Am I there yet?

As my regular readers know(and my stats suggest there must be some of you) I try to walk a couple times a week for my health (physical and mental). One morning a week I usually get off the bus part of the way to work and walk the rest of the way. However I have been mystified by the distance recorded on my pedometer and how this compares to the time it takes me to walk.

So I decided that I needed to know exactly how far it was. I did consider finding a paper map and measuring the route with a piece of string, but I decided to try the Internet first. This lead me to discover an amazing site http://www.mapmyrun.com/ There is also a .co.uk version of the site but it doesn't seem to have quite the scope of the .com for some reason.

Basicallly you draw a line showing the route of your run (and you can add points of interest) the site will then calculate all kind things including the distance. The run can be stored against your profile (useful should you decide to make use of the training log). You can also search for runs other people have entered.

As it turned out my pedometer is not measuring the distance correctly. What's more puzzling is that it appears to be doing fine on my Saturday walk. Still with this new site I won't need to worry too much about using the pedometer to calculate my distance. Which also means I won't be buying a new pedometer every couple of years.

On the subject of exercise I see I haven't yet mentioned the amazing Pilates class I'm taking on Monday lunchtimes. Prior to this my only experience with pilates was trying an video version of it with a friend aged around 13. We got bored after 3 minutes. So either I've matured, require less demanding exercise or it's just the amazing instructor because I'm really enjoying the classes and I feel fabulous after.

However I've had to jiggle my exercise routine around a bit as a result. It would appear the Pilates and Yoga use the same muscles. Hence Yoga on Tuesday lunchtimes was a teeny bit painful. So I 've shifted my morning walk to Tuesday and Yoga to Wednesday and that means I can sit in the park and eat my lunch today.