Wednesday Musings

I mentioned in my last couple of posts that I'm scratching around for a new challenge to keep me motivated, exercise-wise. I haven't had much time to think about it since the Baby Elephant Walk ended. I had a quick look at some distance-based ones, but didn't have a chance to think about whether they'd suit me or not. I don't know if "distance-based" is the right description, but basically it's a challenge where you go for your normal walks etc, and then after each session, measure the distance you walked along a famous road, walking track etc. Like the one I did earlier in the year, the Great Ocean Road challenge. The good part about a challenge like that is that the towns or other landmarks along the way can be like intermediate goals. Plus, you have a well-defined finishing point. The downside is that you have to spend time working out the distance you walked (or converting if you did a different type of exercise) and then measuring it up against the route. Another type of challenge I thought of, is to walk to various landmarks in the city. The upside of this is that it keeps interest local and I'll find out more about my city. The downsides are: it's very similar to the BEW challenge so I might get bored easily; how do I measure the exercise I've done?; questions as to how many landmarks? which ones? how do I know when I'm 'finished'? Then there are weekly or monthly challenges: e.g. spend _ hours exercising in a week, or walk _ kms in a month. The merit of a challenge like this is that I can build on them week after week or month after month. The downsides are: deciding what is reasonable and achievable; giving myself a time limit means I'm wary about being able to achieve it; it doesn't have an interesting hook (e.g. getting to see art). Yes, I tend to overthink things. So far I'm leaning towards the first type of challenge. It's a bit more glamorous than the others, and the defined finishing point is appealing. (I get a sense of achievement and then I can go on to the next challenge!) If I work out the length of the route and intermediate landmarks ahead of time, then measuring my progress against them won't take that much effort. Especially if I also work out pre-determined ways to calculate distance from time and vice versa. (e.g. I walked 30 minutes yesterday in the city, can I pre-determine an average distance for that, taking into account stopping at traffic lights, etc.?) That could totally work. Now I just have to decide which route I want to walk. Where do I want to virtually go? The Great Ocean Road is a popular one, but perhaps something a bit more exotic, one of the famous highways or walking routes throughout the world? A tour of the arrondisements of Paris, perhaps? Anyway, now I'm being silly, but I want to get it all set up soon, while my motivation is still high.