Welcome Back to Walking

It’s days away from a brand new year. Are you making the new year new you pledge? How about resolutions? Do resolutions work? How about for our walking we set a 2023 goal?

What should your yearly walking goal be?

A new year really is a wonderful blank slate to lay new goals out on. Now a mistake people often do with new years resolutions is making them either way too broad or too hard. If your goal is to lose weight, for example, that is too broad. List a reasonable amount you want to lose a month. Let’s say you have 50lbs you want to lose. If you want to do that by summer that would be approximately 6 months or so. So, if you want to lose 50lbs in 6 months, that’s a little over 8lbs a month. That means about 2lbs a week. That is a clear defined goal.

Now, if this is to be specifically a walking goal, it can work in a very similar way. Let’s say you want a nice round number. You could say you want to walk 100 miles in the next 12 months. That means you need to walk a little under 2 miles every week. That should be extremely achievable even for a very out of shape beginner walker. Make a goal of at least a half a mile 4 times a week and bam you will surpass 100 miles in 2023.

Why not aim for the moon?

I like to emphasize having reasonable goals. I am in no way trying to discourage you or tell you to lower you ultimate goals. It just generally works better for people to take their goals in smaller chunks. Looking at just your end goal can make your smaller steps to reach it seem to be slow. Even the most patient can use mini goals pretty often. If you make your goal too difficult you are less likely to succeed as you most likely will feel discouraged far too often.

Let’s say your real goal is walking a marathon by the end of 2023. That is not a bad goal at all. It’s actually a wonderful goal for most. 26 miles in one walk is a lot, though. So, how would you train for that?

Your Marathon Goal

First, you need to find out when a marathon “near” you will be. There are a few near me (within 50 miles) that will run in either May or December.

So, that would mean either getting up 26 miles in 5 months or in 12. Either of those are doable, but the earlier is definitely more ambitious. You’d basically have to be up to walking 26 miles straight in 18ish weeks. Is that the moon? For some it may be, for others you might already be halfway there. Only you can judge if a goal is within your reach.

If I planned to walk 26 miles straight I would break it down like this to be there in 20 weeks.

• Week 1- be at 2 miles
• Week 2- be at 3 miles
• Week 3 be at 3.5 miles
• Week 4 be at 5 miles
• Week 5 be at 6 miles
• Week 6 be at 7.5 miles
• Week 7 be at 9 miles
• Week 8 be at 10 miles
• Week 9 be at 11 miles
• Week 10 be at 12miles
• Week 11 be at 13.5 miles
• Week 12 be at 14 miles
• Week 13 be at 14.5 miles
• Week 14 be at 16 miles
• Week 15 be at 18 miles
• Week 16 be at 19.5 miles
• Week 17 be at 21 miles
• Week 18 be at 22 miles
• Week 19 be at 24 miles
• Week 20 be at 25.5 miles

With this 20 week training It’s logical I should be able to go 26 miles in the next week. Just looking at those numbers exhausts me, though. I’d be much more likely to aim for one a year from now instead of just 5ish months away. That’s just me, you may be able to start at a higher number or increase in bigger increments instead of what I posted.

What is my personal walking goal for 2023?

My walking goal is to walk at least 230 miles in 2023. That breaks down to about 4.5 miles a week. Currently, without my tracking polar watch, I’m not as motivated to walk, but will be doing so either way. I love the data I get from a heart rate monitor watch. It gives me defined numbers showing my improvement as I go.

I, of course, have more than just walking goals for 2023. My guy got me a ring fit for our Nintendo Switch so I plan to add that into my exercise routine and start going back to the YMCA again. The Y is about a mile and a half away so I need to be up to 2 miles one way to comfortably be able to walk there, exercise and still walk home. I’ll be back there in a month or so at my current level.

Why should you even set a goal for 2023

I’ve talked about goals before and how I know they work when you want it and work for them. If you put what you want out there, you have defined it and made it more real. Now, it’s just up to you to get there. Make your plan and achieve your goal. It will make you feel great to accomplish a yearly goal.

Can’t wait to see you strolling along,

Kimmie