Walking for Young and Old Alike
We delve into the new Marathon a Month initiative and how great it could be as a stepping stone towards building a walking habit - at any age or fitness.
Walking for Young and Old Alike
https://www.contours.co.uk/walking-for-young-and-old-alike
by Karen Simons
As you get older and, in my case, experience health issues that you never thought you would get, nor thought you would be slowing down, you reach the realisation that you have to put yourself and your wellbeing first.
Tending to your wellbeing can look different for each of us: you might spend more time with those you care about, join a club or take up a new hobby.
For me, slowing down does not mean I can’t do what I love to — walk. It just means that there is less emphasis on the distance and challenge of the walk and a greater focus on enjoying myself, my surroundings and my companions, be they two- or four-legged.
I have to admit that I do have a simple fitness app that measures my daily steps and distance. It gives me great hope when, after another enforced lay-up, I see my figures slowly climb back to my comfortable levels of fitness, and I know that I can congratulate myself if the app shows a few days of ‘knocking it out of the park’.
In the last few weeks, walking has been in the news. A new NHS-backed scheme intends to reward people for doing exercise.
This will be coined a Marathon a Month, where walking for 30 minutes a day will see you cover around 26 miles a month and make you eligible for incentives and discounts.
The scheme is being developed in partnership with Olympic medallist Sir Brendon Foster, founder of the Great North Run. Although famous for running, his mission now is to get more people active, and that is through walking. The health benefits are significant: “if someone walks 30 minutes five times a week, they could gain up to four extra years of healthy life”.
All of this makes perfect sense to those of us in the habit of daily exercise, be it for pleasure or the necessity of taking our dogs out for their constitution. And the tracking element could help anyone looking to speed up or slow down their walks.
Even if you do not start out to become a committed walker, who knows where the Marathon a Month might bring you. Whether you want to take your walking habit further or you are still looking for the challenge that heading out on a trail can bring, we have a great range of holidays for all abilities.
So, if like me you need to be more realistic these days, consider our short daily mileage options, short breaks (easy grade) or stile-free holidays.
I look forward to seeing you as you clock up those miles!
Managing Director
Walking is both mine and my dogs’ greatest pleasure.
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