Measuring your stride

luckat

Hi - I'm setting up an Omron pedometer, and it says to measure your stride by taking 10 strides and then measuring the distance and dividing by 10.

But there's about a metre difference in the distance I go taking 10 hearty strides as when outdoors and 10 little ladylike minces in the indoor walking manner.

Those who've done it before - which measure should I use?

luckat

Looked it up online, and there's another method, which is to measure your height and then divide it by .413 for women or .415 for men.

According to this, my stride length is 37 centimetres; according to the other method it's 55cm (ladylike) or 62cm (striding).

Ack!

Hanley

luckat wrote: »

Looked it up online, and there's another method, which is to measure your height and then divide it by .413 for women or .415 for men.

According to this, my stride length is 37 centimetres; according to the other method it's 55cm (ladylike) or 62cm (striding).

Ack!

I can only guess it's easily skewed by leg length. I'm the same height as my girlfriend, but her legs are a good 3 inches longer than mine. We certainly don't have same or even remotely similar strides.

luckat

No, my legs aren't long; I'm fairly duck-arsed. Maybe I just walk like Groucho Marx.

thirtyfoot

I don't think pedometers are a good way to measure distance. Weather, speed, terrain, fatigue will not be taken into account. Have you tried mapmyrun.com on the urban roads or parks or the old school drive the route with the car.

Maybe just go out 200m and run at the speed you think you will be running and get your average based on that.

luckat

Run? Me? I don't think so!

Actually I'm curious about distances walked generally - how long are those huge walks through airports and Tube stations, for instance.

The Omron Walking Style Pro, the gadget I'm trying to set up, has a really terrible manual. I'm trying to set the hour, and all it'll do is go '4 days before, 5 days before', etc. Days before what? And I can't see how to put my weight in either, or the step length.

Why do companies that make electronics not realise that the manual, as the user's first real contact with the company, wins or loses future sales for them? Manufacturers are so arrogant about the need to have a good, customer-friendly manual.

thirtyfoot

luckat wrote: »

Actually I'm curious about distances walked generally - how long are those huge walks through airports and Tube stations, for instance.

.

Those golf carts in the airports probably have odometers, next time you are on it maybe ask the driver to zero it out and it'll give you a good indication. Couldn't even guess how long those airport/tube walks are, I've never been able to finish one but I'd imagine they are up to 2km long, aka The Death Zone.

I love the name Omron Walking Style Pro though. They are hardcore, I've seen a few in my day on those ladies on the ringroads and bypasses around the country, but unless you are serious into your powerwalking they are not to be messed with as I heard they give you shin splints.

luckat

Apparently I could have bought it for half the price from Fleming in Limerick, damn, damn, damn. I searched Google for "omron ireland" and it came up with a Cork company selling hospital-type stuff.

Apparently if I'd added 'medical' to the search, it would have found Fleming. Medical???

I now have it set up, to some extent, but I don't think the stride length can be right, because a brisk walk with the dog had no 'aerobic steps' showing, and a friend I normally walk with, who has severely compromised lungs, usually has all except five aerobic steps.

The manual is truly bad. I think that the Omron Walkingstyle Pro that I got may be an earlier version - the latest seems to be the Omron Walkingstyle II Pro. There was my star predominant.

Reyman

luckat wrote: »

Run? Me? I don't think so!

Actually I'm curious about distances walked generally - how long are those huge walks through airports and Tube stations, for instance.

I believe the 'new' terminal out in Dublin airport is a mere 0.5 mile walk to the plane