For the past several weeks I have been attempting to prove that running a certain distance and walking that same distance, burns the same amount of calories.
I am doing this because I read and article not that long ago that stated that this is the case for most people but I didn't believe it. Therefore I have been doing a certain distance using a variety of approaches such as running the entire distance, doing a sort of interval training on the same distance, or even walking most of that distance. For the most part it does seem to be true that 1km walk burns around the same amount of calories as a 1km run in the same area. Every now and then though, I get some post-run/walk data that defies all data that I have gotten previously.
Since science is never settled, I keep fiddling with it just to see what happens. I am not trying to prove anything for the whole world in some sort of undeniable scholarly way, just with myself. Everyone is built differently so I would expect people to get different results in their own life
Keep in mind that I am using a $120 smart-watch for data collection so this wasn't ever going to be super-accurate data since it is likely simply an equation based on my heart rate multiplied in some way with the body weight that I provide for the app.
src
Another thing to consider is weather factors. It has started to get significantly cooler where I am and has also been rainy. This is a strong motivator for me to keep moving because even though I get hot still, if I walk for too long I start to get cold. I will soon need to break out the winter run gear, but it isn't that time just yet.
On this particular day my only real objective was to remain in zone 3 or below as far as my heart rate is concerned. If I stepped over into zone 4 this is ok, but I didn't want to go very far into it and would constantly monitor it as I was going along. I also wanted to maintain a certain pace for the first 5k and never slow to a walk until after I had done 5k completely.
This is actually easier said than done because my heart rate gets pretty high, higher than most people's, so at times I found it difficult to find a stride that was much faster than a power walk. I have determined that around 7 and half minutes per km, this is my "sweet spot" as far as heart rate in zone 3 or early zone 4 is concerned over long distances.
You can see here that although I do spend most of my time in zone 4 instead of 3 like I had planned, I am only BARELY over the threshold so this is fine. One of the reasons why I try to keep the heart rate low isn't just because of the data collection, but also because if I remain out of zone 4 the exercise never really feels very intense and this is important to me because I strive to get exercise that I don't hate. If I don't hate it, I am more likely to do it again in the future.
The first 5k I maintained just like I said I was going to but in the 2nd 5k I walked less than I had planned because the wind and rain was just enough to make me feel cold and if you feel cold, just exercise harder, right? Despite the low temps I was still a sweaty mess by the time I got home. This is fine for now but in about a month this will be a dangerous situation and I will have to opt for heavier clothes and probably an insulated cap. At the moment I am still wearing shorts but trust me, that will change very soon.
So how's the data?
In most of my previous runs and walks, a 5km distance ended up burning, in "active calories", around 400 calories. As you can see from the first data section above, I have returned to that if we look at the amount burned for the entire 10k. I can't know given my equipment how much of this is attributed to the first 5k, and how much can be attributed to the 2nd 5k.
I don't generally run 10ks on back to back days, so I will have to wait one more day before I have a try at resetting the recording from the first half and the second.
In the meantime I am kind of happy to see it return to 400 calories per 5k but the jury is still out.
Either way I am quite happy to have burned 800 calories doing something that I didn't even find very difficult. The idea here is two-fold: Not only am I trying to get my data collection done, but I am also trying to increase my endurance. I think it is working when you consider that a year ago I couldn't run a 10k at all, let alone with an effort that I consider to be moderate.