The week just gone has been an excellent example of why I set this One Hour Outside challenge and have made so much of it here on Splodz Blogz and on my social media feeds. It’s been dark, cold, wet, and pretty miserable outside, which really does test the motivation to get out and get some fresh air and some natural vitamin D. Take last Monday – how many of you can honestly say you spent one whole hour or more outside in all that persistent heavy rain and strong wind? It was just relentless, and I’m not sure the sun actually rose on Monday at all! I admit that was my first failure of the month; anyone who did choose to go out should get some kind of medal.
Brayford Pool, Lincoln on Monday
I didn’t completely fail on Monday; I mean even in all the wind and heavy rain I did leave my office and walk to M&S – we needed something for dinner that night and while it would have been easy enough to pop to the Co-op on the way home (in the car), I felt I should make some kind of effort. M&S and back from my office is approximately 10 minutes walk max each way, so not an hour, but something. I’ll take it, it truly was not a pleasant day outside and I am very grateful I had the choice.
Under the bridge by the Brayford in Lincoln.
I know I wasn’t the only one who struggled on Monday, but thankfully the rest of the week was a little easier. It was still wet on Tuesday but nowhere near as much, and so I had a wander around town, and had a few meetings in different work buildings so I made my hour easily, brolly in hand.
Puddle shoefie… my patent Dr Martens are getting a lot of wear this autumn.
I spent most of my Wednesday wandering around the NEC in Birmingham visiting Motorcycle Live, our annual trip to fuel our motorcycling habit. This year was particularly fun as we were able to chat to a few motorcycle adventurers like Natan Millward, Austin Vince, Sam Manicom and the guys from Globebusters and share our adventure from this summer (videos coming soon… hopefully around Christmas time). We also came across the Triumph concept Ice Bike – oh wow I neeeeeeed to have a play on this!! Earlier this year I was chatting with friends about what we might do as our next motorcycle challenge style trip, and I said I wanted to ride to the North Pole. I was only half joking; I might blog about it at some point as the idea is an interesting one. I wonder if Triumph will lend me this bike to do it on?! Now that would be an adventure!! Come on… who knows someone at Triumph who can help me out?
Triumph Tiger Ice Bike. Oh my.
There was some blue sky later in the week which was very much appreciated. My twitter and instagram was awash with photos of people enjoying the sunshine, which was really awesome to see, especially after a few very wet days. We went for a walk up Steep Hill to see the Cathedral in our lunch break on Thursday and did the commute by bicycle on Friday so that One Hour Outside was super easy to tick off. That’s better, more like that please!
Lincoln Cathedral.
What have you been up to this week?
There are only a few days of November left, so let’s all make the most of our outdoors time. I’m enjoying your shares over on twitter and instagram using the hashtag #OneHourOutside – keep them coming!. Has anyone been using the printable record sheet with your family? I’d love to see a snap of it so far if you are!
And if you’re not already following me over on instagram, I’d love to make more friends over there (can I reach 1,000 by Christmas?!).
If you need some inspiration, check out my 50 Things To Do Outside in November post. Want to know why you should take part in the challenge? Here are some Benefits of Getting Outside. Basically, stop just thinking about it, or making excuses, and just join in with the challenge starting now. Your time outside is time well spent. Go enjoy!