Herefordshire is beautiful

The coaches at Ady Watts Strength & Conditioning gyms have been busy during lockdown keeping us members fit at home, and more recently outside, throwing in a lockdown challenge every few weeks.

For my first challenge I coerced Caroline Davies to come with me for a 10k walk around local lanes and footpaths. It was so great, it’s now an early morning event for 2 hours each weekend. We’ve been getting to know footpaths and bridleways around Pencombe, Little Cowarne, Ullingswick, Stoke Lacy and Winslow. And of course, we’ve been getting fitter.

Today was Ady’s Lockdown Challenge 3, so now armed with the brilliant Footpath Map on our phones, we set out at 6am this morning for a longer more challenging hike, from Pencombe to Marston, Grendon, Bredenbury, Durstone back to Pencombe. It certainly was a challenge! 10.6 MILES and 5.5 hours later we made it home with only about 0.25 miles of our route being on roads. We had to negotiate a number of obstacles along the way, including about 5 rapeseed fields without a path cut through, lots of brambles, streams, hills and broken stiles. Now that’s what you call a workout!

Herefordshire Council website has a really good map showing paths and bridleways in your area, so it’s easy to plan a route. http://ow.ly/Rfhn50AvJTN