Health & Medicine

This week marks the beginning of BC's annual Rec Walk Across Campus. The idea is, you're supposed to wear a pedometer for a month and record your daily steps taken. The top ten finishers win a prize.

I've always thought that this would be a fun undertaking in the past but I've been extremely disappointed with the performance of those belt-clip pedos. One year, I purchased one. For $19.95, you get something that "kinda-sorta works." Sometimes. But not so with this great Android app, Accupedo. It is extremely accurate, runs in the background and is free for the "lite" version or just $3.99 for the full-featured version.

So far, I think I'm off to a great start. It didn't look too promising after I messed up my lower back the week before but I'm 98 percent recovered I think. Monday, I not only resumed my walking commute, but I also walked to and from Harvard Square to visit with my good friend, Bob. On Monday alone, I logged 25,160 steps for a total of 11.9 miles. Yesterday (Tuesday) was a more typical day. My regular commute, along with a few trips across campus brought me to 14,167 steps for 6.7 miles.

I'm thinking that I have a reasonably good shot at finishing in the top 10 or 20 in the Rec Walk, unless of course, there's a lot of participants out there who get up every morning and jog for 10 miles before coming to work. <grin>