So, a few weeks ago on The Self Publishing Roundtable, we were interviewing author Nathan Lowell and one of the things that came up was the podcast he does when he goes walking each day. And I thought, wow, that is the best idea ever!
So, naturally, I stole it.
You see, I’ve been NEEDING to start a regular exercise habit for years. I’m 337 pounds, and not getting any lighter sitting at a desk 12 hours a day writing.
I used to love walking, but fell out of the habit several years ago.
And whenever I think I’ll get to it again, I never quite find the time.
So I thought, well, there’s two things that I DO make time for without fail — writing and my weekly podcast commitments (Self-Publishing Podcast and Better Off Undead.) So why not marry my need to exercise with a daily podcast that I do while out walking?
I’ve now been walking for two weeks. I did some test shows of varying bits of quality, and am going to go ahead and start by posting the below podcast I did last week as my official FIRST The Walking Dave podcast!
I’m hoping you like it enough that I continue to find an excuse to walk every weekday. But a big part of whether I continue to do the podcast is how you respond.
Let me know what you think, and — more importantly — let me know what you’d like me talk about. Got questions? Ask them here or shoot me an email and I’ll answer them in the podcast.
I’ll post another episode tomorrow, and meanwhile work on getting these up to iTunes.
P.S. This is also the first thing I’ve drawn on my Cintiq 13HD that I got more than a year ago!
I’m hella rusty. This took way too long. But, it’s a start in the right direction.
So, in addition to making time for walking, my other plan this year is to make time for my art. I miss drawing comics, and would love to make something that my 6-year old son can enjoy.
Thank you for reading (and listening),
dave
PLAY THE PODCAST BELOW
or right click and save as here:
David W. Wright 
This sounds like fun – looking forward to hearing more. I’m a daily walker (about an hour) and that’s when I listen to podcasts – SPP, Creative Penn, Rocking SPP, This American Life, Selected Shorts.
Thanks, Dave! I love This American Life. Ira Glass is the best storyteller!
Yo Dave!
I enjoyed your first podcast – informative and funny… and TOO SHORT!
Just hearing your voice is fun and entertaining.
I really got a kick out of “The Walking Dave” cartoon image 😀
Sorry, I don’t have any suggestions for topic discussions now.
Oh, and since you’re not sure how to say my name, it is pronounced: M.G.On.
Another way of “seeing” the pronunciation is: imm-jee-on. It’s an unusual name, I know.
I am used to hearing people say “muh-gon” – so it does not bother me 🙂
I look forward to your next podcast, which I’m sure will be longer. Heh-heh =)~
Thanks, Mgon. Is that your birth name? I assumed it was some creative decision of some sort. Cool. I’ll get it right next time you comment on BOU. Glad you liked the first episode. I’m trying to find the right length so as not to bore the hell out of people. This IS every weekday, and I know I WOULD get sick of me droning on for too long.
What length do you think would be ideal? I imagine if people are listening to it while walking, then perhaps 20-30 minutes?
But I figure most people who do listen to stuff while walking probably have other stuff to listen to also, and I don’t want to take up too much of their valuable time.
Loved the first show man. I’d like to hear you talking about the behind the scenes of what you’re writing. Why you went in certain directions and not others. It would be good if you could mention my name a few times too. I like it when you say Caaarlll. I also like the graphic. You might be rusty in your mind, but I think it’s really good.
Thanks. And no, I will not say your name whilst walking and out of breath. I’m afraid you’ll be too turned on. I will be talking more about behind-the-scenes on the writing, though it’s kind of tough to do with works in progress without spoiling, so trying to find a fine line. If people ask specific questions on older stories, I may talk more about those, too.
When did you first get the idea for WhiteSpace? Where you influenced by any particular story for that series?
This is a great idea!
Thanks, Kyla!
Love it, man. Congratulations on getting started!
I do want to hear more about the hawk though.
LOL. I talked more about it in Episode 2. Continuity and cliffhangers, oh my!
Thanks!
Hey Dave,
Love the podcast. I’ve also been working on losing weight. I would suggest writing down what you eat/drink each day, and then sharing that list with your listeners. It’ll hold you accountable to what you’re eating, as well as give you an incentive to keep recording every day.
Keep up the great work.
Thanks! I might do that. Right now I’m focusing on the walking part and working my way to other habits once I get the daily walks down.
