Hey this is TA calling in from Day 28 on the great big walk. Its find your fit Friday. We are in a village called Hongon at an elevation of 2323 m above sea level. We had a fabulous walk today, we are on much more of a main trail so we actually got to pick up our heads and look around a little bit and we walked for about 7 hours and completed about 17 km today. Marian had 24 268 steps, 273 floors and just around17 km. I had 24 908 steps, 277 floors again around 17 km and Cam had 25, 803 steps and again right around 17 km.

I am the ambassador for Recreation Newfoundland and Labrador find your fit campaign so that is why Fridays are find your fit Fridays and I wanted to give you some tips from our great big walk here that we’ve been experiencing and learning from. One is that we started slowly, our early days were easier than our days are now. We built our strength and endurance over those first 2 weeks and now we are feeling much stronger and able to power up some of the hills. Walking is definitely an excellent way to find your fit. Here on the great big walk we walk anywhere between 3 and 7 hours each day. For health benefits it is recommended that folks try to get 10,000 steps into a day and you don’t have to do them all at once. You can do some in the morning, some at lunch, some in the evening. Just sort of building up to that number too.

You don’t have to necessarily go out and get 10,000 steps your first day. Maybe 3000 the first day and then work your way from there. One of the things that we definitely find here on the great big walk is having comfortable shoes and boots make it a whole lot more comfy to be walking and hiking along. We hike in our bigger boots during the day and trade into lighter shoes in the evening. One of the great things about being on the great big walk is we’re walking outdoors everyday and the outdoors is a great spot if you can find your fit sometimes outdoors. Some of the research shows that you’ll work towards your fit a little bit harder outdoors but you won’t notice it as much so people tend to feel like they are having an easier time because there is so many other things to pay attention to when you’re exercising outdoors and there is lots of other benefits that come your way. You’ll make some vitamin D, there is usually a sense of calm and relaxation that comes from finding your fit outdoors.

You can find a fit that fits, for us here on the great big walk we definitely all enjoy walking but in other parts of our lives we enjoy other things. I enjoy ice hockey, any kind of outdoor sports, kayaking, canoeing, those kind of things. Other folks may like skating or walking or running. There’s lots of different ways to find your fit. A great place to find lots more information about finding your fit is the recreation of Newfoundland and Labrador website for lots of ideas, tips and other ways to find your fit. As we’ve been on the great big walk here we’ve been walking some ancient footpaths and these footpaths generally link villages together and that reminds me of the origins of the East Coast trail that we have on the along the East Coast of Newfoundland and I know for me when I am training for mountaineering expeditions and as I got ready for the great big walk I spent some time walking and hiking along the East Coast trail so it is another great resource for finding your fit.

We celebrated another milestone here today on the great big walk. We passed the 300 km mark. We also got about 535 000 steps each or so and we’ve gained about 43 280 feet or so. Give or take! My final tip for today is its great to count things. I am big fan of using pedometers or fitbits or GPS’ or even good old fashioned counting steps, just myself or Gmaps pedometer, but its pretty helpful to set goals and then use some mechanism to measure your progress towards those goals to give you milestones to celebrate and for me I get to draw graphs and all kinds of things in our log books for our expedition. So a few tips from us here on the great big walk out to you on this find your fit friday. Hope you can get out for a walk or a run or a stroll and take a friend with you. Actually I have one more tip which is go with a buddy. Find someone who will encourage you to find your fit, get you out of bed when you don’t want to get off your bed or off the couch and sometimes it is more fun to share your fit with someone else. So a great day here, day 28 on the great big walk. Happy Friday to everyone, find your fit and will catch you tomorrow from Saturday on the great big walk. Take care! Bye bye!

Total Steps for TA: 24 908 steps, 277 floors

Total Steps for Marian: 24 268 steps, 273 floors

Total Distance for TA: 17 km

Total Distance for Marian: 17 km

Great Big Walk acknowledges the support of the Memorial University of Newfoundland Quick Start Fund for Public Engagement in making these updates from the field possible.