But my main challenge this year is that I have signed up to walk1000. What's that? I hear some ask. Well, you sign up to a very busy facebook page called 'walk1000miles' and agree to walk literally 1000 miles over the course of the year. It is sponsored by Country Walking magazine and in the February issue (which inexplicably was released on January 4th), they included a chart that you can fill in to record your miles.
Yes, I know that's the January edition, but my February edition seems to have taken a walk!
If you want to join in and can't get hold of a copy of the magazine (they seem to be like gold dust - but what can you expect when there are 25000 people signed up for it??), then there are other tracker charts available on the pinned post on the facebook page - there's even one that is shaped like a walking trainer (the shoe sort, not the PE instructor sort), that has little squares to colour in every time you complete a mile!
You can walk as often or not as you like, count all steps walked, or just 'boots on' miles (that's deliberate walks and not steps you might take walking from the sofa to the kettle and back). I've chosen to do 'boots on' for my challenge. It isn't a race - the only person you are competing with is yourself to get those miles in and hopefully be fitter this time next year than you are now.
It's actually not that hard. 1000 miles equates to a mere 2.74 miles a day - should be do-able, right? Yeah, right! For one thing, we are already at the end of week three. So I've walked 63-ish miles already, yes? Erm, no, actually. So far in this entire year, I have managed four miles - that's right only four (4) miles. I blame the flu. And the weather - we have had a fair bit of snow recently.
A couple of pics of my garden the morning after it had snowed all night - we had about a foot of snow 😲
But in the meantime, I have bought myself a shiny new jacket. I had that lovely turquoise Mera Peak XCR for around ten years, but it has finally had to be laid to rest 😢
Not only was it no longer waterproof - a must when walking in Yorkshire at almost any time of the year - but the zips wouldn't stay shut any more either. They didn't slide undone; they simply parted at the teeth and I didn't want to risk losing something important, like my phone, or my car keys.
Zip at the top; pocket wide open
So some research later and I decided that another Mera Peak was in order. The new one - the Mera Peak 5 - is designed for men, but that's fine as they are longer in the body than a woman's jacket and I do like to keep my rear end out of sight. They also don't have shaped waists, so are not a snug a fit, which I prefer. And being a man's jacket, it came in black and grey, instead of pink, purple or any other pretty pastel colours! (I might write a post on what I think about women's hill walking fashions at some point!)
Anyway, we have a large Go Outdoors near us, so off we went to have a browse. I tried on several jackets, but kept coming back to the Mera Peak 5. It was going to be expensive, so back home we went and I checked on line to see if there was somewhere cheaper. The jacket retails from the manufacturer at around £300, but we did find one advertised at a shop in Ambleside at around £195. Go Outdoors has a price match promise - if you find the same product anywhere else, even on line rather than a physical shop, they will sell the item to you for the price you find it at and reduce that by 10%. We decided to test their promise. I rang them and asked - sure enough, they agreed to the much reduced cost. All we needed to do was buy one of their discount cards for £5 (a one off that entitles us to discounts on everything in store) and we could have the jacket for £195-10% - amazing! They did of course need to check we hadn't made the price up and had to ensure the other place had the jacket in stock in the size we wanted too. Of course, we couldn't turn our backs on such an offer and bought the relevant jacket - at around £100 less than the price they were advertised at in their shops. A great deal and a very happy customer, who has no hesitation in recommending them.
So, I'm all ready to go. I have my walk1000 badge (ordered from Country Walking for £2) and it's now attached to my hat, in case I meet any other 'badgers' (that's what they call those who are doing the challenge) on my travels - but waiting for the snow to melt as it's far too cold outside while I'm still recovering from the flu (the cold air makes me cough - a lot). The thaw is forecast for Tuesday/Wednesday - I can hardly wait!
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