A walk is more often, a lonely experience. As for the age of COVID-19, it's probably more of a bug than a feature. It's a way to escape the confines of closure for some glorious moments, to get some air and, for better or for worse, reflect on the day that has passed or what is to come.
However, like many things these days, it can isolate itself.
For me, long weekend walks have been something of a lifesaver during this bizarre year. After two months of being completely sidelined for health issues (not COVID), I started walking more per week than ever before. It was a slow process at first - frankly, never leaving my one bedroom apartment for April and May made it so physically painful to walk around the block when I finally felt comfortable getting out.
These days, I walk every morning, regularly crossing the bridge to Brooklyn and Manhattan. Until I started using Apple's new Fitness + service a few times a day, it was easily my main source of exercise. In November, however, my Apple Watch activity bars swapped the more generic gray for the Fitness + yellow. But even though I decided to do a couple of indoor exercises a day, I still start each day with a walk. Rain, snow, this weekend's freezing weather - skipping a day would be like breaking a promise to myself.
This morning Apple released the first five installments (episodes?) Of Time to Walk. The feature is an attempt to expand the Fitness + experience beyond the confines of its proprietary iOS app. A largely watch-based experience, the feature leverages many of the wearable device's existing features (and Apple's growing software ecosystem) to deliver a more personalized and multimedia experience than you'd get from listening to a podcast or music on your own. .
As with the sly arrival of Fitness + (December) and hand washing for watchOS (September), Apple says the timing was something of a happy coincidence. The company had been working on the feature well before COVID-19 entered the scene.
"Everything from Time to Walk and our Fitness + launch was something we had been working on well before COVID," Jay Blahnik, senior director of Fitness Technologies at the company, told ProWellTech. "From the very beginning we thought of Fitness + as a place where everyone was welcome. We wanted it to feel like a place where, whether you're new to fitness or very fit, there was something for everyone. "
For many, a walk (or a push, in the case of someone using a wheelchair for mobility) is a starting point when it comes to daily workouts. For my part, I was certainly much more comfortable taking short walks around the neighborhood. With space constraints and no real exercise equipment to speak of beyond a kettlebell and yoga mat, attempting to approximate the home gym experience seemed like a silly errand.
April found me trying out some yoga classes on YouTube with limited effectiveness. Like most exercise attempts, it didn't stick. Walking every day was the only thing he did. And for the first time in my life, COVID-19 found me walking with no particular destination in mind. That old cliché that it's about the journey and not the destination is fine when you don't mind being constantly late to meetings. Walking for itself, however, changes the dynamic significantly. I regularly speak with artists, writers and musicians for my podcast. The common sentiment is familiar: You simply can't force creativity. But for those who commit to walking and running regularly, it's perhaps the surest way to start the process.
Time to Walk is Apple's attempt to capture some of those lightning bolts in a bottle, to follow a rotating cast of big names as they walk through places that mean something to them. The company says it is making an effort to meet guests where they are and essentially to educate them during the process. The ability to do so depends, of course, on their location, especially with all kinds of travel restrictions in place since the beginning of last year.
Ultimately, Apple says, decisions about where to register are made by guests. "Some guests said, 'this is where I want to go,'" says Blahnik. "And some guests were saying, 'no, I want to take the walk I normally do.' For us, it's not about Shawn Mendes in the Grand Canyon, it's about where they want to go. Sometimes he's limited by COVID, but what we found delightful was for many people who loved the walk they loved to take. "
The first four guests - Mendes, Dolly Parton, Draymond Green, and Uzo Aduba - manage the range of approaches. "We think of the stories, we think of the different guests," says Blahnik. Let's think about all the ways you would like conversations to go. But what was important to us was that the idea fit in with them. The idea of going out for a walk, having a nice conversation and listening to stories that might give you a different perspective. "
Parton, who turned 75 earlier this month, recorded her session in a studio, in contrast to the other three names. He tells a handful of stories that largely revolve around his upbringing in Sevier County (pronounced "severe"), Tennessee. There is a story about a Christmas tree and one about opening a literacy center with the help of her father (who struggled with his own ability to read and write).
She tells the story of when her hometown erected a statue for her rather casually. "So I went home and said, 'Dad, did you know they're putting up my statue? Do you know about the statue down at the courthouse? "Explains Parton." And Dad said, 'Well, yeah, I've heard of it.' He said, 'Now, to your fans out there, you might be some kind of idol. But to those pigeons, you're just another toilet.'
According to Parton, her father would visit the statue at night with a bucket of soap and water to clean the pigeon mess from his daughter's likeness. His segment culminates with something that comes close to a behind the musical style segment, describing the stories behind three of his songs: "Coat of Many Colors", "Circle of Love" and "9 to 5." The latter is the real gem of the group, pitting her morning routine against costars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, while describing the role her acrylic nails played in the song writing and recording process.
Green's stories are the most emblematic of the rest. On a stroll around Malibu, the mighty Warriors striker discusses some inspirational stories on and off the pitch, from being told he would never be a star to a time when he tried and failed to cheat on a test at school. The stories are purposely personal. Aduba recounts some of her struggles to get into acting, as she accompanies her funny-named dog Fenway Bark through Fort Green Park in Brooklyn.
Guests share images related to their stories or snapshots of where they go on their walks, which are delivered to their wrist with a tactile buzz. At the end of the journey, they share three handpicked songs that can be saved to a playlist on Apple Music, similar to what the company did for its Fitness + workouts.
Time to Walk reports have so far compared it to podcasting, understandably, given that it's an on-demand, audio-first experience. Although the feature, which is downloaded directly to the watch when the new installment drops once a week, has its own flavor, according to Apple.
"Podcasts are often hosted," Blahnik says, by way of distinction. "In our journey to build this experience, we definitely considered whether there should be a guest walking with this person. What we realized is that, for what we were trying to create, the intimacy of having the single guest talking to you felt a lot more like you were on a walk with them. The idea that it's not happening in a studio (in almost all cases), that they are walking somewhere that inspires them. You'll hear it with Draymond and Shawn - with Shawn he's huffing and puffing up that hill and it's pretty nice because you're in that moment together. "
Time to Walk isn't raw, exactly. After all, it is an Apple production. The company certainly doesn't throw the audio found here. But the content feels more improvised than many of his productions, even though it's packed together with a brilliant intro and a trio of songs at the end. But it's a nice change of pace for anyone looking for something that seems a little more personal than what we're used to from some of the names involved.
Your mileage will vary, depending on, among other things, your interest in the guest. However, there's always a chance that someone you've never been particularly interested in - or you've never heard of - offers some unique treats or an interesting way of looking at things. This is one of the potential benefits of having Apple curating here: there's an interesting potential for discovery. And even in the case of artists you know, there is good potential to discover something new.
The 20- to 45-minute weekly audio supplement won't make the actual act of walking any less lonely, but for a while, at least, it's nice to feel like someone is on the road.
