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Walking goal: done
1000+ miles

In January this year, Kate and I decided to try walking 1000 miles in 2019.

We did it. As of today, my total distance was 1,181 miles. Well done me. Daily and weekly milage varied enormously, as follows:

• daily totals ranged between zero and 9.8 miles
• weekly totals ranged between 11.9 miles and 38.7 miles
• four-weekly totals ranged between 68 miles and 123.9 miles

There were bad times: a kinda-bad dip in activity in February-March (caused by a foot problem), another much worse dip in the summer (caused by illness and much reduced commuting).

And there were good times: especially the autumn, as I recovered from the summer’s illness and put more effort into regular exercise. My weekly totals shot up.

Rhythms and waves of progress and regression. I guess that’s normal.

I’ve had a few thoughts:

• 1000 miles wasn’t really enough of a challenge; although I’m pleased to have done it, I feel like I haven’t really made a proper effort. This was just an exercise in adding up the movements I was making regardless - it wasn’t an exercise in exercise.
• Next year I’m going to switch to kilometres, because I run in kilometres.
• And I’m going to push the target up: 1000 miles is 1600 km, so let’s make the target a nice round 2000 km (which is 1,242 miles). That feels like a moderate but achievable increase.
• As I alluded to above, the days when I commute to London are actually very good for me, despite the hours I spend sitting on trains. Getting to, between, and from train stations ends up requiring a lot of walking.
• It’s the working-from-home days that need more focus. In recent months that’s been solved by going for a run at lunchtime or in the evening, but I’d like to find more varied ways of getting myself moving on those days.

So, target for 2020: 2000 km. Let’s go.

Filed under: walks
(29 December 2019)

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