Walking apps for your daily walk around the neighborhood

As you may have heard once or twice, we are now roughly a year into the life of COVID and pandemic lockdown. To fill the void in our lives that was once occupied by social gatherings, family visits, and free breathing of the indoor air, many of us have turned to new hobbies and habits. Some of them are even healthy!

Take a daily or, if I’m honest, semi-Daily walking is a locking habit that got me through these unprecedented times. I am not alone either – without gyms or really somewhere else to go, many of us have embraced (or sometimes endured) a daily walk in the neighborhood.

Of course, it is not always easy. I was tired of walking near the same houses and the same pieces of fossilized garbage for about six months. It rains a lot where I live and that can turn an otherwise enjoyable walk into a real disappointment. Other days the motivation just isn’t there and the mailbox is as far away as I get. But a few things along the way helped me and my friend Edge staff members remain engaged in the ritual of the march. Here are some techniques for keeping your pandemic walking routine up to date and apps that can help you put them into practice.

Find a new route

This year, I embraced the life-changing magic of getting out of my own neighborhood and strolling elsewhere. It seems counterproductive to drive somewhere for a walk, but it really helps shake things up when I’m exhausted on my usual route.

AllTrails is a popular app with hikers, but it’s also great for finding nearby parks and trails that you may not be familiar with, whether you’re in an urban location or further out of town. There’s also an active community that leaves useful tips, like if the toilets are a horror show or if the parking lot is a burglary hotspot. All of its basic features are available in the free version.

Footpath is another good tool to help you identify a new route, whether it’s near you or in an unfamiliar location. Use the detailed street map in the app to draw roughly where you want to go; the app will record your route to the nearest streets and trails. Trail gives you important route details like mileage, elevation gain / loss along the way, and even a time estimate that takes hills into account so you know what you’re getting into. You can plot the entire route or draw a path to a destination you want to reach and the app can create a loop route to your starting point.

The free version will help you think about new walks, but more advanced features like detailed navigation – iPhone only for now but coming soon to Android – require an Elite subscription ($ 23.49 per year). You can also add Elite functionality to individual recorded routes for a one-time fee of $ 1.99 each.

Make him aware

Any therapist or CEO in Silicon Valley will tell you about the benefits of meditation. My brain is too loud for traditional sitting and breathing meditation, but I find walking meditations much easier to access. Calm and Headspace (each costs $ 69 for an annual subscription) offer walking meditations of varying lengths; those offered by Headspace are tailored to more specific circumstances, such as walking in a city or just going home and back. There are also plenty of free options out there if you are looking for YouTube or whatever music streaming service you want.

Find something to tap into

Finding a bite-sized podcast to listen to during walking time is a nice added incentive to take a break and get out. NPR Short wave is a quick ten minutes with episodes every day of the week. One of my Edge colleagues use their walk to catch up Radio Gamertag. Or check out an audiobook from your local library with the Libby app to ensure that the walking time is doubled in reading time. And for something a little more free, use the time to listen to a conversation on Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces.

If you’re an Apple Fitness Plus subscriber, Time to Walk is a great option. Featured celebrities like Dolly Parton share stories, recorded as they walk through places that are meaningful to them. It is a pleasant and thoughtful experience with a diverse range of hosts. You’ll need a subscription to Apple’s $ 79 / year fitness service and an Apple Watch, so it’s more likely to be an option if you’re already invested in these things.

Gamify

It works on kids and adults alike: when all else fails, turn it into a game. Tracking steps on MapMyRun or Strava can give you that extra sense of responsibility and accomplishment when you come home and hit the “Finish” button. It’s a cool little thing that works on my lizard brain.

Or, do like another of my Edge your coworkers make and rate local creatures and plant life with the Seek app. It uses your phone’s camera to identify plants, birds, and other types of wildlife. Best of all, it’ll keep track of which species you’ve identified and issue badges as you identify more. Badges!

Of course, this is just the real version of the classic catch ’em all game. Another Edge staff use this old but good Pokémon Go to keep his neighborhood interesting. If you missed its rise in popularity the first time around, here’s the gist: Several years ago, Pokémon Go We took several of us out looking for AR characters in real locations. Once you find them, you can capture them by throwing virtual pokeballs at them on your phone screen. Stay relaxed and just see how many different pokemon you encounter and capture on your walking route, or search for rarer pokemon more aggressively. This is your world.