DofE Diamond Challenge Update

Back in February I wrote a post about the DofE Diamond Challenge which you can read here. I thought I'd give you all a little update particularly since I made the decision a while back to change my personal challenge. 

Last summer I got a Fitbit Charge for my birthday which really pushed me to walk the three miles to work every day so that I could reach my 10,000 step goal. As the weeks went on I started walking longer routes to work and starting doing walks on Sunday mornings as well as parkrun (or parkwalk as Mum and I like to call it) on a Saturday morning. By September I was feeling so much fitter and I really enjoyed the time I had to myself listening to music or audio books or just time to clear my head ready for the day ahead.

At the end of September that all changed when I got a new job in Tonbridge and had to start driving to work. My weekly average went down from around 85,000 steps to just 35,000 (to be honest that's probably being generous) and as the weather got worse I even stopped doing my weekend walks. I used the dark mornings and bad weather as my excuse and my motivation just dissipated.

I decided to change my challenge back in April when I was planning our holiday to Barcelona. I knew that our trip would be an excellent opportunity for lots of walking and with spring well and truly in the air I really wanted to start walking regularly again. I am awake early most morning anyway so since the beginning of May I have been getting to work between an hour and a half and two hours early and just going for a walk before work. 

I've really enjoyed getting to know the area where I work and will hopefully one day live. I love just looking on Google Maps and deciding where I am going to go the next day. I've found several routes now that I like to rotate so that I don't get bored and most of them can be made slightly shorter or longer and I use mapmywalk to record the distance and time it takes to complete the route so that I have something to refer to. 

It has also helped me to start regaining the fitness that I had worked so hard to build up last summer. This leads me on to my challenge. It is recommended that everyone walks 10,000 steps a day and while I do try to do this, there are obviously some days where I just want to have a duvet day and watch Harry Potter until my mum begs me to put something else on. 

So I decided that my personal challenge would be to walk 600,000 steps over 60 consecutive days. While that does work out at 10,000 steps a day I didn't want to commit to that in case the weather was absolutely atrocious or I had an injury or something. However I am pleased to so that today is day 43 of 60 and not only have I managed to walk at least 10,000 steps every day, but I am also 100,000 up on my target so far.

Once the challenge is over I am determined to keep walking regularly and hopefully by autumn I can find a few exercises classes near me to keep me going until the weather is dry enough to walk again.

Just a reminder that you can donate to The Duke of Edinburgh's Award using the JustGiving link to the right or text TGDC60 followed by the amount you would like to donate (£1, £2, £3, £4, £5 or £10) to 70070. If you want to create your own personal challenge and raise money for this fantastic cause you can do so here.

SHARE: