Here goes. 2hrs, cycling at 7mph = 7,812. Deducted 30mins at 1,953 for doing my Ped test = 5,859

Walking with Ped on................................................................................................3,220

9,079 total

Slept well last night!

[Chulla 4,946]

We have two pedometers (a sign of affluence!), so I thought I would try a little experiment. The two models are:

Meter A is a Geonaute Dista 100+

Meter B is a Silva SMT-6

Both have the CE mark denoting that they conform to European quality requirements.

I clipped Meter A to my right hip waistband and Meter B to my left hip waistband. I then walked a circuit around the back garden. The readings showed Meter A to have 8 more step recorded than Meter B. Extrapolating this to 1000 steps, Meter B would record about 100 steps less.

I then swapped them round - from hip to hip, and walked over the same route as before. Meter B (now on right hip) now showed 8 steps more than Meter A. So, right leg seemed to be dominant - work that one out!

I then clipped both meters on to the rear of the waistband, side-by-side with Meter A on the left. I then walked over the same route and, would you believe it, the 8-step difference was still evident - Meter A being the lesser.

So, nothing wrong with the meters it would seem; I must have some special power, apart from the X-ray vision noted in a previous thread!.

[carni 10,094]

What a beautiful day we have had. Sunshine from the early morning. It's not possible to cycle once the sun has got too hot because (It makes the old ticker rock and roll) we are entering the time of year where our cycling has to be early morning or early evening.

Today it was evening. We managed a similar route to yesterday, but it was great because I had forgotten how peaceful it is on the towpaths at that time of day. We had a nice surprise when a Duck and her group of six ducklings just appeared at the side of us. I don't know much about wildlife, but the arrival of new Duck and Moorhens families seem never ending. We still haven't seen a Kingfisher yet, only one in three years. Plenty of Herons, Ducks, Moorhens, Wrens, Robins and many more, and swifts (I think) skimming the water beside us.. Not forgetting the two white geese that hissed and stretched thier necks at us "frightened the bloomin' life out of me. Well nearly"!

Anyway here's my todays total. I will always work on 7mph and the time of my rides, deducting stops. From now I will only enter the amended steps.

1hr 30mins cycling 5,859 + Ped 2,860 = 8,719. Not bad. We did spend quite a bit of the journey at 9mph so we are getting fitter each week. Keeeeep Stepping.

[katyjay 5,091]

I hope none of the neighbours were watching Chulla! If so, they're still trying to figure out what you were doing.

[Chulla 4,946]

There are fences around the back garden, so no chiking by neighbours. As it was a warm day I could have undertaken the experiment in my birthday suit, but there would have been nowhere to clip the pedometers.

[darkazana 1,736]

Back to 4th June for me. sorry for the delay, a bit of excitement for us when a completion date for 15th June mentioned by our buyers solicitor, which was odd as they are still asking questions and doing searches!!! Then reality kicked in that it wasn't going to happen, possibly their buyers are starting to put the pressure on, though not a problem for us as we can move out anytime and pop our stuff into storage as we are living in the 'van at the moment. Perhaps the end of the month is more practical, we shall see.

In the meantime Thursday was an office day for me, and though I managed to get out and check the wildlife haven to see something has eaten all the plants (they were chosen for being rabbit and deer resistant) the rest of the day I was busy in the office. So steps just totalled 4140.

However it was also yoga night with 1 hour 45 minutes of quite hard work = 4725 steps so my final total for the day was a respectable 8865 ......... and boy could I feel it yesterday!!

Yesterday was quite a busy day, starting at 8.15 with a delivery including among other things a water butt which I persuaded the Warden to get as part of my biodiversity project here John also talked the driver out of a pallet to add another layer to the insect hotel.

Then the usual cleaning duties followed by the afternoon spent cleaning down all the windows and woodwork of one of the shower blocks. Ending the day with 7000 + steps, but as we had had fish and chips brought over by John's visiting sisters (naughty but nice) I felt the need to go for a walk, so Jonh and I went for a very pleasant evening walk through Glucksburg woods, discovering a stone built pond among the trees which we thought a bit odd and wondered how it came about. Anyway after the walk my steps were up to 10411 and my tummy felt a lot less bloated

[Michael Booth 7,364]

(#244), I could have told you where to clip it, Chulla but you'd have told me to stick it up my......hang on a minute, I've got this all wrong!!!

[plantfit 7,597]

Yesterdays steps came to 11009,not bad considering only half day at work and the rest of the day in the garden cutting parts off the silver birch tree, todays steps came to 13654 mainly down to a trip to Hunstanton for a walk to Old Hunstanton and back to Hunstanton followed by a drive to Cromer for a good walk around there before driving back home and just doing a bit of gardening for an hour,

Well done to all the pedometerist you are just brilliant,carni definitely getting fitter (Tour de France just around the corner) and darkazana seems to be spurred on by the future house move ( a good walk from New York to Scrub Hill,onto Hawthorn Hill then Dogdyke,Coningsby upto Gibbit Nook and a return to New York,just a thought) Chulla still experimenting, on our behalf and no doubt getting fitter for it as well as keeping the brain cells upto speed

Keeeeeep stepping you're doing great

Rog

[darkazana 1,736]

Thanks for the walk tip, Rog, will look into that one. A visit to Hunstanton and you didn't call in to Sandringham Caravan Club to say hello....we really can't keep nearly meeting like this Rog

Contracts came today for our house sale so things should be moving soon....hopefully our things!!!

Office day today, but a bit of chasing up some members for pitch payments, and a spot of work on the Wildlife Haven, which included removing a dead pigeon which seemed to have got itself stuck in the insect hotel, (probably because it was too fat having eaten all my plants!!!!) has brought my total to 6392, so that will do for today.

[carni 10,094]

Some good totals between you, plantfit and darkazana. Well Done.

We have realised that the routes of our rides are slowly getting longer and taking the same lengh of time, which tells me we are speeding up. I have also found just recently that I am not having any of the aches and pains in my chest that I was experiencing when I first started to get back on my cycle. All of the changes for the better in me have taken place since starting our Ped Challenge. Today our cycle ride took us along the canals, and lanes, which I do enjoy being on solid ground sometimes.

The route today took us past Featherstone Prison. We decided that if there was anyone thumbing a lift, we wouldn't stop!

1hr 30mins 7mph= 5,859 + Pedometer 2,340 = 8,199. Happy with that. Keeeeeeeep Stepping all Pedometerists.

Good luck with the house moving darkazana. "Tour de France" Perhaps next year.

[plantfit 7,597]

Poor day today steps wise,only 9425, got up early enough (05.30) cooked breakfast for us and helped Mrs P clean up then took her to the gym at 09.00 till 11.30 while I was at home I dismantled the old pc that was in the bedroom and put it in the roofspace,put the old pc desk in the pickup truck ready for disposal in the works recycle bin,picked Mrs P up from gym and did her a bite to eat (poached eggs on granery toast with a sprinkle of sea salt and black pepper) nipped to the garden center in Southwell to get some bedding plants to brighten an already bright front garden,cut the grass at the back of the bungalow,polished my boots and shoes,sprayed weedkiller around the edge of the carpark and along the footpath,sat down now for a rest,should get some steps in tomorrow when back at work

Keeeeeep stepping pedometerist

Rog