My Activity Tracking
127
mi
My target 120 mi
I’m fundraising for The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award
I'm taking part in the DofE Do it 4 Youth Step Challenge walking, running or wheeling 120 miles throughout March, raising vital funds for the DofE charity more young people facing financial barriers can access the life-chanding Awards programme and transform their lives. Please support me by sponsoring as much as you can.
My Updates
March 25 - Trekken en sleuren
Tuesday 25th Mar Today was a bit of a scramble. One morning walk and another one in the late afternoon. Less than 10 miles to go now - carefully optimistic about reaching the target by month end.No walking tomorrow. Back on Thursday.
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March 24 - Selling my Apple shares 😤
Monday 24th Mar My phone is taking the Mickey - same walk as yesterday and a difference of 0.5 miles?!? At this stage every step matters to reach the 120 before month end so am not in the slightest bit amused.Luckily this motivated me to cross off a long overdue item on my To Do list and the walk to the mailbox took care of the missing mileage. Silver linings etc… but for sure lost trust in the integrity of my phone 😂
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March 22 - 23 - Triple digits, baby!
Sunday 23rd Mar Double whammy as ‘Post Message’ went awol again yesterday.Yesterday was not pretty - dragged myself off to a closed gate again (does the army not take the weekend off?!?) and back home with a detour to get the clicks. Only thing that kept me going was my stubbornness not to give up. Close call.
Today bit better - a few extra rounds around the local pond and a few zigzags for good measure got me to 5.2 miles. Celebrated with a croissant 🙂
Have now comfortably crossed the 100 mile marker, 18 to go over the next week. Got a few days that are going to be a challenge to get the mileage in but it is still feasible 🤞
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March 21 - autopilot?
Friday 21st Mar Got out bright and early to try and beat the rain forecasted for later today. Successfully 🙂Am walking whole stretches on quasi autopilot, which is good because it makes distance pass faster, but not so good as I don’t notice my surroundings any more. And lack of awareness leads to absence of appreciation…
On a different note, a few muscles I did not even know I had, have started making themselves noticed in a rather painful way. I could do with a day off…
Happy start of spring!! 🌱🌷
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March 20
Thursday 20th Mar Nice day for a walk, blue skies and birds singing. Time really goes faster when you say hello to all the dogs (and their owners) you meet on the way. Mixed results on the friendliness meter for people sans pet. Too much idle thinking time on my hands 🙄 Share
March 19
Wednesday 19th Mar Lunch time walk today, surprisingly easy to get out of the door. I think my brain is cottoning on to the idea that being among trees (and the occasional cow) is chill. And not even a peep/squeak from the knees until about 3 miles in 😎I wil not recognise myself at the end of this journey. 🤣
Rain forecast for the end of the week so hopefully I can squeeze in some more dry miles tomorrow 🤞
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March 17 - 18
Tuesday 18th Mar Technical issues or just lack of doing the right thing, but was not able to post a blog yesterday as the ‘Create a New Post’ did not appear. So a twofer today…No particular highlights for yesterday other than that I tried to save a cow (entangled in a copse of holly) which blatantly did not want to be saved but blissfully chewed her way to salvation. Did not know cows eat holly so not a wasted day 😎
Today was in mineur - the usual walk-to-clear-your-head was more of a walk-to-review-the-mess-in-your-head. But as the universe is unpredictable, I ended up with 0.3 miles more for just about the same walk I did yesterday, only part of it counterclockwise. Go figure.
