Hope this is an acceptable post. I've seen posts before encouraging fitness as part of the prep work for the coming storm. Partially because of this, and partially because we're going on a beach vacation in September, I've been working on my fitness more intensely. Sorry this is a little long.

So I started with increased dog walking. Dogs were very happy with this, but the downside is doggos tend to get distracted with interesting scents along the way, and because the walk is supposed to be for them, I indulge them. But it breaks the stride and makes the time spent less effective for me.

I then started walking on my own in addition holding light weights (2-3lbs). We live on a gravel/dirt road that has moderate hills. About .7 miles in either direction to the first neighbors' driveway. Dog walks and my personal walks tended to be one round trip in either direction, so about a mile and a half. On a good day, I'd do both so would get roughly 2.8 miles of walking in, and I felt it.

I decided it might be more enjoyable for my solo walks to have some music and that's where part of the hack comes from. It occurred to me that marches are made for marching, so maybe that would help me walk. I was in marching band in HS and college, so I knew how music can help the distance be a little more tolerable and it's also likely why militaries have incorporated it for centuries, but I was never in control of the music. So I went to youtube and downloaded some marches - mostly military, Sousa, a few German ones (nobody does marching like the Germans). Turns out that marches have come so far from marching that the recorded tempos are typically way to fast to be useful. I did find one German march that was about right and conveniently repeated with 6 stanzas. For the first experiment, I just looped that constantly.

Downside is I now have fealty to Der Fatherland, but the upside is I was able to do a full loop in both directions - 2.8 miles total, double my normal walking distance in a single stretch. I was tired, but less so than when I did the 1.5 mile loop. So I was onto something.

Found a program called Audacity (I use linux, there are probably other similar apps) that lets me tweak the tempo without changing the pitch. Most of the mp3s I downloaded had to be slowed by 6-10%. Unfortunately, I haven't found software capable of giving a BPM calculation so I have an objective measure, so I'm still tweaking, but a couple of the MP3s are dead on now, at least for my body and my terrain.

So here's the hack. I'm sure I'm not the only one to figure this out, but there seems to be some sort of kinematic zone, around 60bpm based on some research this morning (or multiples thereof). Probably varies slightly by person and by terrain, and whether you hands are free (I walk holding 3lb weights). But, when you hit that zone, something amazing happens. You end up walking a full stride with complete arm swings and there's something magical and mechanical when you get it right, and the music sort of holds you in that zone without you having to think about it. I won't say it's effortless, but it feels like you could do it almost indefinitely. I just came back from a 2.8mi walk with enough tweaked tunes to get me into that zone for the entirety. I feel like I could go do another loop. It's really amazing to me.

I'm sure you don't have to use military marches - probably any music will do if you can get it adjusted to the right tempo for you. I hate to say it, but Rap/HipHop, if you're into that, might be a good candidate due to it's rythmic base.

This has made a huge (Yuge!) difference for me, enough that I felt it worth sharing. Getting into that zone is actually a slight high I look forward to every morning - would have never said that before about the idea of walking almost 3 miles. If you're looking for a way to improve your fitness, this may help you get over the hump. Hope it helps a Fren somewhere.