Walk in Her Shoes – Challenge Week Update

It’s Thursday and I’ve passed the half way mark of the Care Australia Walk in Her Shoes Challenge.

My personal challenge this week is to walk 20,000 steps each day, which is double my normal step goal.

To do this, I’ve been walking as much as I can – this has meant getting up at 5 am every morning for a walk of anywhere between 20 minutes and 1 hour 40 minutes – depending on the day and what time we have to leave for work.

I’ve been fitting in as many extra walks as I can during the day as well – at lunch time, while dinner is cooking and after dinner.

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After last Tuesday’s effort, where I walked 6 km in 29 degree heat, this Tuesday I decided to do as much walking as I could in the morning to avoid the afternoon heat. That was the 1 hour 40 minute walk – and I set myself a new distance record in the process – 9.76 km.

(Here’s the proof:)

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My normal walking pace is around about 900 metres per 10 minutes, which works out at about 11 minutes per km. A couple of times this week I’ve increased my pace a bit, and managed my first sub-20 minutes 2 km and my first sub-30 minutes 3 km (just).

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I was really pleased with myself after those walks. It’s a noticeably quicker pace for me and I’m not sure if I’d be able to sustain it for much longer than 30 minutes, but it’s probably a pace I need to be able to do if I want to get a bit fitter.

My walking music this week has been an album I’ve had for a while but haven’t listened to much until this week – The Cat Empire Steal the Light. I love it! Some of the songs really speak to me. They make me think, make me smile and make me want to dance while I’m walking – just like the band wants.

And now to the big question – how have I been tracking against the 20,000 step goal? Pretty well:

  • Monday: 27,655
  • Tuesday: 26,483
  • Wednesday: 25,122

Now I’m almost at the end of the week, and this challenge is about to collide with the Tassivore Eat Local Challenge.

It’s going to make for a very interesting weekend!

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