Walk the Walk

#walkthewalk

Updated: February 15, 2019 at 6pm

Okay so week 2 is where #walkthewalk gets reaalllyyyy interesting.

BTW if you haven’t already, join our Facebook group to hear about the latest updates, events to get some steps, encouragement, and of course…smack talk!

Individual League

We started this league with 20 folks, and now we are left with 17! Congrats to everyone who keeps striving for the 50,000 steps each week! Combined step total this week was 1,131,029!

If we say roughly 2,000 steps is a mile, combined with steps from week 1 that’s a total of 1,135 miles…or about the distance of walking from Los Angeles, California to Topeka, Kansas!

Top 5 Ranking – Steps for Week 2

• Cheers to Bhavika P. who upped her steps by 11%, and shared with us her secret technique of pacing around the office during phone call meetings!
• Cheers to our increase of participants who walked at least 70,000 steps. We went from 5 in week 1 to 9 this week!
• Cheers to a few walkers who majorly upped their step game; Jenny Z. (42.69% increase), Kevin L. (32.28% increase), and Colleen O. (15.61%).
• Jeers to sidewalks that aren’t made for pedestrians.

Team League

First off…to all those who are trying to bribe me for intel on other teams with popcorn chicken and boba…nice try! It always seems to happen after week 1 of this competition 😉

ANYWHO…major shakeup in week 2. Repeat after me. DE. THRONED. Sorry LURN, but your valiant effort of 140,382 steps average this week was surprisingly NOT enought to take the top spot.

Props to JACCC for showing a glimmer of their amazingness that took Walk the Walk by storm last year. It may be too little too late…and maybe time to start cleaning off the Golden Wok so we can give it to this year’s winner?!

Is it a battle amongst JACCC, Investing in Place, and Visual Communications for the 3rd place spot? I never expected a team to get 140k steps in a week, so I’m ready for any kind of surprise at this point!

Enough babble! Here are the numbers!

Team Rankings – Average Steps for Week 2

Congrats to ActiveSGV for bringing glory to the San Gabriel Valley. With a whopping 144,581 steps, they have dethroned LURN, at least for week 2! (see overall rankings below)

Of special note: they have a team of 9 people and as you know…getting a high step average with a larger team is no easy task, esp compared to LURN’s team of 6. Big victory. Big kudos.

When I asked ActiveSGV if they had anything to say to their rival, LURN, they shared:

Don’t @ us if y’all ain’t ready.

David Diaz

This may have something to do with the smack talk going on between the groups throughout the week (see below). #smacktalk

Overall Rankings

A few notes on week 2 results: 

• Amongst our 25 teams, only 24 teams submitted steps this week.
• In overall ranking, only 1,033 step average separates LURN and ActiveSGV!!!
• In overall ranking, only 663 step average separates JACCC and Investing in Place!!!
• Compared to week 4 of 2018’s Walk the Walk, this group of teams is averaging much higher steps. Last year the average was 66,578. This week teams combined for an average of 74,313.
• Of the 24 teams who submitted, the teams combined for a total of 197 team members who contribued 15,116,469 steps! This is an 11% increase from our steps from week 1! If you count 2,000 steps to roughly be 1 mile, our combined steps would take us from Los Angeles to Cairo, Egypt!
• Our top 10 teams are averaging at least 70,000 steps, which is the recommended weekly step count by the American Heart Association (who are a little shy of that 70k!).
• Props to KYCC (49.96%), T.R.U.S.T. South LA (Tenemos que Reclamar y Unidos Salvar la Tierra – South LA)(44.32%), and LA Neighborhood Land Trust (39.66%) for the highest percent increase in steps from Week 1 to 2!
• Props to First 5 LA for their solid 6th place performance the past 2 weeks, with a team of 18!!!! You read that right…18!!!!
• In our Battle of the Walks, LA Walks still leads CA Walks by quite a bit. This week LA Walks had a higher step average (79,469) than California Walks (52,171).
• If you take a look at the overall ranking, there’s a battle also going on for 10th place. Does So Cal Edison have the…energy….to stay in 10th place ahead of Advancing Justice – LA and API Equality – LA?
• Senator Ben Allen’s team. Still no word. Y’all okay? I’m worried!

