Knox Walks kickoff September 8

The Knoxville Track Club is sponsoring a fitness walking program starting September 8. They are looking for people to commit to one walk a week for seven weeks, culminating in an entry into the October 28 Crossknox 4 mile walk. Further information is available here.

This and other (hiking) events are listed at the Knoxville News Sentinel's Off the couch: Active options, Sept. 7 and beyond page.

Walking/Cycling for weight loss - calories burned

How many calories do people typically burn walking and cycling? How realistic can working these activities into our daily lives help people lose excess weight? I did a quick survey of an online guide to obtain some numbers.

Typical lengths of organized bike rides

For organized road cycling events, there are a series of typical distances that travel to complete them. Since cycling is generally considered an endurance event, a variety of distance choices are available for the rider, from beginner to advanced rider.

Typical ride distances (all approximate) are as follows:
8 mi/13 km - for fun and beginner rides
12 mi/19 km - longer beginner ride
20-25 mi/32-40 km - first "serious" distance ride distance; frequently used as a short ride to train for longer rides
35 mi/56 km - moderate distance ride
45 mi/72 km - longer distance ride
62.5 mi/100 km - the metric century Most people, with appropriate training, can ride such. Achieving such is nevertheless a personal milestone.
70 mi/112 km - slightly longer than a metric, for a bit of additional challenge
100 mi/160 km - the full century; quite a challenge, considered the longest typical 1-day endurance event
130 mi/200 km - the double metric
190 mi/300 km - the triple metric
200 mi/320 km - the double century

Getting and staying fit with help

(Photograph courtesy of Wikipedia: picture may be reproduced and modified provided that this copyright notice is included.) This tip from Realage.com points to the benefits of walking with a dog. Currently, 61% of dog owners walk their dogs regularly. When one has a dog that has to be walked, one gets one's exercise as the dog gets its exercise. Walking the dog is also a great treat for it, and people with dogs tend to become more physically active than those who don't.

Speaking of which, dogs can be walked in a variety of environments. Anywhere from an urban sidewalk to a suburban low-traffic neighborhood make good places to walk for exercise. Greenways are another popular option, although care needs to be taken to ensure that a leash is not too long or too thin. A leash that is too long can make the dog's path of travel unpredictable to passersby, and a leash that is too thin can be hard for other walkers and cyclists to see.

Bicycling and miminum wage - an interesting point

After writing the Knoxville News Sentinel about how one can spend significantly less money by replacing a fraction of trips by bike or foot, there was a very interesting reply by an astute reader. This reader points out two facts: first, that even with high gas prices, saving $2000 a year in gas means riding a whopping 13,700 miles, which is unrealistic. Second, that one would make more money working minimum wage ($7.25/hr) with the time one spends cycling, if we factor in the differences in travel time.

UnitedHealthcare - Half the Country to have diabetes or prediabetes by 2020

This report states that if current trends continue, half the United States population will have type 2 diabetes or prediabetes by the year 2020. Not only is such a life limiter, but it would also be a tremendous waste of money. In 2009, the average health-care cost of a diabetic person was $11,700 versus $4,400 for everyone else, and was $20,700 for diabetes with complications. The report notes that the overall monetary cost of the diabetes/prediabetes comes out to $3.35 trillion over ten years.

So, what do these facts have to do with biking and walking? Actually a lot. Often people with prediabetes can make their metabolism revert to healthy levels through increased physical activity, and the loss of excess weight. Walking and biking can be great ways to work in such physical activity, whether as part of an exercise routine or as part of everyday transportation. The construction of complete streets would make such a realistic option for more people, and isn't really so expensive when these health costs are considered. As mentioned previously on this blog, a representative once asked how many people are currently driving to a gym in order to ride a stationary bike?

Classes of bicycle facilities

Yesterday's blog post described the changes in Congress as well as how Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA-52) mentioned in an interview about how he felt cycling is more of a recreational rather than a transportation thing. (As a side note, this Rep. Hunter is the successor of long-term and probably better known Rep. Duncan Hunter.)

Yes, it is true that a good deal of cycling is done for recreational purposes. But a good deal of cycling is also done for transportation, due to its convenience and low price, in addition to the built-in exercise. One who rides for transportation gets a workout just by going where one was going anyway. A variety of facilities exist, and facilities can be classified into three classes.

Mini Adventure Series

A new addition to the Mini Adventure Series has just recently been released. The series, by Knoxville locals Elle Colquitt and Jon Livengood, provide a series of invigorating recreational bike rides. The first book of the series describes rides on the back roads of the Knoxville area, the second is for off road mountain bike trails throughout the state, and the third is on the back roads of the Chattanooga/north Georgia area. That book also has urban routes listed. Elevaton gains and distances are included along with cue sheets.

