Colin McCollick completed a special project where he walked around his neighborhood, which is one mile, 17 times during the month of April. He recorded his pulse before and after each walk to see how his heart rate was affected. While his pulse increased after each walk due to the physical activity, he felt more relaxed afterwards. Over the course of the month, he went from only walking every few days to making it a daily routine as he began to enjoy being outside and observing the changes in nature.

1. By Colin McCollick

2.  For my Special Project, I walked around my
neighborhood.The distance around my
neighborhood is exactly one mile. I think this
will be good exercise for me and, most
importantly, help me become a more relaxed
person. I walked around my neighborhood 17
times during the month of April. Before and
after my walk, I recorded my pulse.This let
me to see how the walk will affect my heart
rate.

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Pre-reading
Post-
reading
Walks Around my Neighborhood
Day
Pulse
Rate

4.  I began this project in early April; it was still very
cold outside and did not have the motivation to
go outside.The next week, the weather started
to warm up. During this time, I found out that I
actually enjoyed walking. I began to see people
and their pets; sometimes when I walked
around, my friend would walk with me and bring
his dog. I enjoyed the fresh air Spring brought
with it; I also observed all of the flowers begin to
bloom along my path. I truly enjoyed this
project.

5.  Easy part
 Taking and recording my pulse. I have learned how to
do this because of this class.
 Difficult part
 Being motivated to walk every day.
 Obstacles I faced
 At the beginning, I did not feel like actually walking
my first few times.Then, I began to incorporate it into
my daily routine and began to enjoy it more and
more.You can see this in my chart; at the beginning
you see gaps of days, then the days begin to become
almost every day exercises.

6.  Where did I get stuck?
 I would say I got stuck at the beginning. I began to
only walk like every few days.Then, I began to
enjoy walking and started to turn it into a daily
thing.

7.  As you can see, my pulse was greater every time I
completed my walk. I do not think this is a good judge of
my true relaxation. I can say that after each walk, I was
most definitely relaxed more than I was before the walk.
The increase in the pulse was due to the actually physical
movement of walking. One thing I would have changed
about my project is that I would not take my pulse right
after my walk; instead, I would have taken it a half hour
after my completion of my walk. All in all, I feel like this
was a good experience for me. I was not a physically active
person before this class and this made me change my
routine and health for the better; any physical exercise
decreases your stress levels.