When I talked about this back on March 1, I trotted out some statistics from a spreadsheet I made to track my progress (and still use). That’s been quite interesting—to me, anyway.
First, and most obviously, I’ve walked a lot: Over the past six months, I’ve walked a total of 289.44 kilometres—we’ll call it 290km—and the map up top [SOURCE] shows how far I would get if I walked 290k in a straight line from Hamilton. I should point out that, contrary to what many may think, I can’t walk on water, so only the points on land are relevant. Seriously, though, it’s not necessarily possible to walk to some of those places, but if someone far fitter than me attempted it, it wouldn’t take anywhere near six months to walk that far.
The serious point here is that I’ve met my true goal: To walk every single day, with a minimum of at least one kilometre per day. The point here was consistency, not distance or speed, because I wanted to position myself to hopefully maintain flexibility and mobility as long as possible. Basically, I figured that if I started now, I’d have a better chance of achieving that goal before I reach the lifestage at which those are sometimes a problem. And that’s why consistency is what matters most: It keeps my leg muscles used to motion and holding me upright.
Even though consistency was my goal, not distance or speed, both have naturally increased. When I began (actually back in December, but that was before I made the commitment to daily walks), my average pace—the amount of time it takes me to walk one kilometre—was more than 15 minutes. Now, it’s usually under 12 minutes—in fact, my average pace per kilometre is around 2.5 minutes faster now, which means I can walk farther in the same amount of time, and that matters a lot.
I’ve discovered that I have what I’ve dubbed my “boredom barrier”. A 15-minute walk is usually no problem, but by 20 minutes I’m starting to get over it, and at around 30 minutes, I’m thoroughly bored. This was a problem for maintaining my commitment.
I got around this at first through sheer stubbornness: I refused to stop until and unless I’d covered one kilometre. But, as my pace increased, I could cover, say, 1.35km in fifteen minutes, and that meant it was relatively easy for me to get myself to do 1.5km, since it would only take a few minutes longer. Then, if I managed 1.5 kilometres, it was maybe another 6 minutes-ish to get to 2 kilometres, and that now happens more and more often these days. It turns out I can re-set my “boredom barrier”—when I really want to, anyway. More often than not I get myself to the point where that’s possible by focusing on thinking about a specific thing (like, say, a project, maybe a blog post). That makes the time seem go faster.
While consistency was my goal, I was aware that all this walking would strengthen my leg muscles, too. Over time, they felt stronger, and I found I was able to do things I wasn’t always able to do, like standing on one leg without wobbling. Oddly enough, I seldom have any reason to stand on one leg, but I can do it, dammit! The real point is that my muscles are stronger, even my bum—I mean, not the envy of any male model (or maybe especially a male “model”—“actor”?), but a change I was able to notice. In other words, it seems there really are perks to exercise.
I added another thing over the past couple months: I’m using small dumbbells to strengthen by arms and shoulders. That’s also about flexibility. Of course, but better upper body strength will help me with many, many projects in the coming years, and that gets at what led me to start all this in the first place.
In December of last year, I realised I was struggling with physical tasks, like mowing the lawns, and it’s also the main reason I couldn’t bring myself to do the hard work that I needed to do to tame the gardens: I wasn’t physically up to the challenge. I was beginning to think about how I probably needed to start hiring people to do things I felt I could no longer do, and that was deeply depressing. But then I remembered something I’d said back in 2019, which I mentioned in a 2020 blog post: “I’m too young to feel this old”. However, I knew I’d remembered that around four and a half years after I first said it, and I wasn’t sure whether it was actually still true.
My breakthrough moment was when I thought to myself, “but what if I really am still too young to feel so old?” I then wondered if becoming fitter would allow me to do more physical stuff, but I also knew that even if it didn’t, it would at least help me with flexibility and mobility in the years to come. And with that my crusade was born.
It’s still too early to know how much more physical stuff, if any, I’ll be able to do, but I really do feel stronger, something I feel most when I’m walking around in daily life (not part of a workout), and that makes me happy. Six months from now, I should have a much better idea of how my efforts will lead, and I’m actually excited about that—while being realistic.
When I began this fitness journey six months ago, I wasn’t sure I’d really manage to walk every single day, nor that I’d achieve my goals. The fact I’ve succeeded with both really is a surprise, but it it’s also a source of hope: If I can make a commitment to myself and maintain it for every single day over six months, what else might I be able to do? I’m excited to find out.
2 comments:
Kudos to you, great job!
Thank you!
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