Girls who walk, bike to school do better in tests

It's just been reported that girls, but not boys, who walk or ride to school tend to do better in school. The reasons for these results are not entirely clear, and the study has quite a few limitations. Regardless, such is one more reason to support biking and walking, and the safe routes to schools program. Making it safe enough for students to bike and walk to school is good not only for health, but for academic performance as well.

On the topic of risk, it's notoriously difficult to estimate in an objective manner. The most extreme example is probably people being afraid to have their kids walk/ride to school due to a fear of stranger abduction. Such abductions happen, but are extremely rare. But because those few abductions receive much press, the fear of such gets exaggerated. On the other hand, benefits from increased socialization and improved health are less visible in the short run so parents have a tendency to opt out due to the former when they don't have all the facts.

Knoxville News Sentinel Editorial - Tennesseans can walk away from obesity

In an editorial Friday, the Knoxville News Sentinel noted that healthy lifestyles are not inherited, and that Tennessee ranks second in the nation (tied with Alabama) for obesity rates. A new free program by the Knoxville Track Club seeks to get people walking rather than running, meeting every Tuesday and Thursday evening at 6:30 PM at Cherokee Blvd. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee is also encouraging school walking programs.

The best walking cities

This article lists the 20 best walking cities in the USA, according to Prevention magazine. The list of cities is as follows.

New Virginia anti-cul-de-sac policy

This artcle from the Washington Post describes Virginia's new rule on cul-de-sacs; any new subdivision must have "through streets linking them with neighboring subdivisions, schools and shopping areas." The article goes into quite a bit of detail on the pros and cons of the cul-de-sac setup. Basically the pros are a quieter environment for those living on it, and possibly some increase in safety since anyone who's not from a neighborhood will look out of place within it. The cons are increased traffic, which leads to increased paving costs, not to mention the isolation and car dependence such setups foster. The increased traffic gets jammed onto arterial roads, which then become unsafe and/or gridlocked. In addition, they tend to isolate neighborhoods from each other, leading to a loss of a sense of community.

Chuck Anderton - Bike/Walk Commuter

There was an article in the August 2, 2010 edition of the Bearden West Side Shopper-News (online edition not available) about Chuck Anderton, who is an electrical engineer at KUB (Knoxville Utilities Board) in downtown Knoxville. He has "walked, run, or biked" to work for the past 42 years, and his last sick day was in 1981. His commute ranged from 1 to 7 miles each way, depending on where he lived. He bikes from April to September, where there is light both ways. The other days he tends to walk, even though it does take a while. Needless to say, he's a very healthy individual.

One of the big draws of urban living is being close to most of the things going on, and of having an easy, short commute. Interestingly, truly urban areas have bikes and cars move at roughly equal speeds which means that facilities such as bike lanes are unneeded in such areas. For instance, Gay St in downtown Knoxville is considered one of the finest places to ride.

Walk Your Way to Nicer Teeth - Realage article

A recent realage article located here suggests that those who are active walking tend to not only have better cardiovascular health, but also better dental health. The cause may be that active walkers have less inflammation, which leads to healthier teeth.

As mentioned previously, walking is an excellent way to travel short distances. It does not require any special equipment, and can be very relaxing. Designing streets so that they are easily walkable would go a long way toward encouraging this most basic form of transport.

Reasons to support biking and walking for almost all political philosophies

With the recent article claiming that (paraphrasing) cyclists are part of a communist plot to turn the country into a third world country, I thought I would list the reasons why it makes sense from a variety of political sides to support cycling and walking. Sure, that article was extreme, but more moderate variants of such are not unheard of.

Correlations between obesity and driving, and others

GOOD Magazine recently published a table ranking all 50 states and Washington DC in terms of actual levels of driving, walking, cycling, mass transit usage, and levels of obesity. From their table, I plotted all 10 possible correlations of the variables with each other. Note that the driving rank and obesity rank is opposite that of the other things; i.e. a driving rank of 1 means little driving, while a walking rank of 1 means lots of walking. An obesity rank of 1 means low levels of obesity (in this data, Colorado). Our state is indicated with the extra large marker in these plots.

The strongest correlation is between walking and driving, and is depicted here. The more people drive, the less people walk.

West Knox couple transform health with gradual changes

Just saw an article at knoxnews.com that can be found here.


To summarize, this former couch potato couple started to seriously walk and made their diets healthier. They made a point of walking 10,000 steps every day. The husband no longer needed a knee replacement, and was able to get rid of the blood pressure medication, while halving the cholesterol medication.

10,000 steps is around five miles. For most people dedicating an hour and forty minutes (assuming a walking speed of 3 mi/hr) every day to walking isn't practical; however, the 10,000 steps can include ordinary activities, making it much more manageable. A pedometer was suggested as a way to track the number of steps taken.

For short trips, walking is an eminently feasible way to get around, not to mention being relaxing and healthy. The construction of sidewalks around busier streets can greatly encourage this most basic form of transportation.