Walk speeds. How do you judge?

ashdred
ashdred Posts: 95 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Just curious...how does one measure how fast they're walking without some sort of device? Is 2.0 a stroll? Is 3.5 that..."I'm really late to work" fast paced walk? Do you compare your walk speeds to anything? I see 3.0mph is listed as "walking the dog." Too bad I don't have one of those. :laugh:

Replies

  • wa_tracy
    wa_tracy Posts: 110 Member
    Maybe drive the route you walk to see how many miles it is and then time your work to figure out your miles per hour? A lot of pedometers, for a little bit extra, can calculate miles as well and they are way cheaper than a heart rate monitor. I use my smart phone and a free app like RunKeeper to help me figure this out when I'm just walking. Not sure if you have a smart phone or not.
  • supplemama
    supplemama Posts: 1,956 Member
    You can always measure by distance; by how long it took you to walk a mile. Pick a location a mile from your house and walk it. If you walked it in 15 minutes, you walked at a speed of 4mph. If you walked it in 20 minutes, you walked at a speed of 3mph. If you did it in 12 minutes, you walked at a speed of 5mph.

    However long it took you to walk one mile, take 60 minutes (1 hour) and divide it by that number.
  • lifescircle
    lifescircle Posts: 108
    Yeah. I use runkkeper app as well.

    You can also use something to map out a route and then judge your speed by the time it takes you to do it. I use mapmyrun.com to do routes.
  • Moriarty_697
    Moriarty_697 Posts: 226 Member
    Take a watch or stopwatch and time your walk. Then, when you get home, map it using a website like mapmywalk.com. Input the time of the workout and the website will give you your speed. That's probably the easiest way.
  • emmoen1
    emmoen1 Posts: 86 Member
    I use a phone app called MapMyRun
  • SueD66
    SueD66 Posts: 405 Member
    You can always measure by distance; by how long it took you to walk a mile. Pick a location a mile from your house and walk it. If you walked it in 15 minutes, you walked at a speed of 4mph. If you walked it in 20 minutes, you walked at a speed of 3mph. If you did it in 12 minutes, you walked at a speed of 5mph.

    However long it took you to walk one mile, take 60 minutes (1 hour) and divide it by that number.

    this is how i do it too
  • racerscottw227
    racerscottw227 Posts: 71
    Yup, measure the distance (google maps is good for that) and then divide it by the time it took you to cover that difference. I usually just estimate that I'm walking around 3mi/hr and then divide the distance by 3 to get the time it took so I can enter that into MFP.

    Another good estimation is that 1 mile equals around 100 calories. This varies depending on your weight, speed you walked/jogged, and the incline of the route, but it will work in a pinch.
  • opuntia
    opuntia Posts: 860 Member
    I work it out by having often walked four miles to work - I have come to know the speed I need to walk at to get there in an hour, or in an hour and twenty minutes. Fast walking if I do it in an hour (4 mph), and slow walking if I do it in an hour and twenty minutes (3mph) and medium walking if it's somewhere in the middle (3.5 mph).
  • ashdred
    ashdred Posts: 95 Member
    You guys are soooooooo helpful! Thanks a bunch!! I used map my route (I walk around my job's building on my break) and the calculation. I walked a mile in 3.0mph. Not too shabby for a beginner. Thanks guys and gals!!!
  • madmickie
    madmickie Posts: 221 Member
    Speed = distance/time eg 3miles/1 hour = 3miles an hour

    Distance = Time * speed eg 2 hour at 3mph = 6 miles

    Time = distance/speed eg 1mile/3mph = 1/3 hour or 20 minutes.

    Time is easy - you have a watch right? Distance - drive it, GPS, google maps, pre-measured course, track. Once you have Time and Distance then you work out speed.

    oh then there's PACE. that is how fast you do a fixed distance. For example 3 miles an hour is 20 min mile pace, 4 miles an hour is 15 min mile pace.

    easy!
  • Gapwedge01
    Gapwedge01 Posts: 494
    You can always measure by distance; by how long it took you to walk a mile. Pick a location a mile from your house and walk it. If you walked it in 15 minutes, you walked at a speed of 4mph. If you walked it in 20 minutes, you walked at a speed of 3mph. If you did it in 12 minutes, you walked at a speed of 5mph.

    However long it took you to walk one mile, take 60 minutes (1 hour) and divide it by that number.

    this is how i do it too

    The only problem with that is your pace will change as you walk longer distances and especially if those distances include any hills. If you don't have a smart phone use a pedometer. It will record your miles. Put you time down in hours. I.e. 90 minutes is 1.5 hours. Divide your total miles by your total hours. 4 miles / 1.5 hours = 2.67 mph pace.

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