Post by tigerlily on May 12, 2007 11:14:19 GMT
Well, okay, here goes!
I am about as athletic as your average slug. I lack the co-ordination for team sports and am not really built as things stand for running around pursuing a ball, whether airborne or on the ground.
So, one of the things I have always enjoyed is walking. As children, my brother and I were often loaded into the car on a Sunday afternoon and driven into the mountains somewhere within a reasonable distance of home for a 'nice long walk'.
Later, when as a teenager I began to suffer the occasional bout of depression, I would go out walking. Not into the hills, not mostly, although I did when the weather was sufficiently good for that to be safe. Usually I would just start walking up the road out of the village and keep going till I felt like turning around. I would regularly walk 12 miles and more of an evening, and feel better for it.
I had a bike as a child too. Most of my associates did, too, so it was natural to hang around on our bikes and either cycle or walk out to interesting places. My days on a bike ended when, at 21, a nice man reversed his big car out of his driveway at the bottom of a rather steep hill, right in front of me. Apart from the damage to the bike, I was too nervous to get back on it again. Said bike was last seen in then-boyfriend's garage in 1995.
I have long wanted to get back into walking, but circumstances haven't up till now permitted. I presently find myself living out in the country, surrounded by beautiful scenery and with umpteen bridleways and footpaths and country lanes to explore. From here, I have any number of route options I could take.
For the time being, I try to get my 10,000 steps in per day - on top of however many steps I take during the day itself - by going for a walk for a couple of hours in the evening. My eventual aim is to start doing IML walks and to get involved in distance walking more heavily. I'm seriously considering attempting Nijmegen next year, which is a four-day event where participants can walk various distances - in my category and the category into which the FMA falls, that's 25 miles per day for four days. (He used to have to do around 30 miles a day, carrying a 20 or 25 pound backpack, and has completed the walk 14 times).
I've also just got a bike. Not a touring bike this time, and not a mountain bike either, but what's called a town and country bike. This is good on roads and on bridlepaths and the like, although for some of the offroad stuff I do I could wish I had gone for a mountain bike. I aim to do at least six miles on the bike per trip for the time being. If the weather holds off today, I have in mind a 14 mile round trip that I've been eyeing up for a few days. Last weekend in Germany I biked 8 and 13 miles on the Saturday and Sunday, and we're thinking of taking the bikes with us to Holland later in the summer when we eventually make it there.
I'm in North Notts - a few miles at most from South Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire and Derbyshire - so there are loads of great walks round about, I know. Any advice on places to go, walking clubs I might hook up with and so on, would be gratefully received!
And anyone needing support and encouragement to get out there and walk or cycle for health, please contact me - I know from another site I frequent that the support of a group of like-minded folk is immensely helpful.
I am about as athletic as your average slug. I lack the co-ordination for team sports and am not really built as things stand for running around pursuing a ball, whether airborne or on the ground.
So, one of the things I have always enjoyed is walking. As children, my brother and I were often loaded into the car on a Sunday afternoon and driven into the mountains somewhere within a reasonable distance of home for a 'nice long walk'.
Later, when as a teenager I began to suffer the occasional bout of depression, I would go out walking. Not into the hills, not mostly, although I did when the weather was sufficiently good for that to be safe. Usually I would just start walking up the road out of the village and keep going till I felt like turning around. I would regularly walk 12 miles and more of an evening, and feel better for it.
I had a bike as a child too. Most of my associates did, too, so it was natural to hang around on our bikes and either cycle or walk out to interesting places. My days on a bike ended when, at 21, a nice man reversed his big car out of his driveway at the bottom of a rather steep hill, right in front of me. Apart from the damage to the bike, I was too nervous to get back on it again. Said bike was last seen in then-boyfriend's garage in 1995.
I have long wanted to get back into walking, but circumstances haven't up till now permitted. I presently find myself living out in the country, surrounded by beautiful scenery and with umpteen bridleways and footpaths and country lanes to explore. From here, I have any number of route options I could take.
For the time being, I try to get my 10,000 steps in per day - on top of however many steps I take during the day itself - by going for a walk for a couple of hours in the evening. My eventual aim is to start doing IML walks and to get involved in distance walking more heavily. I'm seriously considering attempting Nijmegen next year, which is a four-day event where participants can walk various distances - in my category and the category into which the FMA falls, that's 25 miles per day for four days. (He used to have to do around 30 miles a day, carrying a 20 or 25 pound backpack, and has completed the walk 14 times).
I've also just got a bike. Not a touring bike this time, and not a mountain bike either, but what's called a town and country bike. This is good on roads and on bridlepaths and the like, although for some of the offroad stuff I do I could wish I had gone for a mountain bike. I aim to do at least six miles on the bike per trip for the time being. If the weather holds off today, I have in mind a 14 mile round trip that I've been eyeing up for a few days. Last weekend in Germany I biked 8 and 13 miles on the Saturday and Sunday, and we're thinking of taking the bikes with us to Holland later in the summer when we eventually make it there.
I'm in North Notts - a few miles at most from South Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire and Derbyshire - so there are loads of great walks round about, I know. Any advice on places to go, walking clubs I might hook up with and so on, would be gratefully received!
And anyone needing support and encouragement to get out there and walk or cycle for health, please contact me - I know from another site I frequent that the support of a group of like-minded folk is immensely helpful.