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.

3. 55
68
81
94
107
120
4/
2
4/
4
4/
8
4/
9
4/
10
4/
11
4/
15
4/
16
4/
17
4/
18
4/
20
4/
21
4/
22
4/
23
4/
24
4/
25
4/
26
69
92
74
93
60
78
72
104
75
115
85
115
64
106
80
115
70
80
70
104
70
114
83
118
65
96
73
115
63
105
74
115
63
103
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.