I hope you had a wonderful New Year’s Eve! Now whether it’s a certain amount of overindulgence you need to work off or a fresh appetite you want to work up, I know just the thing.
It’s a cliché to say ‘New year, new you’, but unlike so many of the hollow promises that tend to follow, your intention is rock solid and your plan tried and true. You’re going to walk 1000 miles. (Come on, yes you are, take the pledge.)
It’s an awesome achievement and you’re up to it. And while in some ways it’s a distant, lofty goal, it’s the opposite of dreams destined to fail through being ill-defined or lacking a timescale or without accompanying practical actions. Your goal dictates a plan that’s crystal clear: walk 2.74 miles a day, every day, starting today.
And you’re about to discover the next great thing: you don’t have to wait til the end to get your reward. Your participation in #walk1000miles starts to pay you back from the very first walk, and the gains build in the most addictive way.
Make a note of the miles you walk today and stick it to the fridge or write it on your calendar. In four days time the new edition of Country Walking hits the shelves (it’ll hit your doormat any day now if you become a member) and inside the bag is your Progress Chart. Transfer your miles to the chart (you might even get to colour in a county) and see how long a streak of days you can make it without recording a zero.
The more days you add to this chain the more powerfully your motivation builds – and though the year is long and a slow start is no barrier to success, early miles in the bank exert a strong sense of comfort. Enjoy your walks – you will even if you don’t feel like leaving the house at first. Think of all the thousands of others doing the same as you – the invisible fellowship of this challenge – and know that they’ll be feeling the same as you. A little doubtful, a bit hungover, with an optimism that is as yet just a very small, twinkling thing – like a flame that could easily blow out. But with each walk, and each week, that flame will grow stronger. And increasingly you’ll find, whatever’s in the forecast, you’re a warm weather front all to yourself, aglow with the knowledge the world’s a bigger, better place when you walk, and you’re a brighter, better you.