Great job Dave. I can’t wait for the snow to start melting up here so I can start walking again. I don’t walk in the winter, snowshoe a little, but when it’s cold I stay inside for the most part. Glad you’re getting health. I quit smoking not long ago and the weight is piling on me now, so I need to get off my ass and do something. I hope you stick with it.
Thanks, Liam. Good on ya for quitting cigarettes. I imagine I’d be even fatter if I’d been a smoker. Good luck!
I love it! Maybe listeners–most of us being writers, I’m thinking–can join you in your fitness goals and comments on our progress? Either way, I’d love to hear how your writing and artwork is going, in addition to the progress of the walking.
Also, I can totally see that falcon becoming your arch nemesis, just like in comics. You will have epic daily struggles of not-so-cosmic proportions!
LOL! That would be cool. People can comment in my comments or even blog on their own blogs, or hell, even start recording their own podcasts. Whatever works for you.
Thank you, I’ll add the writing and artwork into the conversation next time I go out. I have one more podcast I recorded last week, then we’ll be on today’s.
Yeah, I found out the falcon is an osprey, and yes, it is my enemy!
I’ll listen while I’M walking. Solidarity!
Awesome! Do you think they should be longer? Or does this length work? I know 10 min. isn’t enough to last for most people’s walks, but at the same time, I don’t want to drone on and on and bore people.
I think the key is keeping it to a length that’s easy for you to keep up. Don’t overcommit, you know?
That was fun. Do you just talk into your phone headset? The quality is pretty good.
Please do not get a treadmill desk, they screw up your pelvic floor! If anything, use a standup desk along with your regular desk, and change from one to the other throughout the day. Studies show that simply standing up and moving around every 30 minutes or so has dramatic improvement in insulin sensitivity.
Thanks. I almost got a standup desk, too! I talked into a Roland (ha!) R-05 recorder. Quality is awesome on them, even better if you’re not walking around outside with the wind and other noises.
ha! Roland is awesome! I sound great!
I go back and forth between a counter or dresser top for standup and my desk for sitting.
Roland,
Where did you hear treadmill desks screw up your pelvic floor? I did a lot of research on them before deciding to buy one and this never came up. Plus, I know quite a few people who have been using them for between a year to three years, with great results and no problems. Any articles you can point me to so I can read up on this? I want to know what to watch out for. 🙂
I’ve tried standing and writing, but my feet, back and legs start aching. I do much better if I am moving, rather than standing. But getting up every thirty minutes to an hour to move around has been a serious handicap on my production because I keep losing my concentration and momentum. From everything I’ve read, and heard, the treadmill desk alleviates both these problems–but after your comment I’m wondering if I missed something somewhere.
Trish, here’s a link to a podcast (with transcript!). http://balancedbites.com/2013/09/podcast-episode-106-special-guest-katy-bowman-of-aligned-and-well.html
If you search for treadmill desk, then read down you’ll find Katy’s response to Liz (the host) when asked about the treadmill desk. She talks about pelvic floor, prolapse, etc.
PFD doesn’t happen overnight, but comes on slowly over time. There are some people who will never see a symptom or not connect the two.
It’s not just treadmill desks, but treadmills, unfortunately. The desks just make things worse in some areas because you can also not swing your arms, which is an important component of walking and good gait mechanics.
If one is going to treadmill for part of the day, increase the incline, which forces you to push off more. It’s not perfect, but it’s going to be better. Then, walk on actual ground as much as possible.
Thanks Roland,
I just read the transcript of the podcast. What she says makes sense. Luckily (since I already bought the treadmill desk 🙂 ) the podcast didn’t change my mind. I don’t intend to use the TMD to replace my morning or evening walks. I’ll continue doing those. Nor do I intend to spend hours on it at a time. My plan is to use it for fifteen minutes every hour. After three hours of writing, I’ll take a break and go do something physical for half an hour to an hour. So at the most I’d be using it 1.5 hours a day in 15 minute intervals. Right now I spend so much time sitting my sciatic nerve is killing me, and my right thigh and hip have been going numb off and on. But standing for more than a few minutes makes things worse. It’s obviously not a perfect solution but it’s better than anything I’ve found so far.
