Comparing a tough run to an easy walk (again!)

Like a lot of people I wouldn't say that I actually enjoy running, but I do enjoy knowing that I CAN do it. When I hear about people saying the "love running" I start to think they are a bit nuts. It's punishing but it's kind of like saying that you love lifting weights. I don't think there are many people that actually would, if there were no side effects such as muscle gain and cardio benefits, that would CHOOSE to go running or life weights rather than something glutinous like partying with friends or going to the movies.

But i don't hate running and I do it for the health benefits. I do enjoy seeing progress as far as my endurance is concerned and that is something that is very real.

Something that I do almost every time that I run though is to have a cooldown phase where I will just walk, or maybe intermittent jog and walk several kilometers after I have already done my 5k that at least by my own standards, is pretty intense.

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The other day I did a rather intense run by my standards where I broke the 7 min per km pace that I have been working towards for so long.

While this is child's play to a lot of people, it is really tough for me. Let's break down the caloric burn of it

423 / 34 minutes = 12.44 calories per minute

Then we look at the walk that I did immediately after it and while there will be some overlap of my heart rate being artificially high because I literally just finished pushing myself and we get these figures.

So we have 279 / 27 = 10.3 cal/min

This is all kind of frustrating when I think about it too much and it also adds a lot of credibility to the stuff you see online about how walking is just as good of a caloric burn as running is. That's not even a 20% difference in burn, but a MUCH MUCH higher amount of effort output on my part.

Of course we have to look at things like my sportwatch not exactly being NASA-grade technology not to mention that working your heart harder is going to have better long-term benefits than a casual increase that you could accomplish just by walking to the fridge and back.

I keep telling myself that i will go on a long walk some days but I am the kind of person that once I start that walk, provided I have appropriate footwear on, I am going to get bored and break into a run anyway.

There is no real point here other than to say that I do kind of like that we can test these things on our own using relatively inexpensive technology.

I think that today, since I did a mini-triathlon yesterday (more on that later) I am going to legit go on a very long walk. To ensure that I do just walk I am going to only bring flip flops with me. I'm not running in those.