Walking things
Mar. 23rd, 2014 08:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyofastolat- I've been recording my walking with MapMyWalk on my phone. Any user of the site can designate a stretch of A to B as a "course." There are no courses at all on most of my longer walks, but my regular seafront circuit includes two. What this means is that anyone whose walk includes this "course" gets their time recorded and put on a league table. However, league table ranking makes no sense at all. I always seem to get 10 points whenever I walk a course, regardless of time. A couple of weeks ago, when looking at my walk data, I noticed that I held "fastest time" and "most consistent" on one of these courses, and also had "Women's leader overall," with 31 points, despite the fact that points always come in 10s. A few days later, although I still held the other awards, someone else was now women's leader with 43 points, despite their fastest time (the only one recorded on the league table) being considerably slower than me.
I'm not bothered by being beaten - honest! - but I am bothered by the fact that I cannot understand the points system. It makes no sense at all! (And, yes, I did make the same complaint even when I was winning.) I think the site was invented by someone who has a vivid understanding of how the minds of points-oriented people work, and has deliberately worked to mess with those minds, no doubt cackling evilly as they do so.
I should add here that of course the fact that my seafront circuit contains 2 courses does not at all cause me to pick up the pace when I get to them, to try to earn a personal record. Neither has it caused me to alter my default route so that it always contains the Steps of Death, which I previously only went on when doing my shortest circuits. Neither do I charge up the Steps of Death as fast as I can, risking utter doom. Of course I would never do such things.
- I am always amused by the fact that whenever it is possible to cut a corner on a country walk, even if by doing so you save mere inches, people will do so. You can be on a path literally miles from any vehicular access, where the only people who ever go there are people specifically out to Do A Walk - i.e. to cover lots of miles merely for pleasure. Even so, whenever the marked path turns a sharp corner, you'll find a well-worn shortcut cutting that corner, as people try to take 3 steps off their 12 mile walk. And, yes, I do exactly the same.
- The black ladrador thing started as a bit of a joke, but it's true! It really is! The coastal path really is dominated by black labradoids, in a way that other island footpaths are not. Yesterday, I was walking in Ryde during my lunch break: many and varied dogs in the backstreets; black labradoids and nothing but black labradoids when my path took me along the coastal path. The Ridgeway, in contrast, was markedly free of the things, but riddled with golden labradoids, a being I've hardly ever seen on island paths. I have also noticed that sighthounds always come in twos - I have no seldom seen one alone that I will claim 30 points when I finally see one - as do Cavalier King Charles spaniels. All other spaniels always come alone.
I'm not bothered by being beaten - honest! - but I am bothered by the fact that I cannot understand the points system. It makes no sense at all! (And, yes, I did make the same complaint even when I was winning.) I think the site was invented by someone who has a vivid understanding of how the minds of points-oriented people work, and has deliberately worked to mess with those minds, no doubt cackling evilly as they do so.
I should add here that of course the fact that my seafront circuit contains 2 courses does not at all cause me to pick up the pace when I get to them, to try to earn a personal record. Neither has it caused me to alter my default route so that it always contains the Steps of Death, which I previously only went on when doing my shortest circuits. Neither do I charge up the Steps of Death as fast as I can, risking utter doom. Of course I would never do such things.
- I am always amused by the fact that whenever it is possible to cut a corner on a country walk, even if by doing so you save mere inches, people will do so. You can be on a path literally miles from any vehicular access, where the only people who ever go there are people specifically out to Do A Walk - i.e. to cover lots of miles merely for pleasure. Even so, whenever the marked path turns a sharp corner, you'll find a well-worn shortcut cutting that corner, as people try to take 3 steps off their 12 mile walk. And, yes, I do exactly the same.
- The black ladrador thing started as a bit of a joke, but it's true! It really is! The coastal path really is dominated by black labradoids, in a way that other island footpaths are not. Yesterday, I was walking in Ryde during my lunch break: many and varied dogs in the backstreets; black labradoids and nothing but black labradoids when my path took me along the coastal path. The Ridgeway, in contrast, was markedly free of the things, but riddled with golden labradoids, a being I've hardly ever seen on island paths. I have also noticed that sighthounds always come in twos - I have no seldom seen one alone that I will claim 30 points when I finally see one - as do Cavalier King Charles spaniels. All other spaniels always come alone.
