Have you ever wondered why this seems to have become some kind of world-wide target to achieve every day? I have. Why not 12,000, or even 5,000? When my wife used to use a Fitbit watch, it made a noise and showed a picture of a rocket taking off when she reached 10,000 steps.

I have never counted steps. I work out my routine the old way. (Or at least I thought it was the old way)

My walking pace when out with Ollie is around three miles per hour. On harder ground this may increase slightly, and will surely decrease when walking in deep mud, or flooded fields. So if I am out walking for two hours, and I don’t sit down or stand still chatting for any length of time, I have walked around six miles. If I am out for as long as five hours in good weather, then that could be as much as twelve miles, allowing for short rests, or pausing to take photos.

Bur four hours in good weather is more usual, so let’s say ten miles a day in those conditions.

Assuming bad weather for almost nine months of every year, I walk for two hours each day. That’s six miles a day, seven days a week. So forty-two miles a week, in bad weather. Perhaps seventy miles a week when there is no rain or mud.

I don’t think I need to count steps.

But if you do, then here is an interesting short article about why 10,000 steps has become the ‘magic number’, and why you may not need to walk that many anyway.
https://theconversation.com/do-we-really-need-to-walk-10-000-steps-a-day-153765?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB