1000 Mile Challenge

Be it by foot, paddle, snowshoe, or ski, the goals of the 1000 Mile Outdoor Recreation Challenge are to get outdoors and cover some ground.

The key word is “outdoor.” No indoor activities allowed.

The objective of the challenge is to participate in 1000 miles of outdoor activities in one year.  The challenge starts July 1, 2011.

Approved activities:

  • hiking, backpacking, walking, running
  • snowshoeing, xc skiing, downhill skiing*
  • biking*
  •  swimming (pools are ok, but they must be outdoor!)
  • canoeing, kayaking, rowing, rafting
  •  Basically, if you do something awesome out-of-doors that can  be measured in miles, it counts.

*A couple of extra rules, though:

  • miles on a bike can only contribute to a max of 25% (250 miles) of the 1000 mile total.
  • count only the vertical miles traversed while downhill skiing.  Then multiply by 2.

Reminder: stock up on sunscreen

14 Responses to “1000 Mile Challenge”

  1. My Life Outdoors 3 May, 2011 at 8:14 pm #

    Sounds like fun…I wish I had the time. I could get in a lot through skiing. Still pretty challenging. I thought I was doing good to get in 100 miles last year.

  2. Jobiwan 3 July, 2011 at 9:59 am #

    Sooo, how would I get in on this? I have every intention of trekking close to 1000 within the next year and enjoy a challenge.

    • overlyambitiousme 3 July, 2011 at 3:10 pm #

      You are in — just keep me updated on your status, I plan on posting my progress at the beginning of each week (Sunday-ish). Email me updates at overlyambitiousme (at) gmail (dot) com — break it down into categories, ex: # miles walked, ran, biked, etc. I’ll add you to the progress page with a link to your blog. Have fun!

  3. Kathy 4 July, 2011 at 12:53 am #

    This sounds great! I think I’ll give it a shot. :)

    • overlyambitiousme 4 July, 2011 at 11:45 am #

      Great! Send me updates (see above) and have a fabulous time!!

      • Kathy 4 July, 2011 at 4:26 pm #

        I’ll send you my update each Sunday. :)

  4. Mark Truman 4 July, 2011 at 7:39 pm #

    Great challenge and definitely doable. About 5 years ago I got involved in a walking fitness challenge that lasted about 2 months. It was based on team pedometer steps and didn’t have to be “fitness walking” but I started keeping a log of my walking mileage instead of steps. I logged a lot of miles during the challenge and really loved it and decided to keep going to see what I could personally hit for a year. I wound up averaging 5 miles per day – almost 1900 for the year. Lost almost 30 pounds and felt better than I ever have in my life. The only point to this is that a 1000 mile challenge is great and will provide a push to keep doing stuff every week (and every day). The combo of hiking, paddling, biking, etc just makes it that much more fun. Good luck!! I think I need to get back into daily challenge mode myself…

  5. marykathi 5 July, 2011 at 1:53 pm #

    can i sign up?

    • overlyambitiousme 5 July, 2011 at 2:35 pm #

      Absolutely — send me updates (weekly? or whatever you can do) at: overlyambitiousme (at) gmail (dot) com, and I’ll add you to the progress page. Have fun!

  6. Roy 6 September, 2011 at 5:03 am #

    Swimming should count 3x – 5x

    • overlyambitiousme 6 September, 2011 at 10:25 am #

      I agree the swimming part doesn’t make sense. It wasn’t well thought out when we started. I should probably figure this out soon.

  7. Peter Syme 8 September, 2011 at 5:39 am #

    Hi

    Great idea and wish you luck. I have just returned from a 1000 mile trek ( well 1136 to be exact ) across the Gobi Desert.Inspired me so much that I am going to be doing several more on foot, bike, ski and by paddle. Only expect a small number of people to be interested though as I am sure they cannot be to many as daft as me.

    Your approach of breaking it down over a year will have much more appeal to many and hopefully inspire them to do more

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. 1000 Mile Challenge « KaT Outdoors - 4 July, 2011

    [...] Hey everyone!  Head over to Sonja’s blog,  http://overlyambitiousme.wordpress.com/1000-mile-challenge/ [...]

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