Anyone doing the Walk 1000miles in 2018 challenge?

[GandolfBold]

[[https://www.walk1000miles.co.uk/ challenge website]]

I am signed up and off for my first walk this morning.

GandolfBold I read it as an adaptable challenge too. 1000 extra miles will make a difference whether you normally walk less or more than that. I'm sure a big part of it is encouraging people to walk regularly too. I'm confused as to why anyone would rubbish people trying to improve their health

Exactly Apples.

greenshoots taking MY 7 year old at 6:30 pm when she has been in school and after school childcare all day would be a problem. She gets exhausted and whiny. If you have a chirpy cheery 7 year old who would happily go for an hour's walk around suburban streets in the dark and cold of Jan and Feb every day then congratulations, you are obviously doing a better parenting job than me.

Why is everyone being all superior 'thats not a challenge' ?

I came across this in October and since then we have done 225 deliberate miles and I've signed up for 2018.

10000 steps a day for me only happens if I go out for a deliberate 3 mile walk. The facebook page is a great place for encouragement (clearly better than mn) some people count all steps, some just count deliberate miles which is what I'm doing. Some on the facebook page have set 2000 + targets the challenge is whatever you want it to be.

oldbirdy nothing sucks the joy out of a good walk like a tired child Quite fair of you not to drag a 7-year-old out after a long day too. It does make it hard to find time!

Completely agree with oldbirdy and DD is 11. She comes home knackered. As do I. I don’t manage anywhere near 10000 steps on a work day.

Drive the six miles to work via school, ride my bike when I can which depends on my work diary, whether I need to do the school run and, this year, my health.

Park, cross road, sit at my desk for anywhere from 9-13 hours if I have evening meetings. The only place I go to is our to get a sandwich for lunch and/or a ready meal for dinner if I am working very late. Minimal walking during the day. Home, in the dark for four months of the year.

Rural living without street lights/pavements means walking on roads doesn’t happen.

I often do 7-8 miles on the three days a week I don’t work, and most days when I am on leave but it definitely doesn’t happen when I am at work.

Doing this as additional walking at weekends only would mean 20 miles a week, fine as a time rich Singleton, not so fine as someone with a family who doesn’t see enough of them due to work.

So I would consider an extra 1000 miles an achievement.

To be fair I’ve only just reached the point where I can do things for me rather than needing to be near for the kids. Hubby is doing it with me which makes it easier. Some of the challengers are doing a shorter distance with the kids taking part too.

If you read the "How it works" link then you can see that for most it will be additional walks. If you wear a fitness tracker and aim for 10,000 steps a day that is approx 1,825 miles. I did a challenge in 2015 to walk 2,015 miles. I completed it with only a month to spare - it was fairly tough and I did a lot of walking instead of taking the car, 6 or 7 mile walks on a weekend etc. BUT this total was achieved by counting all steps that I did. So if someone is doing this as 1,000 miles of just 'walks' then it will be a great achievement.

#walk1000miles is YOUR challenge and the only person you’re competing against is the old you. That means while we set the target, YOU decide on the rules that suit you. If circumstances or fitness dictate you can count every step using a wearable fitness tracker; if you’re keen to get out more and go further, count only walks over and above your usual activity, perhaps using an app on your phone. Whatever suits your level of fitness and ambition, you need to average 2.74 miles per day whatever method you decide on.

I’m doing it OP i’m counting actual walks rather than steps - so have done a walk of 3.9 miles this morning as a start but i’m not counting any other activity i’ve done today. I thought it was a good motivator to do a bit extra I didn’t realise it was completely shit and I should be doing it easily without having to try.

Well done Cardigan 996.1 to go (and of course that will be easy) , we did 4.12 this morning and very muddy it was too.

Thanks billy the Facebook page is great I love seeing all the photos of the countryside that people are walking through

I've just joined this and will count steps each day towards this.
I'm one of those lazy people who don't do 10,000 steps a day currently so it will be a challenge for me.

I really need to improve my fitness so I'm up for this.
Will start tomorrow.
If I do well this year would love to next year do this as 'boots on' miles.

I know people who would sooner drive than walk 600 steps so if you add people who habitually avoid walking to those who either don't find time in their day to walk anywhere or know their activity is limited by poor fitness or health issues, then it's a pretty decent goal. It's pretty much the walking distance that Fitbit suggests for people not used to walking.

Yes I am,it helps me do more than I normally would.i count all steps so hoping for more than 1000 miles this year.

I do more than that because I have a dog. But loads of people don’t. I feel safe to say that because all the people amazed by this fact will have such good cardio vascular health that there is no risk the shock will kill them...........

The self righteousness might be a bit damaging though.....

The 1000 mile goal is far too low to have any impact on general fitness or overall health and really shouldn’t be something to aspire to.

Rubbish!

If a person is already so inactive, despite all the advice for 10K steps a day, 3x30 pulse-raising sessions etc, then they are not goingto change their habits for something that will IYO have an impact.

1K miles in a year breaks down to 2miles/day. Something that is more attainable. Perhaps they will leave the car at home and start walking to the station, or walking their dc to school.

Perhaps they will find something enjoyable in this that will lead to more physical activity. Perhaps it will influence their dc.

Don't rubbish other people's attempts at fitness, just because you can do better.

I'd be interested in this but the links not working for me.

www.walk1000miles.co.uk/home

Is that link any better rugrat?

It is thank you @billybagpuss!

The 1000 mile goal is far too low to have any impact on general fitness or overall health and really shouldn’t be something to aspire to

That is incredibly narrow minded. A few years ago when I finally got out of a wheelchair (had been in one for months) and just walking from one room to another without being in agony was a challenge. My two main aims at that point were to be able to get up and down stairs at home and build up to be able to walk 1km with the dog - was that pointless and of no benefit to my health? No - it helped me hugely. That was definitely a good thing to aspire to. Since then I've come on in leaps and bounds - building to the first 1km was really difficult, once I'd got there I was able to add a lot more distance quickly. (note: dog was getting other walks with other people when I couldn't take him far).

Also as others have said lots of people are doing it as 1000miles of deliberate or extra walks not just their all day steps. 1000 miles extra walks is quite a commitment for most people.

For those that are doing it as their daily steps, they are presumably fairly inactive, so it will still help increase their health and most importantly it will hopefully set good habits which will not only continue but grow into more and more activity.

I'm rather glad that when I was building up from nothing, I had a lovely friend who kept reminding me that health and fitness achievements should be rated by where you started. She's someone who does 5k runs all the time, goes to the gym most days, does weights, plays rugby and other sports. Yet she could still see that for me walking that little bit further was really hard and a great achievement.

10000 steps in a day is quite hard to achieve especially if you have to drive to work and have a sedentary job as I do. Sometimes people have poor health and can’t walk very far so surely any improvement on what they are currently doing is a bonus.

Fwiw I went out on News Years day for a 3 mile ‘boots on’ deliberate walk, plus all the walking about and general housework I did at home and I still didn’t quite reach 10000 steps.
People may sneer and say 10000 steps is nothing but to me this challenge is not just about getting fit, it gives me something to focus on, will improve my mental health, and get me out into the fresh air most days