Another way (was) RE: [at-l] pedometers

[nealb@midlandstech.com (William Neal)]

In some catalogs and stores (mostly those that lean towards "military"
stuff), you can get a bead counter that "counts" your paces.  Yes, you have
to slide the beads down as you walk, but it is one way of keeping track of
how many steps that you have taken.  And, pedometers are basically doing the
same thing: You set the distance of your "pace" (step) and the pedometer
counts your steps in terms of mileage.  

Apparently (I haven't handled one personally) the beads are not so loose
that they slip down.  And they may even be like those "lock" beads on some
drawstrings.  Supposedly they were developed  by or in the Rangers.  And if
they use them for keeping track of distance, they must be pretty good.

>From what I've seen in the pictures, you slid down a bead and when you get
to the end of a row, you slid down a bead on the row above (kind of like a
rope abacus).  

Granted it is not precise, but neither is a pedometer.  And I have used less
precise methods (counting my steps in my mind or on my fingers) to figure
out distance walked.  But once you have a good "base" distance for your
pace, you won't be far off.  Some books give the info that the average
person (who's average?) walks 1,000 paces (double step) per mile (more or
less).  Your pace maybe more or less.  And getting "your" pace, to me, is
important for those shorter distances of say 100 yards, a quarter of a
mile....

I did several walks over several days and over different terrain with
"known" distances and got the average distance for single and for double
steps.  And it worked pretty good.  It kept me on the right track when I was
tempted to walk down what looked like the right trail.

William, The Slow Turtle

-----Original Message-----
From: Shane Steinkamp [mailto:shane@theplacewithnoname.com]
Sent: Monday, March 18, 2002 11:38 AM
To: Phil Heffington; AT- L Mailing List (E-mail)
Subject: RE: [at-l] pedometers


> Have any of you had any experience with using pedometers?

Several years ago I bought one.  It worked great on flat and level terrain.
As soon as there was any uneven terrain, it was all but worthless.
Fortunately, I lost it about six months after I got it.

Along the same topic, however, don't some GPS units keep track of distance
traveled?  That would be better than a pedometer, but I don't have any
experience with them.

Shane