Another reminder! Yes, the Team League is a competition. BUT I do want to remind everyone this is for fun, and it’s meant as a way to encourage us to be more mindful of how active we may be in a day. Many of the groups here are nonprofits or government agencies, and it may not always be built in for us to focus on our health. Let’s do our best to use this challenge to think of how we can incorporate health into our daily schedules!

#walkthewalk

Updated: February 11, 2019 at 12pm

And we are back for another year of Walk the Walk, aka finding new ways to squeeze steps in whenever possible! It’s only the end of week 1 and I have heard some interesting ways folks are upping their step game (especially in the rain). Drinking more water so there are more walking trips to the bathroom, parking cars at the far-end of parking lots, walking in place while watching movies at home…ya’ll are creative! I’m excited to see what happens as we get through this month.

BTW if you haven’t already, join our Facebook group to hear about the latest updates, events to get some steps, encouragement, and of course…smack talk!

Now…let’s do the numbers!

Individual League

Of 20 total participants in our individual league, 18 turned in their step count in for week 1. Of those 18 who turned their steps in, 15 reached at least 50,000 steps for the week. Combined step total this week was 1,140,802!

If we say roughly 2,000 steps is a mile, that’s a total of 570 miles…or about the distance of walking from Los Angeles, California to Salt Lake City, Utah!

Top 5 Ranking – Steps for Week 1

• Cheers to Cassy H. who returns to Walk the Walk from her stellar 2018 performance. Adding in her steps from this week with last year’s numbers, she is averagine 94,303 steps!
• Jeers to rain for making it hard to get steps in this past week.
• Jeers to forgetting to wear fitness trackers.

Team League

So last year was our first time trying a “Team League.” 15 teams entered, and the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center dominated for 4 straight weeks and took home the legendary GOLDEN WOK. Their team of 6 averaged 106,543 steps over the entire month, 20,000 steps ahead of last year’s 2nd place winner Investing in Place.

Well…2019 is a new year and the game has changed folks. 106,543 steps isn’t going to get you a first place finish. In fact, it’ll get you only a THIRD place finish by this year’s step count so far.

What are you babbling about Scott?!?

Basically what I’m saying is that JACCC has been dethroned!! A few teams showed up big time to prevent them from taking the top spot for a 5th week in a row (when combined with the 4 weeks of 2018). What happened JACCC…WHAT HAPPENED?!?!

Team Rankings – Average Steps for Week 1

Congrats to the dope folks at LURN for taking the top spot. Folks may not know this, but last year their fitness trackers did not come in until week 2. If they had their fitness trackers for week 1…could they have possibly taken the 2nd place spot from Investing in Place??

When I asked LURN what their secret was for this explosion in steps…the response I received was:

We’re just living our best lives! We didn’t even have treadmill desks or anything! Keepin’ it old school.

Rudy Espinoza

128k team average in steps is no joke my friends. Big props to them for stepping their game up and taking that number one spot. To our friends at ActiveSGV…dang that was close. This is their first year in our challenge, and they came ready. Long walks IN the rain, museum trips together…they had a game plan. But alas, they just weren’t active enough to take 1st place. LURN, I’d watch out for this group; they’re hungry for it.

A few notes on week 1 results: 

• Amongst our 26 teams, only 24 teams submitted steps this week.
• Of the 24 teams who submitted, the teams combined for a total of 197 team members who contribued 11,901,688 steps! If you count 2,000 steps to roughly be 1 mile, our combined steps would take us from Los Angeles to Seoul, South Korea!
• Of our 24 teams, our average step count was 60,415.
• Did you know we have both LA Walks and California Walks in this competition? As of this week, LA Walks has a higher step average (75,152) than California Walks (45,430).
• There are quite a few environmental groups involved this year, including Friends of the LA River, The Wilderness Society, LA Neighborhood Land Trust, Trust South LA. Let’s keep an eye to see which group can up their step count above the others. 🙂
• Senator Ben Allen’s team. Where you at?? The 26th District has some really lovely places to walk!
• Also I just want to put this out there…can First 5 LA finish in the first 5 spots? You’re so close at 6th right now!

Yes, the Team League is a competition. BUT I do want to remind everyone this is for fun, and it’s meant as a way to encourage us to be more mindful of how active we may be in a day. Many of the groups here are nonprofits or government agencies, and it may not always be built in for us to focus on our health. Let’s do our best to use this challenge to think of how we can incorporate health into our daily schedules!

That’s it for this week folks. Remember to turn in your Week 2 steps by 12pm on February 15th!