40 miles to go to 120 😬
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March 16 - Ruminations on being an introvert
Sunday 16th Mar Finding it hard again to self motivate to keep on going. Am very much not a people person but am beginning to see how joining a group could help in taking that important first step out of the door and keep the motivation going through conversation during the walk.On the other hand, the way current affairs are going and the madcap ideas that a lot of people seem to entertain, company might very well lead to chaos and mayhem. Think I’ll just stick to greeting random dogs along the way - 🙄
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March 15 -
Saturday 15th Mar No sulking today - got up early-ish, walked into town including a really nice part along the canal and came back. And it’s not even noon yet. Getting a pro at this (I wish!) Share
March 14 - Inner motivation 🙄
Friday 14th Mar So very difficult (again 😂) to motivate myself to step outside the door. I wasted an hour procrastinating, envisioning different scenarios : zombie mode around shops to end up with 0.95 miles, drive to a different place and walk 3 hours for the same result, stay in bed and achieve only 0.95 miles less, or walk the same old.Same old won by a margin so small I suspect Putin’s hackers interfered with my brainwaves (not sure which way either 🫤).
Anyhoo, left the house and did the distance - minus 0,1 mile which I somehow bridged by trotting around the house on snack breaks. So 4.0 miles achieved. Another day, another gain…
Tomorrow getting up early-ish for a walk into town. 4.2 miles according to Maps, I cannot wait (to be back)!
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March 13 - colder and wetter
Thursday 13th Mar In an attempt to avoid mud on this dreary Thursday, I opted for a pavement walk today. What I gained in ease and speed of walking, was quickly lost in the fumes of exhaust pipes of passing traffic and the realisation I was coming up short no less than a mile 🫤Oh the pain of having to walk past your front door and go in search of another mile while your nose is so cold it is about to fall off your face, and your brain is screaming to stop this nonsense now… The places we go…
Ended up overshooting by a bit so daily result at 4.3 miles. Can we have the sun back please?
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March 12 - cold and wet
Wednesday 12th Mar It was bound to happen so today it did - the weather god(s) opted for the double whammy of ‘cold and wet’ today. Miserable and testing my willpower 🫤Cherry on the soggy cake : ran out of phone battery so last of mileage not recorded. Nothing a couple of trips to the corner shop could not solve - after a quick tea at home to recharge both the phone and myself but a bit of a botheration never the less. And now the sun is out again in full glory. Thank god I am an atheist!
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March 11 - Resistance to change?? I wish!
Tuesday 11th Mar For all those who thought that 11 consecutive days would be enough to build at least a bit of a habit (me!!) - WRONG!! 😑 The resistance to the urge to not go for a walk after 11 days of activity was 0.0001%. Had to drag myself out of the door today…Woke up in the middle of the night with sore knees and crippling anxiety about still not having found the ‘correct’ 4 mile roundtrip. My mind is my best demotivator - my knees are just along for the drama 🙄.
In a nutshell, got the 4m in but only because of a last minute detour to the corner shop. If I ever do this again it is going to be the good old metric system that will do the measuring - and the numeric part of the target will remain the same 🤫
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March 10 - Early bird but no worms…
Monday 10th Mar Back before 9am and already 4.2 miles in the legs. What an interesting way to start the day 😎 Share
March 9 - Water
Sunday 9th Mar Morning walk unlocked. Woodland and ponds. Note to self not to forget water bottle (again). Another glorious day for a walk but happy to be back home with a cuppa. Share
March 8 - Only the knees know…
Saturday 8th Mar Good day today. Army opened up their training grounds and the weather is still in glorious mode so the steps came ‘quite’ easy today for a lovely walk, once I convinced my knees to get out of bed…Personal best so far - 6.3 miles. Keep saving up the extras for a rainy day (or 2). Happy with progress so far, at least I have now made it past week 1 🙂
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March 7 - Are we there yet? NO!
Friday 7th Mar Another double dip today - left house at 7.15am convinced I had the 4m all sussed out. Got back home at 8.30am with a miserly 3.3m on the app. Where am I going wrong!?!? (Sad pun intended, self-knowledge is key 😎)So added in a quick dash to the pharmacy over lunch and can now claim another daily achievement of 4.3 miles. Me done for today.