Trish, that sounds like a good use of the TM Desk. My biggest concern is hearing people in the fitness and nutrition ‘blogging community’ getting on them and staying on them for 6-8 hours per day! It’s wishful thinking, but people ‘want to believe,’ right? 😉
Hopefully, the treadmill breaks from all of the sitting will help!
If I got one of those treamills, I’d end up like Homer Simpson. Remember the episode he got one and started to sit on it, eating chicken and watching re-runs of their parody of Lost?
There’s a lot of Homer in a lot of us.
LOL. I never saw that one, but that’s awesome.
That was a lot of fun, Dave. Love the cover art and was highly entertained by the hot bird action. I’m hoping each episode will have you doing battle with nature. Did you have a separate microphone to clip on for this or talk directly into the recorder?
I talk right into the Roland R-05. I put my Shure mic wind guard over it, otherwise the wind gets loud. I might try a lavalier mic but I think the wind would be intrusive on that. So, for now, I’m walking around holding the recorder to my mouth. It looks like a small phone, so I just look like one of the many other obnoxious people who can’t stop talking on their phones in public.
That’s good about the phone thing. I had considered doing this but would feel like a douche talking away to myself, but having something that looks like a phone is a good way of avoiding that.
I want to hear you kill the hawk and talk about supermarkets.
LOL. I do worry that MOST people will expect me to be walking around screaming about things, but it’s kind of hard to do that in my neighborhood without scaring people. I think the ranting podcast would be better if it was a Driving With Dave podcast. This walking one is more sedate and thoughtful. Unless people start pissing me off while I walk. Or I find a place where I can yell into the recorder without attracting attention. “Oh, look, it’s that crazy fat bastard again.”
Haha! I enjoyed it anyway. Keep up the good work.
Loved the podcast. Can’t wait for Driving With Dave podcast 😛
Yay! I’m an inspiration!
Congrats on your new health status.
One tip: Endomondo (the free version) set up for “running” … don’t run. just walk.
It’ll give you split times by the mile and measure your progress on GPS with a spiffy map so you can tell — for sure — how far you’ve walked and how fast. When I started my goal was a 19 minute mile. I’m down to 16 and 17s now on a regular basis. I even broke 15 minutes a couple of times. Walking!
Walk on, brother! Walk on!
I’m about to try an app called The Walk which progresses a story the further you walk. Not sure of the exact plot as I haven’t started yet, but I believe I can only solve the case/stop the disaster by walking the entire length of the UK (thankfully, not all in one go!) I’ll report back once I get going.
Tommy
Awesome podcast. Utterly charming! Loved the idea of walking with you, hearing your thoughts. And a lesson for you – never go anywhere without the decoy wallet!
I agree about exercising and writing at the same time. I built a desk on my exercise bike, but I found it physically difficult to write and cycle at the same time. So I’m going to use exercise cycle time to catch up on my reading. Well worth doing! I did half an hour the other day, and it worked fine.
I’d love to hear how you spend your day. Maybe not minute-by-minute, but just roughly, maybe how long you spend writing, social media, answering Sean’s persistent texts. The ten minute podcast works fine. You could extend it later on if you enjoy doing it, and it doesn’t take you away from your writing!
Keep on keeping on.
I saw this in one of Carl Sinclair’s tweets at 5:00 a.m. and I was like: BEST. IDEA. EVER! I love your drawing! It’s too cute! 😀 The cookie is what makes it…:P I’ll have to listen to your podcast after class this morning. I’ll tweet you my opinion later.
Awesome! Walk safely — against traffic and all that. I tried dictating fiction on my morning walks, but found my dictated prose sucks rocks. Had much better luck just talking through story points, characters, etc. I’d love to hear on future walkcasts if you think your walking is affecting your writing in any way.
Great first episode, Dave.
I have to admit though, when you brought up the hawk/osprey I had this instant vision of hawks and vultures circling above you….:)
As for length, as long as you want to make them works for me. And anything you want to talk about works for me.
I like them being 10 minutes to 15 minutes. I also will require an attack by the hawk at some stage. Please cause it to do so. People need tension.
Walking is awesome and a great great great way to lose weight. Now that winter is almost over, I need to get back out. I used to walk every day on a walking trail a few miles from my house. I walked TO the trail, walked the trail, then walked home. It was about 7-8 miles roundtrip. If you are able to walk and read at the same time, that’s another great incentive. Mine usually take about 2 1/2 to 3 hours depending on if I do the entire trail or if I cut it short. I get a lot of exercise doing it but I also get a shit-ton of reading done.
