On Scout's pace

from the department of getting-around-easily

A friend's remark made me consider of which piece of writing I am proudest. Two things spring to mind: this thing I wrote for "The Listserv" about Scout's pace (more about the venue here):

Scout's pace means moving at a brisk pace by alternately walking and running. Baden-Powell himself recommended alternating every fifty paces, but I prefer twenties as it's easier to count. My perennial optimism about how long it takes to walk somewhere makes me do it, and I enjoy breaking records for regular trips. I like the control that comes from having a number of "gears" at my disposal--easy strolling, brisk marching, an unpressured trot, the truth of a life lived under my own steam, and feeling... fit and well.

Scout's pace is obviously only the English term: do it a bit harder and you're speaking Norwegian: a fartlek. As for what the technique's most legendary exponents--the nomads of the Kalahari--call it, I have !kno idea! It is only the blink of an evolutionary eye since we were all hunter-gatherers; and yet we have forgotten Scout's pace, with dreadful consequences. Many ills of the Western lifestyle--obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, stress and depression--can be traced to our lack of exercise.

I, too lazy and too ambitious to walk all my life, have transferred this knowledge to the bicycle. I could have discussed the virtues of a 24:32 minimum development, or the necessity of mudguards, or the late 19th century campaign by cyclists for paved roads, that led, in time, to the lamentable car culture, but I wanted to stick to the basics.

And maybe the editorial I wrote for the BMJ before bike week one time, which its then editor was kind enough to describe as "a poem." (He rode a bike too). But it's hard to decide. The best paid thing I ever did had my name sawed off (thus the generous cheque). My online commenting has never earned me a thing, but the satisfaction that I might just, maybe, have changed one person's mind somewhere, just as they were ready to, is ample reward.

[ et en français ?  ]