2,020km Challenge
This year, I set myself a goal to reach 2,020km in 2020 by a combination of running and hiking to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society (United Against Dementia). At the end of each month, I go through how I’ve progressed through the challenge and it gives us a chance to salivate over some stats 🤓
As we reach the half way point of the year so far, it's time to see if I can push on from last month now that the lockdown restrictions appear to have lifted a little bit in the UK. Although we need to keep an eye on local hot spots! In any case, the full definition of this challenge is:
- Total distance: 2,020 km / 1,255 miles in 2020
- Hiking: “cross-country” or “cross-terrain” walking
- Running: putting one leg in front of the other quickly
- Daily required distance: 5.52 km / 3.45 miles per day
So, let’s have a look at June’s progress!
June Progress
After the colossal effort made in May to pull back to parity with where I should be, I have to admit, I was starting to feel the effects and burnout of that effort! The weather also hasn't been the greatest in June with plenty of thunderstorms and sporadic weather to contend with but I had a week off from work and went on a few big hikes to make sure I didn't drop off the pace too much!
In May's Report, I had FINALLY made it over the line of where I should be and June was going to be the month of consolidation as I try to recover from the effort of last month!
However, you can see I was flip flopping around the red line like some sort of indecisive loon but happy to say I've made a decision now to stay above the red line especially now I'm half way through the challenge both in terms of distance AND time!
In the graph below, the blue line is my current average daily distance and the red line is the required average daily distance to get to 2,020 km this year 😃
As you can see, there's really nothing in it at the moment, I'm pretty much floating around the required amount but it was important not to rest too much despite my body now letting me know that 1,000 km is a really long way to run and hike in 6 months!
Now the aim is to stay above the red line and increase the gap over the next couple of months. Looking forward to seeing how July goes now!
Overall
After 5 months, pretty much the whole challenge actually, I've struggled to get above the target since illness and injury hampered me in January but I'm really happy to have pulled it back. The feeling of pushing through adversity is a surprisingly satisfying feeling and relishing the challenge, half way there though, let's not get complacent.
As always, the two I's (injury and illness) are never far away so it's just going to be a case of listening to the body, letting it recovery when possible and perhaps do longer distances to allow time for those rest days!
Now let’s have a look at some of the numbers! The table below shows the stats at a glance taken from the end of each month and the graph below shows the whole picture.
| Month | Distance completed (%) | Should Be At (%) |
| January | 138.78 km (6.9%) | 171.09 km (8.5%) |
| February | 298.99 km (14.8%) | 331.14 km (16.4%) |
| March | 473.82 km (23.5%) | 502.23 km (24.9%) |
| April | 644.88 km (31.92%) | 667.80 km (33.06%) |
| May | 841.38 km (41.65%) | 838.89 km (41.53%) |
| June | 1,012.30 km (50.11%) | 1,004.46 km (49.73%) |
Looking at the graph and table, we can see that there was a little bit of slacking going on at the beginning of June which threatened to undo all that hard work in May but a monster hike of about 20 km plus a few regular big hikes during that week off managed to turn it around and now there's some day light of about +8 km between where I am and where I should be at the end of June.
Let's have a look at the breakdown of the activity count and see how those rest days affected play and just how much hiking I did in that week off:
| Month | Runs (%) | Hikes (%) | Active Days | Total Days |
| January | 16 (73%) | 6 (27%) | 22 | 31 |
| February | 14 (70%) | 6 (30%) | 20 | 29 |
| March | 15 (68%) | 7 (32%) | 22 | 31 |
| April | 10 (45%) | 12 (55%) | 22 | 30 |
| May | 10 (39%) | 16 (61%) | 26 | 31 |
| June | 10 (48%) | 11 (52%) | 21 | 30 |
| Total | 75 (56%) | 58 (44%) | 112 | 182 |
Well, they say "consistency is key" and I've managed to hit 10 runs for the 3rd month in a row and only did one extra hike which made June my 2nd laziest month in terms of active days with only 21 being utilised. Seemed that rest really was the order of the day but this doesn't tell the whole story of course.
Seeing that this is a distance challenge and putting in some big efforts on the hikes, less... is actually more! The table below also shows the distances that I’ve covered with the runs and hikes separately this month compared to others:
| Month | Distance by Running (%) | Distance by Hiking (%) | Total Distance |
| January | 86.54 km (62%) | 52.24 km (38%) | 138.78 km |
| February | 84.14 km (53%) | 76.06 km (47%) | 160.20 km |
| March | 93.15 km (53%) | 81.68 km (47%) | 174.83 km |
| April | 67.14 km (39%) | 103.92 km (61%) | 171.06 km |
| May | 69.3 km (35%) | 127.2 km (65%) | 196.5 km |
| June | 59.52 km (35%) | 111.41 km (65%) | 170.93 km |
| Total | 459.79 km (45%) | 552.51 km (55%) | 1,012.30 km |
Again, hiking distances comes up trumps in June with almost double the amount of distance covered compared to the running. In fact, running wise, the least distance covered so far in a month this year but that was due to trying to navigate the storms and doing shorter runs. I did tell you some of those hikes were monsters hey!
Hiking distance is contributing 100km more than the running which is to be expected as running absolutely canes my shins! But the important thing is the distance so if I can do bigger activities and have more rest days to stay above the red line, we're laughing... after some time on the foam roller of course 😃
Charity Fundraising
I’m aiming to raise as much as I can for the Alzheimer’s Society, which is dedicated to researching, supporting and caring for families affected by dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease.
This is a debilitating condition that slowly erodes the brain, affecting memory, awareness, personality and ability to communicate. Simply put, it’s horrible for both the patient and family and my Nana suffered from it in her final years so the motivation for me is as strong as it has been to do this challenge.
I have set up a Just Giving page here where you can donate and the money goes straight to the charity. I’ll also donate half the post payouts from whatever this report gets as well! Thank you to everyone who’s supported this and let’s get to that target of £2,020 together hey!
If you have Strava, feel free to encourage or banter with me on there – here’s a link to my profile!
Until next month’s report, take it easy and catch you soon!
Nicky
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