Treadmills are MUCH harder than walking outside, though. I can do 3 hours outside no problem but after an hour on the treadmill, I’m dying, and even reading on a treadmill is much harder; I don’t do it very often and instead use that time to listen to podcasts.
It’s cool that you’re walking, as long as you keep it up, I’ll keep listening.
Hi Dave
Fantastic idea, and a joy to listen to. I’m about to take up walking myself in order to start the weight loss process (it looks and feels bad when you’re only 5′ 6″ like me!), so I’ll be listening to you as I go and – who knows – I may even start recording my own writing thoughts while walking.
Keep it up!
Tommy
Just thought I would toss this one out there. Here is a question you could answer in your podcast: Since you mentioned above about drawing comics for your son, what is/are your favorite comics? And have you modeled any of your characters off any comic characters?
Never realized how nice your voice sounds because I usually only hear your ranting. Love it!
Henry David Thoreau meets David Wright! I love it! Great way to combine two different needs (the need to write & the need to exercise!)
Thanks, Mark! I’m like Walden with rage.
Love it and the graphic is brilliant as others have already said 😀 I’ll definitely be listening regularly 🙂 (I just need to figure out how to get it into my podcast app on my phone somehow) As far as what to talk about, I too would love more insight into what inspires you, relating to stuff you’re working on at any time, plus a rant here or there would be appreciated as well 😛
Just one more comment (and this is where things are no doubt going to get weird for everyone involved): In a while once you get used to the whole walking thing, make sure to speed up or something so us ladies can continue to enjoy that slight out of breath quality to your voice.
Cheers 😉
LOL! Thanks. I’ll try and get winded every now and again.
I’m going to try and get it up on iTunes this weekend, so hopefully that’ll make it easier.
And thanks for the suggestions. Will do that!
Lol 🙂
Good for you Dave! Keep it up. You should talk about how are plan on changing your eating habits. Walking is a Great start. But its only half the battle. I know. I’ve lost over 60lbs in less than a year. Big fan of you and the guys.
Thanks, Ralph! I will talk about the food once I make some changes there. Right now, I’m starting by building this habit before I attempt something harder (like changing my eating and diet soda consumption). And congrats on 60 lbs!
Awesome Dave.
Things I learned:
1. Dave and I are the same height
2. I make Dave look skinny
3. I should get a decoy falcon
3. I shouldn’t assume people that walk around talking to themselves are crazy, they might just be recording a podcast
LOL! Yes, everyone walking is doing a podcast. Especially that guy who is yelling about the government using waves to control his mind.
Great idea Dave,
It is nice to hear you chat and picture you walking along while doing it. I started mall walking this winter as it has been too cold and dangerous to do it outside here in the Great White North. I’m in the same boat as you, spending all my time in front of the computer and feeling like I can feel my self spreading all over the place. I hope you keep it up.
Thanks! I should walk in Target when the weather gets bad. Then I can combine walking with ranting!
I couldn’t afford a stand up desk, so I just used some boxes on top of my roll top desk to bring it up to standing height. The nice thing about the standing desk is that when you get stuck on a spot, or just need a breather you walk away from the desk, get some water, grab a banana or something, anything, other then sitting there on the computer.
An idea might be to get a tred mill from someone on craigs list or something and walk on it for 5 mn at a time away from the standing desk. But they take up a lot of room, and aren’t really the most comfortable of machines. Walking around the house, doing a load of dishes, or walking around the block is probably just as good.
PS you should totally write a story about a robber falcon 😉 Great children’s story idea.
Fellow fluffy guy here Dave, I also need to get back into the walking groove. Squirrels are the animal that seem to follow me though when I walk. I swear they are plotting something, you can see it in their beady little eyes.
As for your Falcon friend, don’t forget your wire coat hangers for your next walk. Never know when you will need them… 😉
Topic wise, I personally vote for whatever strikes your fancy that particular day. I look forward to the next episode.
Thanks! I love watching squirrels. As for the coat hanger, what do you think this is, Birdemic? 🙂
This was great. I too spend far too much time at my desk. Slowly the weight has crept on. I’m thinking of walking too. I used to run about 4 mile aday until I went to uni. Then too much living made my jean size increase. It’s walking for me! 🙂