Stephen King: The Long Walk: Exercise Challenge

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The Long Walk Exercise Challenge

How long can you survive The Long Walk?

This is a cardio workout based on the rules of The Long Walk.

You need:
  1. Treadmill
  2. Heart rate monitor
  3. Rest timer - time how long you rest
  4. Total Timer - time total time to complete challenge. You can use your tread-mills timer if it's built in

The chart below to defines when to Rest and Continue based on your age.
Rest bpm is 85% max + 1, and Continue bpm is 85% max - 5.
The 85% number was determined from heart.org

Age Rest Continue
20-29 171 bpm 165 bpm
30-34 163 bpm 157 bpm
35-39 158 bpm 152 bpm
40-44 154 bpm 148 bpm
45-49 150 bpm 144 bpm
50-54 146 bpm 140 bpm
55-59 141 bpm 135 bpm
60-64 137 bpm 131 bpm
65-69 133 bpm 127 bpm
70-75 129 bpm 123 bpm

The Challenge:

  1. Start the treadmill and set it to 4 mph and start walking. Start your total-timer. Your rest-timer should be paused at 0 if counting up, or 2:00 if counting down.
  2. When your heart-rate reaches the Rest-bpm, step off the treadmill to rest, then start your rest-timer.
    Example: If your age is 32, then rest when your heart rate rises to 163
  3. Once your heart rate drops to the Continue-bpm, pause your rest-timer, then begin walking again.
    Example: If your age is 32, continue walking when you heart rate drops to 157
  4. Repeats steps 2 and 3 until your rest-timer reaches 2 minutes, then step off the treadmill and stop your total-timer
  5. You can use long steps, short steps, jog, run, whatever trot you want
  6. If you last 30 minutes without reaching a Rest bpm, then you win.

Here are my times:

Date Time Duration Rests
06/20/2019 4:15 PM 9 minutes 16 seconds 3
06/21/2019 2:30 PM 9 minutes 36 seconds 3
07/06/2019 2:00 PM 9 minutes 20 seconds 3

Video of me doing the Cardio Challenge

How long did you last?
Date Created June 20, 2019
Last Updated March 29, 2020
Contact: patcoston@gmail.com