April in review
If you’ll read my March review last month you’ll know that things didn’t end particularly well.
April was a month for me to reassess, regroup and get my head straight again.
143
45
41
- Longest walk – 9.73 miles
- Shortest walk – 1.3 miles
%
Percentage of walk completed to date
Getting back into the swing of it.
April started with me in full focus mode, in the sense that I had a target. I wanted to get to the halfway point (500 miles) as fast as I could – I’d originally planned to reach 500 miles before, or on, April 1st. Not only did that not happen, but I was about a week behind target.
I reached 500 miles on April 5th and then something strange happened… I relaxed.
It was odd, but I didn’t relax in the sense that it was “a job well done” or “yeah I’m on target”, I stopped caring about the walk and about the targets. This had a couple of knock-on effects. I stopped posting on Instagram every day, I was still walking every day but it was shorter distances and with less urgency. It was all being driven by my subconscious as if my mind was saying “OK dude, we;re halfway there with 8 months left.. let’s chill”
My Mood
Taking my foot ‘off the gas’ for a week didn’t really help with anything. I knew I needed to walk but I simply couldn’t work up the motivation to get some serious miles in. The weather had also turned and we were back to wet and windy days. I was sneaking in a mile here and there between rain showers but I knew I needed to be doing more.
Whether it was the lack of walking, the dreary weather, lockdown* or some delayed grief from last month, my mood took a tumble. I was really struggling to engage with the walking or most aspects of my life, it was so strange; like a dark cloud had descended over me ..and I couldn’t see past it. The weather improved somewhat, and I made a herculean effort to get out on a long walk and manged to just under 10 miles. I felt a bit better for it and that was the push I needed to get out on some longer walks.
I soon hit the 550 mile marker and 600 miles followed towards the end of the month but I still wasn’t quite myself.
Mixing it up
Months of walking the same routes was not helping. Rather than switching off while I was on a walk I found myself replaying events in my head and mulling over things like I was stuck in an endless loop .
So I made two changes to try and stop this self-defeating behaviour.
1: I started to listen to podcasts more.
If I was going got be walking in circles for much of the time then I needed to take my mind off it – so setting up a playlist of podcasts really helped. I had listened occasionally in the past – but always felt like I was missing out on the walk – so I stopped
2: At the weekend I would walk somewhere different
It was easy to just do the same routes every day – and I think that was part of my problem. I was getting bored.
So Saturday and Sundays are my ‘new route’ days. I find a local footpath I’ve never walked before and then try to make a circular route out of it. It’s working wonders.
For the time being I’m also going to post weekly on Instagram. The pressure of trying to post good, interesting pictures every day – when I’m literally walking on the same paths 90% of the time – is a pressure point I can easily jettison. I may pick it back up over Summer.
Overview
April has been a month or resets, gloom and course corrections.
I haven’t walked as far as I wanted, but I’m encouraged that by the end of the month I am feeling far more positive and determined to keep marching on. Hopefully May will bring some drier weather and the sunlight will help improve everyone’s mood.
I’ve mentioned 2000 miles in the past – right now that seems like a fever dream and wholly unachievable. I’ll try and claw some miles back in May and let’s see where we end up.
Keep walking!
(* I’ve spoken to plenty of people over the last few weeks who are feeling very much like me and I wonder if Lockdown is actually starting to take a toll. I might go into this in the future)
Social media is helping me find some extra motivation and drive:
The Official Walk 1000 miles Facebook page
Find me on Instagram: Instagram
..and on Twitter Twitter.
Talking points