Walking for Points or Pleasure

Last year I got an Apple Watch, and one of the features has got me thinking about whether I’m walking to score points with the watch or for pleasure.

The feature is a set of three rings that represent different things. One is to encourage you to stand, and by default it’s set to close the ring if you stand and move around a little for at least one minute during an hour, for 12 hours. Another ring tracks movement, though really it tracks how many calories you’ve burned by moving around, and by default it’s set to close after 200 calories.

The final ring is for exercise, and the watch wants you to get 30 minutes of exercise a day. You can change the default, or the value for a given day, for this or any of the rings. And the trick with the exercise ring is that it only counts an activity as exercise if you’re moving “at or above a brisk walk”. I’m not sure, but I think it determines if you’re moving “briskly” enough based on your heart rate.

Ever since I got my watch, I’ve been trying to close the rings daily, though I do sometimes adjust the defaults downward. It’s fun seeing the rings start to close, and the watch congratulates you when you close them. It will also nudge you if you haven’t closed your rings, making it feel like your watch is disappointed in you. I know an inanimate object isn’t actually judging me or having any emotions at all, but it’s hard not to project those feelings onto it.

As part of this, I’ve discovered that the more you improve your cardiovascular fitness, the more briskly you have to walk (or otherwise move) to get those exercise points. And therein lies a bit of a dilemma.

Walking for pleasure

I’ve been trying to get out for walks on more local trails recently. Some of them I know reasonably well, and some are new. Either way, I run into a couple of challenges getting those walks to register as “exercise” on my watch.

One reason is the uneven terrain. When I’m walking in places with lots of rocks and/or tree roots, I can’t go as quickly as I would on a flat, even surface. I have to pay attention to where I put my feet, or risk tripping and possibly falling. Going slower to avoid that means my heart rate is lower and I have fewer exercise minutes.

The other aspect is that when I’m walking somewhere new or especially scenic, I want to pause and look around. I might spot an interesting animal or plant, or find a great view or unusual angle for something, and I’ll want to stop and take a look. This also means fewer exercise minutes because it gives my heart rate a chance to slow down, and it takes a few minutes to work back to that “brisk” activity once I start moving again.

For example, I recently went for a 40-minute walk in the woods, but my watch only noted 25 of them as “exercise” minutes.

Walking for points

If I want to get as many exercise minutes as possible, I have to walk on the road or sidewalk, and go pretty quickly. This is easy enough to do in my local neighborhood, though as I recall from my fall almost two years ago, I still need to pay attention to where I’m walking. (I have thought about carrying a backpack with weights to increase the intensity of my walks in the woods, but on the warm days we’ve been having, that doesn’t sound the most pleasant or comfortable.)

Since I know the neighborhood pretty well, I don’t feel the need to stop and admire as much, and I can get up to a good pace. According to the Health app on my phone, I often go between 3.5 and 4 miles per hour, and that definitely gets me exercise points.

But I also know this wouldn’t combine well with a walk for pleasure or a walk where I’m having a conversation with someone, because then I’d be too distracted to keep up the pace.

Finding a balance

The key, as with so many things, seems to be finding a good balance. I want to go for some walks where I can simply enjoy myself and my surroundings without wondering whether it counts as exercise.

I also want to make sure my cardiovascular health is good and that I get in those exercise minutes at least some of the time.

So, I’ve been trying to do some of both. Some days I’ll go for more of a pleasure walk, and some for exercise. Or I’ll do a bit of both at the same time, like last week when I went to the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge. The trail is smooth enough to walk quickly, but it’s also very pretty.

View from the wildlife refuge

Since it’s short (1.1 miles), I went for a leisurely walk around it once, taking about 35 minutes, and then I went around again in about 18 minutes.

And on the days when I don’t get in as many exercise minutes, I don’t worry about it. Instead, I remind myself that there’s plenty more to life than what my watch tells me, and I want to enjoy all parts of it.