Need a pedometer that measures miles.

August 21, 2008 11:21 AM

Hi there, I walk approx. 2 1/4 miles a day with a pedometer that shows steps only. Is there an accurate mile measurer that will show how many miles I've walked? If so where might I obtain one?
posted by joaniek to health & fitness (14 comments total)

Assuming you stick to sidewalks, you can plot your course on Google Maps, and get your approximate time and distance.
posted by grateful at 11:25 AM on August 21, 2008

A way to estimate steps-to-distance is to walk a circuit at normal step length where you know the circuit is a mile long; a treadmill could also help with this. Then record the number of steps per mile that is.

(Total steps) / (Steps per mile) = miles
posted by Ky at 11:27 AM on August 21, 2008

Even better, you can use http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ to plot and measure pretty much any route.

I use a rather fancy gps watch for my running, the Garmin Forerunner 305
posted by advicepig at 11:29 AM on August 21, 2008 [2 favorites]

Or you can plot it on Map My Run, which I think is a little more user-friendly for this type of thing than google maps alone.

If cost is not an option and you would like to be as precise as possible, there is the Garmin Forerunner series (check out the 205 if you don't want heart rate, or the 405 for something a little more attractive). I've been using my Garmin for running and cycling for the past two years and I love it.
posted by smalls at 11:30 AM on August 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

Still with Google, you can use the measure line/path tool in Google Earth. I've found it to be accurate when I drive the same route and look at my odometer.
posted by Science! at 11:53 AM on August 21, 2008

I have a pedometer that tells you miles, but you have to feed it information first. I figure you could do the same with yours, albeit manually.

1) Lay a towel on the floor.
2) Go back about 5 - 10 yards and start walking (your normal pace) toward the towel, walk across it, walk past it.
3) You should have left footprints on the towel
4) Measure from the toe of the first footprint (to hit the towel) to the heel of the second. This is the length of your stride, in inches.
5) Number of steps, times stride inches, divided by twelve should equal how many feet you walked during the day.

For example, 10,000 steps times a 30 inch stride equals 300,000 inches. Divide by 12, gives you 25,000 feet. Divide by 5,280 and you've walked 4.73 miles that day.

Hope this helps!

- Bill
posted by willmize at 12:04 PM on August 21, 2008

Measure from the toe of the first footprint (to hit the towel) to the heel of the second.

That seems like you'd be cheating yourself of the length of one of your feet. Shouldn't it be toe to toe, or heel to heel? With my big feet, that'd add up to quite a bit pretty quickly.
posted by MrMoonPie at 12:22 PM on August 21, 2008

That seems like you'd be cheating yourself of the length of one of your feet.

That's exactly what you'd be doing. Toe-to-toe or heel-to-heel is the right way to do it.
posted by toomuchpete at 12:26 PM on August 21, 2008

Gah! You're correct. Missed it by...........that much. Thanks for the correction!
posted by willmize at 12:32 PM on August 21, 2008

Another way to use willmize' suggestion is to walk 10 normal steps, then measure what that distance is. After you have completed your normal daily walk, multiply those number of steps by the feet in your ten-step measurement. Then divide that total by 10 to get the number of feet you walked. Divide that by 5280 to convert feet to miles.
posted by netbros at 12:49 PM on August 21, 2008

Or if you're not in the U.S., use meters and kilometers of course. I still hope that some day before I die the metric system will finally stick in the U.S.
posted by netbros at 12:52 PM on August 21, 2008

I do have a pedometer that calculates distance, in exactly the method described above. I have yet to measure my stride, so I haven't used that aspect of it yet. It's the Omron HJ-112.
posted by gingerbeer at 2:43 PM on August 21, 2008

For overkill, talk to a coach that tracks their athletes' performances in training with GPS, a pedometer will never be accurate.
posted by Tixylix at 4:28 PM on August 21, 2008

I'll 2nd science! The measuring tool in Google Earth couldn't be easier to use. It's the little ruler in the toolbar up top. Choose the path tab. Click along your path and it gives you a running total of the distance in whatever units you want. You can even revise the positioning of the path markers if needed. I've checked it against the my property lot lines and found it to be spot on.
posted by bonobothegreat at 6:05 PM on August 21, 2008