February in review
It’s the end of the second month of the 1000 miles challenge, how did I get on?
Even though I managed to walk a little farther than expected. This was a hard month due to a number of factors – not least the weather.
159
47
27210
39
- Longest walk – 11.85 miles
- Shortest walk – 2.05 miles
%
Percentage of walk completed to date
The highs and the lows
January ended on such a high, I guess it was inevitable that February might not quite live up to expectations.
It didn’t – February was a roller-coaster of emotions. Starting almost immediately it all felt a bit ‘flat’ – January 31st came and went. I’d exceeded my target and that really gave me an amazing burst of motivation over the last few days of the month, then it slowly dawned on me that I needed to put all that energy and effort up-front for another month.
The weather didn’t help. I’m by no stretch of the imagination a fair-weather walker. I’ve been across Dartmoor in blizzards, and driving rain, but there was something about the relentlessness of the rain that just beat me down. February started as a very wet month. The rain coupled with the previous months snow had meant everywhere was either a muddy bog or just plain flooded. The lack of traversable paths, the weather and of course the continuing lockdown put a heavy weight on my shoulders and, for about 10 days, walking just wasn’t fun – it became a ‘job’, a task to be completed.
I never contemplated giving up and I still managed to walk every day, but it was a slog!
Then the sun came out
The rain, the dark evenings and the lack of easily usable paths confined me to three routes and I started to get into a rut of literally just doing laps around town. I was walking in a virtual hamster wheel.
As we got to the middle of the month, the weather started to change and we saw some blue sky. It was still very cold, and temperatures dropped below zero for a few days… but at least it was dry.
A week of dry, even sunny, weather has helped open up many of the previously impassible routes, and while they are still muddy (they are going to need a lot more sun to dry out) at least they are passable. The end of the incessant rain and cloud was all I needed to get back my mojo, and from the final third of the month I had a new found energy to not just walk… but walk longer.
The evenings have noticeably started to get lighter,I’d estimate it gets dark about 90 minutes later now, at the end of the month than it did right back at the start.
Harder, Longer, Faster
Once my own personal dark-cloud had gone I started to relish walking again and had a desire to walk longer. Still not marathon distance yet – but the three or four mile walks that had been the norm in January had given way to five (even 6 miles walks ) as the default in the latter part of the month.
I’ve noticed my fitness has increased, I’m not running around my routes yet (I don’t think my knees would take it to be honest), but my pace has increased and I find myself much less out of breath walking up hills.
I’ve also walked a couple of longer routes, my longest of the month was 11.85 miles (I didn’t look at the tracker before I stopped – otherwise I would have walked the slightly longer way home to round it up to 12. Ho-hum) and I’ve been experimenting with footpath routes that I’ve never walked before. New routes are much more fun than the same loops and as the weather improves and lockdown eases… hopefully they’ll be more frequent. Finding places to walk to.. rather than just an aimless loop is helping me push myself at the moment. don’t get me wrong I like a good circular walk but right now I’m relishing finding local monuments and curiosities that I’ve never seen before.
Overview
February started off a disaster, but ultimately helped cement my commitment to the challenge.
I wasn’t sure I could equal the 150 miles I managed in January, during the shorter month of February but I did and even slightly exceeded it – with the month coming in at 159 miles, pusing my total over the 300 mile mark!
150 miles per month seems like a natural amount for me, it’s push but not so much that it’s breaking me. So I’ll aim to do a minimum of 150 miles in March.
As usual I’d just like to shout-out the social media accounts in which I am finding a vast supply of direct and indirect motivation.
The Official Walk 1000 miles Facebook page
Find me on Instagram: Instagram
..and on Twitter Twitter.
Here’s to marching in March!
Talking points