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Since you can clock your miles any way you want this month (biking, swimming, running, tennis, dancing, etc.), how are you going to track your distance? Here are some suggestions:

1. If you are running or walking and don’t have a fitness watch or a pedometer, no worries! At “average” walking speed, you’ll walk 1 mile in 15-20 minutes. If you know only the time you walked, consider your pace (fast/average/relaxed) and use this chart to approximate your distance. Remember the route you took? Use Google maps or a similar program to map it out when you get home.
2. What if you are not running, walking or hiking? If you’re on your feet, your pedometer or fitness watch should still work well. When you play a field sport, tennis, or dance around your kitchen, your pedometer should still approximately track your steps. You can then use this tool to turn steps into miles, taking into account your height.
3. What about when you are on the court or the field for soccer or basketball? You may have to approximate, but here are a few benchmarks you can use, based on the average number of miles in the average game.
   • Basketball – 3 miles in sub-elite leagues
   • Soccer – 5 miles in a 90-minute outdoor game
   • Tennis – 3 miles in a competitive setting
   • Football – 1.25 miles
   • Racquetball- ¾ mile per 20-minute game

Note that the distanced traveled depends on how long your game lasts and how actively you are participating, among others. If you aren’t playing a full game, no problem – just keep track of minutes played and convert to miles using this chart. For example, at an easy pace, the time to log 1 mile in basketball is 20 minutes, in volleyball 20 minutes, etc.

These are not perfect estimates, but are intended to give you ideas on how to determine your miles. Don’t sweat the details of tracking – the important thing is to sweat during your activities and have fun. Pick a system that works for you and stick with it.

4. What about dancing? Dancing is a great option for exercise: a fun, effective, full-body workout, that will help you rack up some mileage! A cool playlist keeps you motivated to groove along to one more song. By one estimate, 30 minutes of fast or social dancing is roughly equivalent to one mile.
5. What about swimming? Swimming is a fantastic full-body exercise. Don’t be discouraged that you won’t technically get as many miles in per hour compared to running – you’re getting a great workout. Count your laps and multiply by the length of your lap to get the total distance – try an online calculator. If you tend to lose track of your laps, or you’re not swimming in a pool, just track your minutes. An amateur swimmer may take 25 (experienced) to 45 minutes (beginners) to swim 1 mile. If you know your usual swimming pace (such as 1:50 per 100 yards), you can compute your distance using this calculator.

However you choose to track it…..whatever activity you choose to do….Go the Distance! And tell the group about your progress!

Click here to learn about how you can Go the Distance.