I have a funny relationship with exercise. At the beginning of the school year I drop the girls off at school and then I schedule into my week exercise classes, swimming and time to get outside walking. Then as soon as half term arrives mid to late October, I take a break from exercising while I run around with the girls either going away on holiday (pre-Coronavirus days) or visiting family and friends. Once the girls are back in school, I then lose another couple of weeks playing catch up with the chores that a month will go by without me hitting the gym.
November sees the arrival of Sinterklaas on the 16th and the run up to Christmas with all the preparations and then travelling to see family that before I know it, January is here along with the annual New Year promise of getting back on track. I stay focussed until Spring break before getting waylaid by end of year preparations and then the summer vacations when sport classes finish until September. The cycle then begins again.
This summer I mean to break this cycle. Two key things have changed, firstly, my daughters are getting older so do not need me to entertain them as much and secondly, one of the benefits of the coronavirus is my husband is working from home a lot more which means I am able to get out. While I was taking my daughter to a playdate my friend was saying how since the holidays had begun, she had missed the exercise of walking to and from school each day and how she had signed up to do a virtual walk online. Later that evening as I sat watching TV, I dropped her a text saying “Do you fancy meeting up for a walk in the morning at 6:30am?” Her initial response was to tell me she had laughed and choked on her wine but then said yes, but can we make it 7:00am instead.
Following on from that early morning walk I have also signed up for a virtual walk. I have committed to completing the Lands’ End to John O’Groats walk which is 1744.2km in length.
The first week…
The first week was easy to stay focussed, the weather has been lovely, not too warm to be out and about. Having a challenge has motivated me to get up and out and I have either tried to walk first thing on a morning or if my morning walk did not notch up enough kms then sweet talked Georgina into coming out with me after dinner. When we first started walking the daily target of 9km seemed a lot, but it is easily managed. I have also received more postcards from the Virtual Mission team, and I love contrasting them to where I have actually walked.
So a big Thank You! to Sharon for setting me on this journey and helping me along. I’m looking forward to the next 1693km ahead and will pop in some updates as I go.
A bite off each leg... 