Before I started walking daily, I wasn’t sure how I was going to approach the challenge, and originally thought I might alternate days with longer walks with days of shorter walks. Then, I thought maybe I’d do two walks a day a couple times a week. However, I had trouble getting the spreadsheet to calculate averages, so I pretty quickly settled on one walk per day (the spreadsheet issue is probably user error—I’m no expert user—but the spreadsheet progreamme I use, part of the open source LibreOffice, is sometimes, um, quirky).
My original and mostly informal goal was to walk for 15 minutes or one kilometre, whichever came first. My idea was that if there was a day in which I just wasn’t feeling it, I could say, “I only have to do this for five more minutes,” or “Hm, 13 minutes? I can go a couple more minutes.” I knew that those little games would be enough to help keep me going longer, and that’s mostly what’s happened.
I walked every day, even on days when I wasn’t feeling well, except for one day when I felt particularly unwell. A couple days later, when I felt better, I did two walks, mostly so I could still have seven walks in the week and get the badge the Fitness App gives me when I do. The other days when I walked despite not feeling well had short walks, half a kilometre are most.
Part way through the year I started counting my mowing as a walk—because that’s what it is, something I only realised that when I started recording walking workouts. It is at a slower pace, though.
Speaking of pace, when I began it often took me around 15 minutes to cover a kilometre (which is why I came up with that as an original goal). Speaking of pace, at the start of the year my pace averaged out around 13 minutes per kilometre, and by the end of the year it was around 11 minutes per kilometre—though speed was never a goal, consistency was.
Overall, the results I noticed early on have continued. Most obvious to me, my legs definitely feel stronger, and I can notice theyre firmer—not visibly, they just feel more toned. My flexibility is better, and so, my balance is also better than when I started. One example of all three: I can now stand on one leg without wobbling uncontrollably—not that I ever actually need to do that, but still!
However, my stamina has not improved, apart from being able to walk farther and longer than before this started. I’d hoped that the walking might help with my general stamina, though that was a hope, not a goal. Maybe that will improve this year?
In 2026, I’ll be increasing the work. For one thing, I’ll start doing two walks per day, both an average of at least one kilometre, though I think that of the two, the morning walk may end up being the longer one of the two. There’s growing evidence that multiple short walks per day are more beneficial than one long one, though doing three walks is simply too big of an ask right now. I also plan on using my dumbbells more frequently, though I have no idea how often that’ll end up being. That’ll be a tale for next year’s post about all this.
In 2025, I walked a total of 427.67 kilometres (which is 265.741818 US miles). The map up top is lighthearted way to show how far that distance is (SOURCE). I think it’s funny that the distance shows I could walk to anywhere in the North Island, and even to the top of the South Island—assuming I really could literally walk on water, and not merely in people’s imaginations. Also, it would only take me a year to get there walking maybe 15 to 30 minutes a day…
Finally, although today is the anniversary of when I began this journey, I’m now only talking about stats for a calendar year, mainly because it’s easier for me (that pesky spreadsheet again). So, the stats I talk about here are for January 6 to December 31, 2025—though I’ve been walking and recording the results every day so far this year, of course. Right now, I think it’s time for a walk.
Previously:
“I’m going to live” – February 23, 2025
“I’ve been walking, yes indeed” – March 1, 2025
“Walking to… somewhere” – July 7, 2025
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