Sick of going for walks

[User158340]

Anyone else having to really drag themselves to go out at the moment?

I actually love going for a walk, but after 9 months of the same local walks i'm sick to death of them. The freezing cold weather obviously compounds it and the rain etc.

Yesterday I actually didn't leave the house at all and ended up awake half the night. Now I have to motivate myself to go for a longish walk today in 'feels like' minus temperatures.

Yes use neighbour's

Neighbours dog I mean

I found some nice ponies to go and look at, slightly diverting me from my normal route. Sometimes the small, fluffy one is out or sometimes all of them are out or sometimes I just see a head poking out of the stable. There are several ponds nearby so sometimes I try to find the moorhen. There are also some other stables. This is quite a built up area. It’s amazing what you can find when you wander off the beaten path...

I like to go a bit further afield but it has been very muddy later and hard going. Plus the farmer has put a fence up narrowing the path and making social distancing from other walkers difficult, so I’ve been more urban in the past few weeks.

My two little ones need to burn energy off and we'd normally go to soft play or something in this weather. The cold and damp exacerbates DS2's asthma and his autistic behaviours and both of them are miserable within minutes anyway. Plus it's dark early. Can't wait for summer, you can get out and about, the kids sleep better and are just 100% different, in a good way. From now until about April is claustrophobic and awful.

I must live in the most boring, useless part of the country for walking. Not only are there no rights of way locally, theres not even a footpath anywhere near my house - just a fast, dangerous road. I tried walking along the field margins, but its too muddy and uneven and it was so bad, it was just silly. It really is dire.

@Ineke

I would suggest either joining 'Meet Up' or Ramblers. You are allowed to go out on a group walk in Tier Four if it is with a formal Covid safe group,such as these two. Ramblers walks are between 6-12 miles and have a pace but plenty of stops and breaks. 'Meet Up' walks are shorter and some are coastal if you like the sea.

All Meet Up groups are different. My Meet Up walking group does from 9-12 miles. But we've stopped since we went into T4, it's not allowed, not even "formal" groups, we were OK at T3, but not T4.

I think you'll find only Meet Up groups near the sea do coastal walks. Being in the Midlands, other than a few weekends in the past when we've been away, we've surprisingly never done a coastal walk.

Yes yes yes especially now it’s so cold. I cry because I get so
Cold.
It’s really hard dragging the children out for a walk at the best of times but when I know I’m going to be painfully cold it’s eve harder. I wish I wasn’t such a cold person. It’s awful!!

I bought myself an adult commuter scooter for Xmas! Why the hell not? We are lucky to have a network of paved, lit paths so I scoot along in the dark with the DC. We have front lights and go at about 10mph I would say. It beats walking and the thigh burn is quite something. Plus, as we go in the evening there is barely anyone around.
The gyms are still open here (borrowed time I would say) but the gym is not a great deal of use when the DC aren’t of gym age. So scoring and Madfit on YouTube it is.

OH, my darlings, I know this is very rough for you. I really do. I get it...but I'm also a bit jealous. I have some fairly serious mobility issues, and have had for the last 10 years. I am able to get to my front porch pretty easily. I shop for groceries once a month, and go to my doctor's office once every four month. Other than that, I do not leave my house, and haven't, again, for the LAST 10 YEARS. I would love to be bored with a walking path.

By all means, use the apps recommended, reverse your route, take along an audio book, but GET OUT AND GLORY IN THE FACT THAT YOU CAN STILL WALK LIKE THAT!

I feel the same, I love a good long walk but it's been such a wet winter in my area barely a day goes by without rain at some point (it's not normally like this). I'm a reasonably hardy person with bad weather but it is the continuous being outside in the cold / rain / damp and there's no where to just shelter insude with a hot drink. I've had a cold for weeks because of it.

I'm sure if I do get covid my severity will be wise because my immunity has already been compromised by being under the weather.

Totally agree- dh and I are bored to death on passing comment on the same houses all the time. Walking with a friend makes it bearable though and breaks up the day.

