Postcards From Across the Pond

My wife and I have decided to through-hike* the Appalachian Trail.

*Through-hike means to do all 2,174 miles in one go.

Don’t worry, we’re not about to rush off to the east coast of the US to carry £12,769 worth of hiking gear over two-thousand miles, from Georgia to Maine, over the next six to seven months. We really can’t afford to do that and, besides, it sounds dreadfully uncomfortable. No, we’re going to do this in the comfort of our own locality.

For over a decade now, we have been using pedometers. I don’t know why or how this started, but since June 2011, we have been continually carrying something around with us to count our steps. It was low-tech at first—just a gadget kept in a pocket to record the number of steps we took each day—but over the years, the gadgets became more sophisticated until, seven years ago, we bought Vivofit Activity Trackers.

Vivofits are the Android man’s iWatch, and in addition to telling the time and date, they can track walking, running, cycling, and swimming, while also monitoring your sleep, weight, calories, and hydration.

But mostly I just record the number of steps I take each day so I can make sure I’ve done my hallowed (though recently derided) ten-thousand steps a day.

(SIDE NOTE: According to medical research, walking 10,000 steps a day appears to be linked to less dementia and less cardiovascular disease overall, with less heart disease, less heart failure and fewer strokes, and may significantly reduce your risk of 13 types of cancer. On the other hand, it has been otherwise noted that it comes from a Japanese marketing campaign that wasn’t based on science.)

(SIDE NOTE TO SIDE NOTE: I’m no doctor, but walking 10,000 steps a day certainly sounds healthier than sitting on the sofa watching Homes Under the Hammer all afternoon.)

Anyway, for years I have been recording my steps, and leaving it at that. It’s become such a habit now that I cannot imagine not doing it. On the other hand, it is getting a bit boring.

Then I noticed my wife occasionally exclaiming, “Oh, I’ve got another award,” or “Almost at my goal,” while checking the Vivofit app on her phone. After querying her, I learned that, in areas of the app I couldn’t be arsed to investigate, the Vivofit designers had included a raft of diversions aimed at making the robotic recording of your daily steps more interesting. You could, for example, climb Mt Kilimanjaro, hike the Pennine trail, walk the rim of the Grand Canyon, or join an expedition to the top of Mt Everest. The longest of the challenges was The Appalachian Trail, so naturally we opted for that. We started it last Saturday, and it has not gone well for me.

Since we go most places together and generally maintain a similar steps-per-day rate, I expected we’d be walking the imaginary trail side by side. The next day, on a trip to London, we ended up accruing an impressive 20,000 steps and I was (sadly) excited to see how far that would push us along the trail. When we synced up with our phones, however, my daily total came back as a big fat zero.

WTF!!!!

In the seven years I have had a Vivofit, this has never happened. So, for it to happen at all was surprising, but to happen on a day when I had done twice my daily total, and at the beginning of an ambitious challenge was (again, sadly) heartbreaking.

My wife’s progress ————————– My progress

So now, my wife is enjoying virtual views of the Appalachian Mountains, while I’m stuck in the visitor’s centre.

The imaginary view my wife is seeing.

What I’m seeing.

The only way I can think to rectify this situation is to somehow gain my stolen 20k steps back. Perhaps I could wrap the Vivofit in a towel and run it through the drier. That should clock up a fair number of fake steps. And who knows, I might even overtake my wife.