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The Evening Walk

joel.is

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Re: The Evening Walk

#11

Post by jmcdonald-ut »

Before I was studying CS I worked in a call center for customer support (I now have an internship, thank God). People are relentless thanks to the anonymous nature of the phone. I learned pretty quickly that if I took a walk on my breaks* that my mood would always improve.

To this day I now walk to school and work, and I like to think it's helped make me more creative and introspective. As always, I know that it helps keep my mood up. I really urge people to try to get outside and walk around a bit daily, it works wonders!

Re: The Evening Walk

#12

Post by Xylakant »

erik757 wrote: post #7

I got a dog largely because I wanted an excuse to go on long, mind-clearing walks for no reason. It's worked out really well. (Note that you should probably already want a dog if you're going this route - I did).

Did the same and it's working out quite well. Still, having a dog implies more responsibilities than just a walk in the evening.

Re: The Evening Walk

#13

Post by yareally »

Cherian_Abraham wrote: post #6

I blog and whenever I hit a lull, I find that a walk or run is what gets me back on track. The chaos in a normal work week, the number of meetings, the constant context-switching all leads to little chance of forming coherent string of thoughts that can be used to construct a blog post. Walks and runs also help in uncovering new ways to look at things, asking new questions that previously lay just beneath the surface…

Walking or running definitely helps to take your mind off of things long enough for it to realign itself on track. Semi related, but it also peaked my curiosity for nature and I started taking more note of different species I would see while walking or running, such as birds, insects and mammals.

Now, I end up walking partially because I'm always looking forward to what surprise I might see while doing it. Granted, not everyone has access to parks or land farther outside of a city, but when you do, there's lots of small details one misses out on if not looking for them (either up in the trees or near the ground). I still walk and run to refresh my brain, but it also spurred my interest in learning something new at the same time. As a side effect, I end up googling all those random things I run across, so beware of that if one wants to avoid time killers.

Re: The Evening Walk

#14

Post by mfincham »

I wrote this random walk generator a while ago:

http://hotplate.co.nz/files/walk/

I should publish the code properly at some point, but it's all client side and not very complex, so if anyone wants to run their own local copy that is fine by me.

Accuracy or usefulness not guaranteed but it works well for the suburb where I live :)

I'd like to add a loop generator (find the endpoint, plot another random path back) but for the time being it assumes you walk to a place then walk directly back.

You can also specify the starting address in the URL, for making bookmarks or shortcuts for different starting addresses, e.g:

http://hotplate.co.nz/files/walk/#location=foo

To automatically plot a route from "foo".

Re: The Evening Walk

#15

Post by trumbitta2 »

rytis wrote: post #4

Cycle to work, if at all possible. For me it's an hour each way, but apart from the obvious health benefit it also serves as some sort of day markers. In the morning it's really good way to get you up to speed (increase heart rate, get some extra oxygen in), and in the evening it's perfect to finish and leave all the "work stuff" behind. Added bonus - money saved on public transport, and no gym subscription required.

How do you manage the sweat from a 1hr long bike ride?

Re: The Evening Walk

#16

Post by pmccool »

trumbitta2 wrote: post #15
rytis wrote: post #4

Cycle to work, if at all possible. For me it's an hour each way, but apart from the obvious health benefit it also serves as some sort of day markers. In the morning it's really good way to get you up to speed (increase heart rate, get some extra oxygen in), and in the evening it's perfect to finish and leave all the "work stuff" behind. Added bonus - money saved on public transport, and no gym subscription required.

How do you manage the sweat from a 1hr long bike ride?

IME most workplaces have showers. It pays to ask; they can be well-hidden. Failing that, ride at an easy pace in the morning, wear breathable clothes etc. Cycling needn't be any harder than walking (unless you have huge hills or something).

Re: The Evening Walk

#17

Post by NamTaf »

trumbitta2 wrote: post #15
rytis wrote: post #4

Cycle to work, if at all possible. For me it's an hour each way, but apart from the obvious health benefit it also serves as some sort of day markers. In the morning it's really good way to get you up to speed (increase heart rate, get some extra oxygen in), and in the evening it's perfect to finish and leave all the "work stuff" behind. Added bonus - money saved on public transport, and no gym subscription required.

How do you manage the sweat from a 1hr long bike ride?

Many companies here (though I guess I only really know larger corporations) ensure there's adequate shower facilities for washing down and changing in to business attire before work. In my new office's case, the office catering supplies fresh towels that you just throw in a bin after using and they look after it all.

We can also leave our details with someone here and they'll arrange for a bike service to be performed during the work day.

I've noticed a recent up-tick in companies (especially engineering firms - one of them sponsors the major cycling event in this country) embracing cycling as an activity and mode of transport. It's really good to see.

Re: The Evening Walk

#18

Post by veidr »

trumbitta2 wrote: post #15
rytis wrote: post #4

Cycle to work, if at all possible. For me it's an hour each way, but apart from the obvious health benefit it also serves as some sort of day markers. In the morning it's really good way to get you up to speed (increase heart rate, get some extra oxygen in), and in the evening it's perfect to finish and leave all the "work stuff" behind. Added bonus - money saved on public transport, and no gym subscription required.

How do you manage the sweat from a 1hr long bike ride?

I bike to work in Japan, where we still have lame archaic office dress code requirements (the best I can do is Brooks Brothers chino pants and a tucked-in open-collar dress shirt with a belt).

It's an uphill ride to work, so I bought a mountain bike with one of those electric assist motors to help with the sweat thing. It makes riding up a moderate hill no more taxing than riding a regular bike on flat ground.

I thought it would be kinda lame for regular bike purposes, but it actually works out well. The law here says the motor has to cut out at 25kph (16mph). And when that happens, because it is really heavy with the huge battery and motor, it becomes extremely taxing to coax any more speed out of it. But riding around at max speed feels still gets my breathing and pulse up.

So the upshot is that I still get a lot of moderate exercise from the bike, and I can locomote around Tokyo at a pretty much constant 25kph, using either the road or the sidewalk depending on traffic/pedestrian conditions.

And, because I can take a pretty direct route to work, I get there in half the time it takes on the subway.

Re: The Evening Walk

#19

Post by n0cturne »

mfincham wrote: post #14

I wrote this random walk generator a while ago: http://hotplate.co.nz/files/walk/ I should publish the code properly at some point, but it's all client side and not very complex, so if anyone wants to run their own local copy that is fine by me. Accuracy or usefulness not guaranteed but it works well for the suburb where I live :) I'd like to add a loop generator (find the endpoint, plot another random path back) but…

Nice tool! I can see myself using this to plot new walks around the city.

But this walk from downtown Seattle is priceless :-) https://www.dropbox.com/s/a7z4aybpv6kjldx/Screen%20Shot%2020...

Walk to the ferry terminal, board the ferry, jump off midway across!

Re: The Evening Walk

#20

Post by swah »

xijuan wrote: post #10

I like to go running at night. The night is so beautiful and peaceful. It allows me to reflect upon many things.

On the streets? Where I run, its too dark at night, but the temperature is perfect.
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