Is there something that you occasional see or hear other people do and think, I really want to do that.
But you never do because it is too expensive, or difficult or something else. I have a lot of those.
I remember as a young woman my work colleagues going to the Yukon to walk a passage trail. Watching them plan meals and get their kit ready all I could think about was that I would love to go but I didn’t think I could make a week hiking with all my food, clothes and shelter with me.
I regret not going.
This year as I was improving my fitness I talked with friends about a challenge I found online. A colleague from a few years ago does them and I thought it would be nice to do one eventually.
There are different distances in this challenge, 25k, 34k, 50k or 100k. I can walk a fair distance with no problems and was doing a very slow 5k jog (and was walk/jogging 10K). A few friends decided to walk the 34k challenge which is the end of May 2020. Being the summer of 2019 when we discussed it I thought, mmm, how difficult is it to walk 34k over 2 days (we since learned that that challenge is 1 day but at the time thought it was 2 days)?
That would be 17k a day. We were walking over 10K, usually around 12 miles on a Sunday at the time.
So I booked the 100k over 2 day challenge.
My thought was that if I could walk 12 miles in a day and be fine the next day and do my normal routine then 17k for 2 days would not be much of an increase over 9 months.
To increase to 50k a day for 2 days in 9 months, that would be a challenge.
I looked at the timings, when the event was, how much I could jog, because I plan to do a very slow jog for half of it, and the distance I currently do.
I created milestones to jog an entire 10K, then do a half marathon then a marathon.
It is December and my first marathon is 8 December, I am writing this the week before that. I have jogged 10 miles with my running group but not a half yet.
My next milestone is a marathon which I have booked this week. The Boston UK marathon in April, the flattest marathon in the UK according to them. If I can get through the half marathon it means I will have to slowly increase my distance over the next few months.
That is not the only thing, I need to improve my endurance. It is one thing to do an event on one day then rest. This is a 2 day challenge which means that I cannot go through all of my reserves in one go but must ensure I have enough energy to be able to continue for two days.
Keep an eye on my Facebook page – Epiphany Wellbeing Solutions to see how I did in the half and whether I made the full marathon or not! I will be writing about exercise and nutrition soon.
