Walking
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Walking Goals and help me choose my 2023 challenge
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Walking Goals and help me choose my 2023 challenge
Long post, but the background gives context. When I first started walking, I was counting steps. But as time has gone on, I have become more interested in extra intentional walking rather than steps that occur naturally in my day.
I started with a goal of 5 miles per week of intentional walking, thinking that I could walk one mile most, but not all, days of the week. In September, I did pretty well with that and walked about 20 intentional miles that month. In October I decided to increase my goal to 7 miles a week, basically a mile a day.
At the end of October, I decided to sign up for the 100 mile dog lovers challenge, aiming to finish by end of year, and only count miles walked with my dog. With a little over 60 days left in the year, this meant that I needed to increase my goal to 10 miles a week *and* make sure to keep moving even though the weather was turning cold. When I started, I thought it was unlikely that I would finish by end or year, but I have averaged closer to 2 miles a day! I largely credit the extra motivation from the challenge and the enthusiasm of my canine walking buddy.
Looking forward to next year, I am leaning toward the 500 mile Sesame Street challenge because it closely matches the goal of 10 miles a week and will keep me walking in the new year. A negative for me is that there isn’t a medal for my dog, and it doesn’t increase my walking goal.
Another option is the 1000 mile dog lovers challenge if it stays open. What I would do is roll onto that (counting my first 100 and just adding on). A positive is that it does have a medal for my dog and will motivate me to increase my mileage to closer to 2.5 miles per week p. A negative is that the pins are basically the same, just different mileage numbers (no new dogs) and I’m not sure the challenge extends through the end of 2023.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
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6 Replies
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You AND your dog are awesome!! It’s great that you have a walking partner. I wonder if, for walks with no dog medals, you could get the race bib for your dog and keep that as a record of his/her accomplishment. Maybe VRC will consider more dog-focused challenges. Keep up the great work!
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They should just have an on-theme dog tag as an optional add on for every event, then everything can officially be with your dog! My dog would love a Dino medal or under the sea medal, he’s running with me anyway 😃
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Great idea about an add-on!
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I signed up for multiple events for 2023, maybe you can find two that add up to an amount of mileage that will challenge you and offer new pins? And maybe you can find a medal online for your dog that is on theme. I’m going to take my suggestion for dog medals on every event to the suggestion forum, I feel like they take suggestions to heart and maybe will start adding more dog medals as option add-ons in the shop ☺️
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I hadn’t thought of multiple events that add to my goal. Great idea.
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I decided to sign up for the sesame street 500 mile challenge. I found a dog tag online that I can get for Otto once we’ve completed the challenge that can serve as his medal.
If all goes well and we finish that with time to spare, we will choose another challenge later in the year for additional milage.