Ambition is to build up a bit of a buffer with longer walks over the weekend 🤞🤞🤞
March 6 - motivation left town
Thursday 6th Mar The best laid plans… The goal was to do the weekly shop early in the am and hopefully get the daily goal shlepping around a grocery cart... 🤡Second supermarket in, dutifully walk/sprinting through every aisle, barely avoiding collisions with erratic human entities at both end of the age spectrum, I checked my mileage and had reached a grand total of 2 miles. Gave up and drove home.
Rest of the afternoon was in the Godot league , whisper synced by an annoying inner voice nagging about the missing 2m. Finally managed to drag myself out for a medium sized walk around block and got 4.1 miles in. Not the best day, and not doing the supermarket ‘shortcut’ again.
Very happy to have company on tomorrow’s walk cuz today success hung by less than a thread…
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March 5 - panic
Thursday 6th Mar With a day’s delay as the ‘add to blog’ button seemed to have disappeared (note to DofE, being able to waffle adds motivation!) - a short recap.Woke to a message my morning zoom was postponed to tomorrow. Noting the time sent was 3 am, I failed to process the fact that the US sender’s ‘tomorrow’ was still my ‘today’. I rush into my morning walk only to get a text 30 mins in, checking my whereabouts. Whereabouts were 6 inches in mud with patchy reception to boot (which I was not wearing - wrong choices all round). Reschedule meeting for an hour later, only to discover army has closed down my intended route for training purposes. 🤪 Adrenaline boosts all over the place… More mud and hurry but made it back with .1 mile extra and in time for call.
Surprised myself ginormous by doing a quick extra walk around the block in the pm. Was a beautiful day so eager to build up a bit of a buffer for rainy days (which are forecasted this weekend). 2 walks in a day, even my phone’s health app is getting worried (‘your habits have changed’). At least the sun shines and no muddy walk tomorrow.
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Day 4 - Neuroscience and cows
Tuesday 4th Mar First of the solo walks today and motivation was in short supply. I really like BEING outside, but not so hot on the GOING outside… As my brain (THOUGHTS, IDEAS!) is the only part of my entity that works in 24/7 overdrive - whether I like it or not - I thought I’d spend my time reflecting on how my brain, even at my mature age, knows something is good for me, knows I will likely actually enjoy part of it, but still needs close to extreme shock therapy to get me going. Dopamine and neuroscience - lofty goals…And then I ran into some cows… And they were very cute. And a bit scary because baby cows and big horns on the mummy and daddy cows.
And after the cows, I kind of forgot about my sore knees and neuroscience and cows and just tried to be while doing. Less thinking, more walking.
And I actually did manage 4 miles!! Very muddy shoes though. No cows tomorrow.
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March 3 - 10% unlocked!
Monday 3rd Mar Still have not figured out a walk that achieves the daily 4m goal without a lot of circling back or last minute improvisation. What I assumed would be a 4m walk this morning only turned out to be a measly 3.3 🫤. Never one to do the same thing twice (🤪), I closed the gap through a quick visit to the supermarket and by parking the car as far away from the movie theatre (September 5 - highly recommended!) as possible. Target achieved for today. The search for the ideal 4m round trip to be continued… Share
March 2 - Bof
Sunday 2nd Mar Nice local walk this morning. Birds singing, sun shining and lots of smiling people about. Spring is in the air. Overestimated the length of the walk (oh those pesky miles, why can’t they be kms 🥴) so extension was required to meet the daily goal of 4 miles. Need to get this mileage sorted as not a big fan of changing trajectory halfway - always have my eye on the prize at home (cuppa!!) and woe the extra miles that keep me from them. Another attempt tomorrow to get a routine set up for the weekday walks… Share
March 1 - and off I go…
Saturday 1st Mar Deceptively easy start as 4m covered by a day out in London. Brunch and theater with a little side tour to a few bookshops and leisurely walks to/from railway station. Easy peasy… 1 day down, 30 to go 🤞 Share
