(Featuring slow motion salsa music!)
I‘ve been walking 4 miles every day – 10,000 daily steps – a marathon weekly – for 114 days now as exercise to keep me fit in lieu of going salsa dancing 6 nights a week. I wore headphones and walked to the beat of salsa music to make it more interesting and, because I‘ve always found walking hard work, this made my walking smooth like dancing and therefore easier for me!
However, as I reduced the time taken from a very slow 90 minutes to reasonably fast 80 minutes (3 miles per hour) it became clear that the salsa music I was using (my favourite Africando Mix) was too slow on 1-3-5-7 (85bpm) and too fast on 1–2–3-4 5–6–7-8 (170bpm) to improve my speed still further as I needed to get to around 120 strides a minute consistently to improve so I started walking without music. However, walking to salsa music did improve my walking technique and I can hear whatever music I like in my head while I’m walking smoothly as if I’m salsa dancing.
My latest best time is a bit less than 65 minutes so this has worked very well. Apparently British soldiers walk 4 miles with a 25kg back pack in 60 minutes so that’s my ultimate target though I’m not sure how that can happen because I already feel like I’m walking as fast as I can for a 74 year old man at least! But a target it remains . . .
For Day 106 I downloaded a metronome to my mobile and set it to 120 to help me keep walking at a good speed. That seemed a little fast for my liking so I reduced it to 117 which seemed about right. On the way back I discovered that 116 was nearer my natural rhythm and I was able to walk back 20 seconds faster at this beat despite the strong wind being against me! I think this is because it gave me more time to complete my natural stride length. My times were 33:42 + 33:23 = 67:05
For Day 114, having got bored with listening to the metronome all the time, I downloaded an app for my mobile which slows music down without changing the pitch. I’ve discovered that if I play the Africano Mix I used when I started salsa walking 113 days ago at 68% of it’s normal tempo this is equivalent to 116 beats per minute which is ideal for the pace at which I’m walking now! I’ve also ordered a blue-tooth handsfree set so that I don’t have wires hanging around my body.
The normal speed of Africando Mix is 170bpm and when I started salsa walking I was stepping on 1-3-5-7 – which is a tempo of 85bpm – and taking 90 minutes at first to walk 4 miles but reducing to 80 minutes over the first couple of weeks. However, at the latter speed it became impossible to walk in time with the music so that’s why I started walking without music and eventually downloaded the metronome app once I reduced the time to 70 minutes or so to help me keep moving at a constant speed. 68% of 170bpm is 116bpm which means I can walk on 1–2–3-4 5–6–7-8
I walk from where I live to Frydays near Gosport Ferry, eat a snack sitting on a bench in Falkland Gardens overlooking Portsmouth Harbour and then walk back home.
I produce a report every day and I have copied yesterdays below – the first time I walked to slowed motion salsa music. You can follow this link and scroll up and down to see the other reports!
.
Day 114 Salsa Walk
34:13 + 35:45 = 69:58
On an overcast day with a cool breeze, which brightened up on the way back, my times there, and back in particular, were somewhat ruined by phone calls and texts. I ignored the phone calls but they interfered with my salsa music playing at 68% of normal speed so I had to restart the app. On the way back somebody wanted to walk with me so I exchanged text messages which slowed me down. In the end she didn’t catch up with me until I was already home! Anyway – we’ll say no more about that . . . 
So the Africando Mix salsa music at 68% speed worked well but I discovered on the way back that the last third of the tracks were a bit faster than 170bpm which meant I was trying to walk too fast which shortened my stride! Next time I’ll start from the beginning again on the way back until I’m ready for a faster stride rate!
See Day 112 for an explanation of the app I’m using to play salsa music at the speed I need for walking!