Tier 4 here now and we are also fed up with the immediately local walks, but half of them are under water currently, which - if we were following an IMAGINARY RULE and only walking out from our front door - would limit us to the village pavements and a couple of village footpaths that haven't flooded yet.

There are no rules about not driving somewhere for exercise and recreation. It merely says 'you should stay local' - well, we are in the middle of a Tier 4 county and surrounded by other Tier 4 counties and the furthest we've driven to walk is about 20 minutes. I think that's local and we're not anywhere near leaving the Tier area.

We have two DC to drag out too, one of whom has additional needs and requires constant attention and vigilance, so sadly taking along an audiobook isn't an option. I wish. Like other posters, in pre-Covid times I liked a walk as long as it took in a good pub or cosy cafe at some point.

Well, I was out walking from ten til three today, eleven miles with a friend. We did stop and have tea from our flasks and share some Christmas treats, and at the end we bought take away tea at a cafe and had the last of our treats.

It was nice to catch up and the time flew by. Didn't really seem that cold and I managed to ignore the drizzle. Meeting another friend to do about eight miles tomorrow.

I saw an article a while back about a Canadian family who had several months of proper bad weather at the outset of the pandemic. One of their top tips was actually not to beat yourself up about not going out if that's not what you feel like, and come up with other ways to be active.

So online yoga or dance classes, some Joe Wicks? DS(7) and I have done two hours+ of WiiSports the last couple of afternoons.

I’ve got a friend in the USA who hasn’t been out since April. They live in a huge house so it’s easier to stay in when you have more space at home. They’ve got exercise equipment too.
Not so easy if you have a typical little English home.

@VanGoghsDog

Get a dog is such a stupid response.

Agreed. ‘I hate walking.’ ‘Get a pet which will force you to do the thing you hate daily, for potentially 15 years.’ What?

YANBU

@GlomOfNit “local” is defined in the guidance. It says “your village, your town or the part of the city in which you live”.

In reality I dont think there’s anything wrong with your definition though. I couldn’t get excited about driving a short distance somewhere for any reason tbh. The gov are just trying to avoid mass exodus from London to the lakes “for exercise”

Worriedkat - ah, does it? I must have read the short version! I do believe you but could you link me to it please - I found the official gov guidelines and lists of things you can and can't do, but no further detail.

If you have a route which you are getting fed up with, sometimes, varying the time of day makes it more beneficial. Early morning sunrises and evening sunsets are very soul restoring. As its cold, I'm afraid I have dug out the thermals.

I can't walk much at the moment but we went to the beach (chilly, sunny) today and I wore a thermal base layer and my down jacket on top.

Word.

@GlomOfNit it’s in the tier 4 rules on gov.uk in the travel section:

Travel
Travelling within a Tier 4 area
If you live in a Tier 4 area, you must not leave your home unless you have a reasonable excuse (for example, for work or education purposes). If you need to travel you should stay local – meaning avoiding travelling outside of your village, town or the part of a city where you live – and look to reduce the number of journeys you make overall. The list of reasons you can leave your home and area include, but are not limited to: blah blah blah

I wouldn’t worry about it though. In the same tier 4 guidance it says you can travel to all sorts of leisure places - it’s in the Meeting Others Safely section of tier 4:

You can exercise or visit a public outdoor place:

by yourself
with the people you live with
with your support bubble
or, when on your own, with 1 person from another household
Children under 5, and up to 2 carers for a person with a disability who needs continuous care are not counted towards the outdoors gatherings limit.

Public outdoor places include:

parks, beaches, countryside accessible to the public, forests
public gardens (whether or not you pay to enter them)
allotments
the grounds of a heritage site
outdoor sports courts and facilities
playgrounds

My conclusion is stay local-ish, but I really wouldn’t get excited about someone driving a shortish distance to go somewhere different.

Take a look at the AllTrails app, previously known as iFootpath, for new ideas of local walks. We do travel short distances by car to find other walks. Probably not strictly in line with the guidelines but it is just us and we don't mix with anyone else.