A Perthshire man has now been making a daily active journey of at least 5km for a decade.
Back in 2013 Mike Dales set himself the personal exercise challenge - and on Friday he reached the 10-year mark.
It involves running, walking, cycling, canoeing, kayaking or ski-ing every single day.
Author Mike said: “Before starting this exercise streak, I was reasonably fit and would be active for about three days a week, but I realised I was drifting into a sedentary lifestyle for the other four days in a typical week.
“That wasn’t good and I decided I needed to do something about it. That’s when I came up with the idea of taking on this challenge.”
Ten years later, Mike has turned his focus towards encouraging others to use the power of a physical exercise challenge to provide the motivation to keep taking exercise.
Three years into his challenge, Mike decided to write a book about people that take on exercise challenges with the aim of helping others find their own equivalent challenge at their own personal level.
In 2021 ‘Find Time for Exercise’ was published and is now being read by people feeling the need to raise their exercise levels for the good of their physical and mental health.
The title came from the quote by the 18th-century Prime Minister, Edward Smith-Stanley, who said: ‘Those who do not find time for exercise will have to find time for illness’.
Mike (63) said: “There are many people out there wanting to take more exercise, but every time they try to do more, they end up giving up after a few days or weeks. My message is that if you can stick a number on it, then you’re more likely to find the motivation to keep going.
“If you say: ‘I will walk a mile on at least five days every week’, or ‘I will walk at least ten kilometres every week’, then you’re far more likely to succeed because that number will motivate you to prove yourself right and reach your target.
“The book begins with a description of my own exercise challenge, but the focus quickly turns to the challenges that other people are taking on and ends with a call for the reader to create their own challenge at an appropriate level for them.”
Mike added: “It’s so important to keep moving your body as you get older. As well as the obvious health benefits, there is so much pleasure to be gained from being outdoors and connected with nature.”
The basis of Mike’s challenge and the theme running through the book is very much about going outdoors on the most ordinary of days, or bread-and-butter days as he calls them. Even on a cold, wet day in March, he said, there are enormous benefits to leaving the confines of the house and phone.
