Any tips for getting my miles in?

Here are some simple ideas that can make a huge difference…

Walk at lunch

A lunchtime walk can be the bedrock of your 1000-mile quest. A two-mile walk each day will rack up nearly threequarters of your total by year end. And it makes you MUCH more chirpy in the afternoon!

Enlist a buddy

It’s extra motivation to wrench yourself away from the daily demands of your life and walk if you’re doing it in real or virtual company. Support and good-natured competition can be a powerful force!

Start early…

If a lunchtime walk is hard to swing, set your alarm 30 minutes early and get out while the rest of the world is asleep. You’ll set your mood to sunny, and boost your chance of coming across something you think about for the rest of the day – shy wildlife, a brainwave, a friendly hello or a sunrise.

…Or finish late!

An evening walk is the perfect way to wind down, process the day and get body and brain ready for healthy sleep.

Get the map

Buy your local Ordnance Survey map and open it out on the floor. See those coloured dashed lines? You can walk every single one of those – any time you want! It’s a privilege unique to the UK. Try some at random – or walk them all, highlighting each as you do.

Give yourself a thinking project

Walking is a great way to switch your brain off. Equally, it makes for ideal thinking time. That problem that seemed impassable? Walk and be surprised how quickly you find a solution. Everyone from Wordsworth to Einstein found inspiration in walking.

A photo a day

Resolve to come back with one photo each time you go out on your walk. It could be the same thing each day (a tree that transforms with the seasons, maybe) or a different sight every time. It tunes you into the world around you, and lets you build up a gallery of micromoments from your challenge.

Keep up the chain

There’s real power in a chain of habit. Walk half a mile even if you don’t feel like it so your Progress Chart shows no gaps. The longer the chain the stronger the motivation.

Be more dog!

A canine companion gives you an automatic reason to go walking (and there’s a medal for them too this year). But even if you’ve got no dog, think of your body as that dog: it MUST get its exercise even if Brain is having a glum day.

Make plans

Use the routes in the back of Country Walking (there’s 27 every month) to explore new areas. Want company? Have a look in the Events tag in the Facebook group and join a meetup or create a new one. They’re all sizes and a great way to make friends.

What if I’ve done it before?

Target 10% or 25%, 50% or even 100% more than your 2021 total. Or beat the date by which you hit 1000 last year. Save £1 a mile to treat yourself to something spectacular – or

make a donation to charity. Join a meetup for the first time – or organise one. Keep a journal to remember what you see. Draw a sketch or take a photo a day. Walk every path on your map. Walk a path in real or virtual stages. We’d love to hear how you plan to personalise your challenge! Tell us all about it in the Facebook group.

But but but…

What if you have short legs? You’re really unfit? You can’t read a map? You’re busy with work? You never have an hour to yourself? All these anxieties are understandable – but give us a week. Aim for 45-minutes walking a day for seven days, from your front door, and see: 1) How far you’ve come, 2) How none of the objections need be a barrier to success, and 3) How much you want to keep going, in the happy company you’re keeping!