Been doing the jog-walk thing on the same street for a while now, and I kept defaulting to a timer on my phone, run until the alarm goes off, walk until it goes off again. Never felt right, some days I was already gassed before the alarm and other days I’d barely started jogging.
This week I switched to mailboxes instead. Jog to the next one, walk to the one after, repeat down the block and back. No numbers to stare at, no phone in my hand, just whatever’s lined up along the street.
What got me is how much more honest it feels. On a tired morning the mailboxes feel closer together somehow, I walk longer between jogs and don’t feel bad about it. On a better day I catch myself jogging past a few before I even notice.
Still haven’t figured out the stretch near the park entrance where there aren’t any mailboxes, for now I just pick a tree or a fence post and keep going. Not sure that’s a real system yet, but it’s held up better than the timer did so far.