Today marks the Day 100 of my Daily Walking challenge. The total mile count is 547 miles. I began this challenge on February 10th, 2020, walking just 2 miles a day. Back then, that was already a lot.
After 3 weeks, I was walking 5 miles a day. 46 days later, I was walking 8 miles a day. It hit 10 miles a day on Day 62, and began tapering down my daily miles after that. Now, I generally walk 4~6 miles a day, every day.
When I was walking 8~10 miles a day, I would spend 2~3 hours a day walking. A lot of painful things happened to my body because of the excess walking, and generally, I think spending a little over 1 hour a day walking 4 miles is a good balance of exercise vs time vs health risks.
The past 3 months have been rough. I was going through a bout of Seasonal Affective Disorder. We shut down the world due to a Pandemic. I am still struggling with the new “self-employed” life, and juggling my physical and mental health with my freelance work.
The one thing that was consistent, rain or shine, wind or snow, is my daily walking. And I’m quite proud that I’ve reached such a milestone. It’s a small thing, but given I haven’t made it to the gym every single day for 100 days before, it’s quite an accomplishment.
I was afraid that the government would limit walks outside once the Pandemic and the restrictions were gearing up, but thankfully, they realized that getting exercise is good for everyone. So for the past month or so, I’ve been walking with a mask. I think it will get harder and harder to walk with a mask on as the temperature and humidity begin to rise as we inch towards summer. Hopefully, we’ll be out of the woods by then, but I have a strong suspicion that we are going to be seeing a second wave.
Just observing people out and about without masks and interacting with neighbors on the streets just few days after our Stay at Home order became a recommendation, I am fairly confident that we’re going to see a resurgence of COVID-19 case in the upcoming few weeks.
