A 40 kms walk to Rolle
One of my goals this year is to walk from Geneva to Lausanne covering 63 kms in a day. Previously, I tried setting health goals but didn’t break it down properly and didnt organize properly to achieve that goal. Most importantly, the ‘why’ dissolved without a trace.
But after getting a six packs with meticulous systems, discipline and execution, I now started gaining confidence that I can achieve this goal. What gave me the confidence? On 03 Jan, I took my kids for a 9km walk on the French side. I followed it up with a 12 km walk with my son for another lunch for him.
I also told myself that I need to continuously prepare my leg muscles to get strong and flexible. The preparation involves weekly leg workout, daily squats, inclined walking for 30 minutes daily and one long walk close to 30 kms every month.
Now with almost two months into the year, I followed these systems religiously and even started a community to keep the motivation alive with friends and health conscious people.
In January, I did one long walk to Crozet covering 25.6 kms in freezing temperatures for 6 hours 41 mins. In Feb, I wanted to do a long walk on the first week itself but somehow there was resistance thinking of the cold and the long time it takes to complete a walk. The biggest barrier was the narrative inside “Do you want to waste your entire saturday for walking?”. This week, I countered the narrative with “ What would I do instead? I might sit in the sofa and keep flipping through the channels or Youtube”.
This counter narrative pushed me to go out and I created a comforting middle path — “ Walk 10–15 kms instead of 30. It is okay”. Feeling empowered, I decided on a walk from Meyrin to Versoix and back through the Geneva main station route.
I started at 7:08 am and I put six layers of clothing in order to avoid the big jacket. I picked up some bananas, oranges and nuts. When I came out, I realized it was very cold. I wanted to go back but somehow started walking. I reached versoix covering 8.5 kms in 81 mins and the temperature at 8:30am was -2 degrees celcius. With the lake nearby and the wind, it was making me feel even colder.
After reaching Versoix, I wondered why I can’t go little further to the next train station and return instead of going to Geneva station. I started walking and the walking trail was superb. I reached Coppet. I now had a new thought “Why should I walk back home? I can walk as much as I can and then take a train and go back”. This was very comforting and I checked the map for Nyon. It was 8 kms from Coppet. I decided to go to Nyon. Reached Nyon and took some rest there. I watched kids playing ice hockey, drank a vegetable soup and spent 35 mins there near the lake. The sun came out pretty nicely and I checked the map. I noticed that Gland was 4.5 kms away. I started walking towards Gland.
When I reached Gland, I had covered more than 30 kms and I decided to overcome the mental barrier of 30 kms and hit 50 kms. But by the time I reached Rolle, my legs started to give up and I didn’t feel like walking anymore. It is purely a mental battle and most importantly, with the narrative. I ate chicken Kebab at a Turkish restaurant and returned home by train from Rolle.
I ended up covering 40 kms and below is the video of my walk
Long walks help a lot. It helps to endure. It helps to overcome the inner chatter. It helps to become simple.
Djokovic had said ‘The greatest fight is within”. It is so true. The body just listens to what we tell ourselves. We have to find ways to keep the purpose alive and the moment we start moving, we will get our rhythm and our peak energy at some point.
We just have to persist and persevere till we overcome the mind. Once we conquer the mind, the body will work like magic.
