After a busy day of coaching, I often get home feeling pretty tired. It’s hard work. And I’m not getting any younger.
That said, I am probably fitter than I was before I started coaching regularly in 2014 (as evidenced by being able to fit into a pair of walking trousers that I had “out-grown” nearly 10 years ago!).
So I was interested to see just how much exercise I was getting.
When Opening Up Cricket announced a campaign to encourage people to walk 10,000 steps a day to boost mental and physical health, I saw an opportunity to monitor my overall activity, at work and generally.
So, armed with a new fitness tracker, I have been recording my activity every day, coaching, commuting and recreational.
In January, I averaged over 100,000 steps each week, with more than 10,000 steps almost every day except Sundays (a day off from coaching, this winter).
The peak days each week are Tuesdays — 2 hours coaching in the morning, 4 more in the afternoon, with a significant “commute”; I also try to fit in 30 minutes bowling, if I can (but see below for a caveat on the recording of any bowling stats).
Coaching contributes just 14,000 of these steps each week — an average of ca. 1,300 steps/hour, although some sessions (especially with the younger groups) can be quite a bit busier.
I travel to and from coaching assignments by public transport — even if I had a car, it wouldn’t be much quicker, given that so much of my work is in town, where parking is difficult — so there is a lot of walking in between coaching.
But perhaps too much.
I intend to keep tracking activity over the spring term, and into the summer, maybe even wearing the tracker when I am playing. I would expect that the weekly stats should stay fairly consistent to the end of the spring term — I have “cheated” a couple of times this month to hit the “10k-a-day” target, walking a mile or so when I might normally have caught a bus, but I would expect my overall activity levels to stay around the same.
The stats recorded for bowling sessions look exaggerated, and possibly should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Typically, I bowl for 30 minutes; perhaps 40-50 deliveries in that time, off a short (6-pace) run, retrieving balls every over or so (depending on how many balls I can get my hands on).
That looks as if it might be around 1,350 steps: distance run/walked bowling & retrieving balls each over multiplied by the number of overs bowled.
([deliveries per over]x[steps in run-up plus follow-through]x2{run-up + return to bowling mark} + [steps to retrieve balls and back between “overs”], all multiplied by the number of overs bowled.
((6x10x2)+(2×25))x8 = 1,360 steps
The movement tracker records 2,700 steps per 30 minute bowling session. Possibly skewed by wearing the tracker on my non-bowling arm? Or by un-noticed skips, jumps and trips in the run up?
The steps recorded for walking outside coaching activities appear to be more much credible, and certainly within +/- 10% of the stats returned by pedometers downloaded to my phone.
The Teesra 