Today was Day 33 of my daily walking challenge and habit. (It would have been Day 34, but I missed a day last weekend while sick).

Since I announced on this blog last night that I’m going to attempt to peak at walking 10 miles a day, every day, I decided this morning would be a good time to try to discover some new paths to add to my 5 mile route.

The 6 Mile Route

I didn’t quite find a wholesome 1 mile addition to my daily 5 mile walks. My favorite way to add extra steps in is to expand the already established route by going out a street or two. I gave that a try a few times this morning, but it didn’t come out to a clean path. So I’ll continue to try finding better paths to walk that make up 6 miles.

In case you’re interested, here’s the progression of routes from 3 miles to 5 miles.

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Scaling from 5 to 6 Miles

As expected, scaling up my walk from 5 miles to 6 miles wasn’t much of an issue in terms of exhaustion or time. As a matter of fact, by attempting a jog/run for the first time in years (I think I got 0.75 of a mile in!), I finished 6 miles in an hour and a half, which is usually the amount of time it takes for me to walk 5 miles.

I realized that for the past month, I tended to fumble with my phone a lot while I walked, whether to take photos, send out a quick Tweet, or record something in my notes from a book I’m listening to. All those movements inevitably slow me down, so I’m going to try to see if I can figure out how to get my Google Assistant (via my Bluetooth earphones) to open a note taking app and take notes on my behalf without me having to take my phone out of my bag and type manually.

While I’m increasing the number of miles, I’ll also need to increase my speed, both to build up my physical strength and so I won’t end up spending most of my day walking instead of doing work. I’m hoping that by the time I hit 10 miles a day, I’m walking at a pace of around 15 minutes/mile, which would mean I’ll finish in 2.5 hours. Otherwise, my whole morning will be swallowed up by walking!

I’m also considering how to balance my Physical Therapy appointments with the walking. I’d imagine I wouldn’t want to do the full daily distance after my PT, so I might opt for 3 or 5 miles on days I have PT, and scaling up on all the other days.