Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The Virtual Walk

I talked the other day about a virtual hike, and a few of us are taking the idea and running with it. Or walking with it. We've started a group blog at Walking to Somewhere. I believe EJ and Jean have expressed interest...if you (whether you are they or you are someone else!) want to get in on this, hop on over and leave a comment. If we already know you, we'll just need whatever information Blogger needs to add your name to the list of folks who can post there. If we don't already know you, or you aren't sure we do, please email me at valerierco AT yahoo DOT ca with Virtual Walk in the subject line and give me a heads-up who you are.

We're still talking about *where* we'll walk. We're wondering if the Appalachian Trail might be too big a bite for the first round! :P Maybe try the West Coast Trail? Google it... Suggestions welcome!

If you want to participate, you'll need walking shoes and a pedometer. Mark out a walking route with your vehicle so you know the exact distance it is, then walk it and let the pedometer count the steps. Figure out how many of your steps makes a mile. If you don't have a pedometer (though they're fairly cheap, really...) you'll be more tied to the same route that you've measured out with the vehicle. I plan on counting my steps all day long, not only *the walk* part of it. At the moment, my walk is about 5000-5500 steps and the rest of my day is less than 1000, on average. I haven't figured out the miles that is yet. Too much snow to haul the car out! :P

I'm also thinking of buying Mar's progress bar thingie from Holly Lisle's shop and tucking it in the sidebar at the walking blog, so I can update my mileage there visibly. You don't have to, but you can.

(I'm hoping to make this really a part of my everyday life for years to come. I wish I could sit in a rocking chair and rot, but I'd get too fat rotting so this is it.)

Any other ideas? Considerations? Post them here or over there!

8 comments:

Bonnie said...

I'm not going to start with the pedometer -- I have only a limited number of loops from the house and I already know how long they are. Come spring when more routes become available, I might change my mind.

Valerie Comer said...

Fair enough, so long as you're confident of your length!

Jean said...

I'm in. I'll usually be counting all steps -- my pedometer is pretty well calibrated to my walk.

Just a note, the progress bar and Blogger are incompatible (go figure), but you could always to to Wordpress.com and get a free WordPress blog there. The progress bar will work.

Off to check routes and the new home.

Margaret M. Fisk said...

Umm, I'm in.

And Jean? You'll have to explain that to me. WordPress lets you run PHP programs on their hosted blogs?

Val can put the PHP program on her website (assuming it meets the specs) and just link to the image the way you link to any picture. Not sure what you mean by incompatible...

Jean said...

Ok. The limitation was a place on line to store the file not Blogger itself?

WordPress says you get 3G of storage with your free blog. I figured, perhaps incorrectly, that you'd be able to do plug-in and all that other neat stuff as well.

Jean said...

They don't?

And the limitation with Blogger is only whether your have server space somewhere to link to? Oops. I got that wrong.

Valerie Comer said...

I certainly don't mind hosting a PHP, so long as someone tells me how to do it! Or any of us with a website can do it, I think. Is that what you mean, Mar? It just can't be hosted on Blogger itself?

Valerie Comer said...

Any other discussion on this topic should be posted over on Walking to Somewhere. See you there!