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08 March 2010

TGO Challenge Preparations in Graphics

That title is almost a direct pinch from the Glorious Gayle who has quite wonderfully been looking at how far she has been walking in January and February over the last five years. Quite fantastically she even has records of how far she has climbed for the last three years. That's pretty cool in my book.

I have kept a log for the past eleven years of how far I have walked day by day, each year from 1st January until I set off on the TGO Challenge. Lord only knows why I did it - I am not sure myself.

Answers on a postcard?

I suppose, deep down, the original reason for keeping a log was because I wanted to.

However, it does also act as a swift kick up the backside if I notice that I am falling behind with where I normally am at 'this time of the year,' encouraging me to get out there and do some walking "or the Chally will be a nightmare!"

I was worried on Sunday about being 'behind schedule' and discussed with Lord Elpus that perhaps we should put and extra loop in the walk we were on, to extend it a little? He very sensibly knocked that on the head and we finished in daylight. (Makes a nice change for one of Phil's walks...)

Anyway - I tossed and turned all night long and this morning I was out again while the sparrows were still coughing and farting to nip round my Hemingford Round, a lovely little 5.5 miles. I put in extra effort and beetled round in an excellent (for me, that is) 84 minutes. (Sad?)

Unfortunately this daft computer seems to have gobbled up the data for before 2003, which is quite frankly, upsetting. I shall take it outside and flog it to within an inch of its life and threaten it with the scrap-heap (or should that be the 'recycling centre' these days?) and go and do the sensible thing and go and buy a Mac.

Anyway, having had a bit more time this afternoon I have dug out the statistics only to find that yesterday's and this mornings rambles have got me back on target.

Phew!

Miles- 1st Jan - 8th March

Don't look too closely at 2007 as I was then on my LEJOG and had been walking solidly for eight days.

There's not a lot of walking being done at this time of year, is there? Still - I am out and about next weekend too... I suppose as per usual I shall get fit on the first fourteen days of the Challenge.

12 comments:

  1. Worryingly, I could extract far more statistics from my 'walking log' than I've illustrated to date. Indeed, there have been (unpublished) graphs created at various times to show all manner of facts and figures walking-related.

    But, now you ask the question as to why start keeping the log in the first place, I realise that I have no idea why I record so much information so obsessively. What I do know is that the categories of information have grown over the years, so I now can tell you what the weather was like and what shoes each of us wore on almost any walk we've done in recent years. I'm sure it will all come in useful one day...

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  2. Wonderful!

    I too can tell you what the weather was like for each walk - whether or not it was muddy, whio I was walking with and what footwear I was wearing! (I don't log other people's footwear though...)

    I think we both know, Gayle, why we keep such excellent records, don't we? Just can't help it. And, once you have started you just keep adding more detail... Oh dear.

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  3. The only phrase that evokes any empathy in all of this is:

    do the sensible thing and go and buy a Mac.

    Quite - it rains a lot in Scotland.

    But as for the rest...

    It doesn't matter! The past is the past, another country, water under the bridge. Forget it. All these stats will serve to do at our stage in life is to quantify our slow and inevitable decline as we shuffle to to the grave.

    Stop! Stop now, before it's too late!

    I am confident that my stats comfortably exceed these - why? 'Cos I have no records, that's why. And in the words of Malcolm Tucker, "Just because it didn't happen, doesn't mean it isn't true".

    Lord Elpus pours another malt and contemplates his twenty mile hike that may or may not have taken place this afternoon.

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  4. "All these stats will serve to do at our stage in life is to quantify our slow and inevitable decline as we shuffle to to the grave...

    ...in the words of Malcolm Tucker, "Just because it didn't happen, doesn't mean it isn't true"....

    ...Lord Elpus pours another malt and contemplates his twenty mile hike that may or may not have taken place this afternoon."


    What can I say! I shall retire, hurt... wounded. In the gutter, I am too...

    I shall now pour m'self a large Ardbeg, watching the brass bands on't telly.

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  5. Oh. My. Gawd.

    You log your footware?? There is help out there. There's certainly a twelve (or three zillion) step programme.

    Bless.

    Word = pairless

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  6. Yes, the footwear thing. Started innocently enough... I wanted to know how long boots actually lasted as there was an article in TGO years ago that quite unbelievably stated that most boots should have been chucked away after a few hundred miles.

    Then I was keen to know that my boots would last the length of my LEJOG wit the 'breaking in' period as well.

    The thing is, that once you've started something like this, it's very difficult to stop....

    How many steps did you say were in this programme, Humph? You see, I would probably start counting them too...

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  7. Sparrows! Ours have all disappeared :-(

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  8. It doesn't matter! The past is the past, another country, water under the bridge. Forget it. All these stats will serve to do at our stage in life is to quantify our slow and inevitable decline as we shuffle to to the grave.

    I think Phil has nailed it eloquently :-)

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  9. Your OCD is on a whole other level to mine. I only record distance and ascent. What a relief!

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  10. Really?

    I don't do ascent... that must take quite a bit of working out.... You enjoy working that out, don't you Louise? Yes, I thought so....

    :-)

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  11. Louise

    I see from you blog that you time your walks and the rest stops as well...

    Are those towels still all lined up nicely?

    :-)

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  12. Ah, but I only have that information for longer walks available for a short while on David's GPS, then it is deleted. I don't keep it filed (alphabetically ofcourse) and handy like. If I was desperate, I could look it up on the blog, it has been known for someone to ask for specifics.

    I concede.

    Did I mention my nickname?

    Schindler.

    Another obsession. Not with lifts...

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