1000 Miles
Famous Scottish duo The Proclaimers once sang the words "I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more just to be the man who walks a thousand miles to fall down at your door". These lyrics are now part of my plan for 2019.
Well, the falling down bit isn't part of the plan but with dyspraxia the likelihood of falling down at someone's door during the next twelve months is not out of the question. I have never tended to set traditional resolutions but I do love a challenge.
#walk1000miles is a big challenge run by Country Walking magazine. The rules are fairly flexible but the idea is simply to walk 1000 miles in a calendar year. 1000 miles is about the distance between the UK and Poland.
Now I actually do a fair amount of walking and have hit my 10,000 daily step target every day for nearly three years now. Walking a total of 1000 miles would probably not be a huge challenge if I counted every bit of walking I did, including the many miles of chasing children down the long corridors at work. Therefore I am only going to be counting 'boots on' miles, i.e. specific walks rather than day-to-day walking.
There are several reasons for doing this challenge. One is for health reasons. I am certainly overweight but I know from experience that an intense dieting and exercise regime has limited effect on me. I can lose a bit of weight but then I find anything more impossible to shed despite the fact I'm running miles and eating mostly vegetation. The trouble with doing quite a lot of walking is that it's now just part of my routine and I need to extend it to lose more weight. I'm not expecting a great difference but a gradual minor improvement can only be a good thing.
The other main reason is for my mental health. I usually hate the first few months of the year- last year they were especially bad. It's cold and the weather is poor and the next thing worth looking forward to is the summer holidays which are over six months away. Having a challenge gives me something to focus on and I know I'll quite like the process of closely tracking the miles I walk.
Walking itself is fantastic for mental health too. If nothing else, getting outside helps to increase the amount of natural sunlight you take it which is key to producing hormones serotonin which affects mood. I also find walking usually brightens my mood. I love exploring places, being out in the countryside and observing the wildlife that is there.
How realistic is walking 1000 miles in a year? At this point, I don't know for sure. It averages out as 2.74 miles a day. When I'm not at work I think I average about four miles a day but when I am working it's unlikely I'll do much more than a mile. Thankfully working in a school means that hopefully the non-working days should more than make up for the working days. 'Should' being the operative word there as I know I'm going to have considerably more extra work to do at home this year and will have to manage walking through poor weather at times and my dehabiliting hayfever come the Spring. I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll achieve it but far from confident.
I think the key is to make sure I get out as much as possible at weekends and in school holidays. I've done just over 20 miles so far which I'm pleased with so "only" 980 to go. If you are interested, I shall be regularly logging my walks and challenge progress on Instagram @zotwot1000 and there should be a little preview box of it below. I will intermittently report on my progress with the challenge here but stay tuned for the usual nonsense too...
@zotwot1000
Well, the falling down bit isn't part of the plan but with dyspraxia the likelihood of falling down at someone's door during the next twelve months is not out of the question. I have never tended to set traditional resolutions but I do love a challenge.
#walk1000miles is a big challenge run by Country Walking magazine. The rules are fairly flexible but the idea is simply to walk 1000 miles in a calendar year. 1000 miles is about the distance between the UK and Poland.
Now I actually do a fair amount of walking and have hit my 10,000 daily step target every day for nearly three years now. Walking a total of 1000 miles would probably not be a huge challenge if I counted every bit of walking I did, including the many miles of chasing children down the long corridors at work. Therefore I am only going to be counting 'boots on' miles, i.e. specific walks rather than day-to-day walking.
There are several reasons for doing this challenge. One is for health reasons. I am certainly overweight but I know from experience that an intense dieting and exercise regime has limited effect on me. I can lose a bit of weight but then I find anything more impossible to shed despite the fact I'm running miles and eating mostly vegetation. The trouble with doing quite a lot of walking is that it's now just part of my routine and I need to extend it to lose more weight. I'm not expecting a great difference but a gradual minor improvement can only be a good thing.
The other main reason is for my mental health. I usually hate the first few months of the year- last year they were especially bad. It's cold and the weather is poor and the next thing worth looking forward to is the summer holidays which are over six months away. Having a challenge gives me something to focus on and I know I'll quite like the process of closely tracking the miles I walk.
Walking itself is fantastic for mental health too. If nothing else, getting outside helps to increase the amount of natural sunlight you take it which is key to producing hormones serotonin which affects mood. I also find walking usually brightens my mood. I love exploring places, being out in the countryside and observing the wildlife that is there.
How realistic is walking 1000 miles in a year? At this point, I don't know for sure. It averages out as 2.74 miles a day. When I'm not at work I think I average about four miles a day but when I am working it's unlikely I'll do much more than a mile. Thankfully working in a school means that hopefully the non-working days should more than make up for the working days. 'Should' being the operative word there as I know I'm going to have considerably more extra work to do at home this year and will have to manage walking through poor weather at times and my dehabiliting hayfever come the Spring. I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll achieve it but far from confident.
I think the key is to make sure I get out as much as possible at weekends and in school holidays. I've done just over 20 miles so far which I'm pleased with so "only" 980 to go. If you are interested, I shall be regularly logging my walks and challenge progress on Instagram @zotwot1000 and there should be a little preview box of it below. I will intermittently report on my progress with the challenge here but stay tuned for the usual nonsense too...
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