A Need to Walk (2014)

Walking is one of the most overlooked forms of physical activity. It costs nothing, burns calories, allows you to multi-task, all the while doubling as a mode of transportation that doesn&#x27;t leave you sweaty or needing time to recover.<p>I was about to say that not being able to walk to work - either because you live in a car-centric suburb, or because it&#x27;s dangerous - is a nigh criminal failure of city planning.<p>On second thoughts, though, that&#x27;s probably unfair. It&#x27;s probably a case of demand driving planning, not the other way around. I can&#x27;t blame city planners if people mostly prefer a large house in the suburbs, and are willing to pay for it with a 45-minute commute.

Author here. Shameless (but relevant) plug — I write a weekly newsletter on walking in Japan called Ridgeline. You can find the archives here:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;craigmod.com&#x2F;ridgeline&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;craigmod.com&#x2F;ridgeline&#x2F;</a>

The thing I miss the most about working in an office is my walking commute. Walking 1.75 miles each way to and from work was a great way for me to clear my head and recenter myself on what I need to get done—or set that aside so I could be present at home.<p>I look forward to returning to this routine post-COVID. In the mean time, I&#x27;ve taken up running. It&#x27;s better in some ways and worse in others. I expect I&#x27;ll keep running post-COVID, and just layer the walking on top of that.

Walking is part of my daily work routine.<p>Usually around 2~3pm I go out for a ~45 minute walk. I use this time to think about work related problems, solving them in my head as I go. Sometimes a walk can be much longer, if I&#x27;m stuck at a particularly difficult problem.<p>I consider the walk routine as work, so I also charge my customers for this time. They are OK with that though, since they understand that thinking about their problems is what they pay me for.<p>Unfortunately I can&#x27;t walk from home to my office, it&#x27;s too far, so I ride my bicycle. The bike ride (circa 20 minutes) is perfect for clearing my head after the work day, and switch from work-mode to relax-mode.

Rambling around Japan can feel a bit like playing an RPG. Some times you really do come across abandoned shrines, home to wild animals, and with caches of pole weapons and money inside.

After living in Germany (originally from the big city in Texas), I&#x27;ve come to realize how valuable it is for a city to be walkable.<p>I really like being able to walk out of my door and reach anywhere I need to on foot, especially when there&#x27;s a lot of beautiful nature around. I usually walk in the evenings for at least an hour (outside of any walking I might do in the day to go to the store or such) as a way to relax.

After a few months of country walking, going back to city walking felt like a shock. So many people around, forcing me to make myself smaller, more brisk, more tense.<p>There are ways to regain relaxed movement even in a city, though. Shooting hoops &#x2F; rebounds &#x2F; jumpshots for half an hour every day is amazing. It changed my whole way of moving and being in a space.

&gt;&gt;<i>Moses famously parted an entire sea to take a walk with a few friends.</i><p>:D

Coincidentally just reading this after a 2km walk... free exercise! Good way to see some new sights too :)