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Walk to #KeepWell challenge – get involved

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Walk to #KeepWell is an initiative of Sport Ireland in collaboration with National Governing Bodies (including Cricket Ireland, FAI, IRFU) as part of the Keep Well Campaign encouraging you to walk to keep well and to show you the impact regular walking can have on your fitness levels.
We are going through difficult and challenging times but it has never been more important for us to look after our physical and mental wellbeing. A daily walk can do so much for our mind and body and we want to show you the results of your daily walks!

The challenge

Challenge your club members / temmates to challenge themselves by:

• Step 1: complete the Operation Transformation a 12 minute walking challenge (details below)
• Step 2: complete the Get Ireland Walking 21 days of walking
• Step 3: complete the 12 minute walking challenge again on day 22
• Step 4: Use a results tool on the Sport Ireland website to track your improvement

Visit the website for more detail.

The 12 Minute Walking Challenge

Prof Niall Moyna of DCU, in collaboration with RTE’s Operation Transformation, has developed this 12-minute challenge to demonstrate the minimum fitness standard for your age group. The challenge will be promoted and aired on the show on Wednesday 3rd of February. This is a great opportunity to build some momentum around the challenge within your club & community.

The challenge will show you where you sit within the minimum standards of physical fitness and give you a target to aim for within your age bracket and gender.

It is worth noting that while we are primarily promoting this as a walking challenge, members can of course run if they wish to.

To gauge the update we would encourage everyone involved to use the #stepitup #keepwell as well as tagging us and Sport Ireland in any social posts.

How does the challenge work?

What do participants need?
• Stopwatch
• Fitness tracker (a smartwatch or app that records distance in km or miles)

What do participants need to do?
• Time yourself as you walk or run for 12 minutes, aiming to cover as much distance as possible.
• Measure the distance you’ve traveled over the 12 minutes using a fitness tracker or an app that records distance.

We are suggesting a start date of Thursday 4th Feb for the first 12-minute challenge, and finish date of Friday 26th Feb for the second 12-minute challenge.

So what do you as a club need to do?

• Promote the Walk to #KeepWell initiative to your club members.
• Encourage club members to download the Get Ireland Walking app to track their 21 days of walking.
• Aim to involve the local community by asking your members to do this challenge with a ‘buddy’ who is a non-club member.
• Share the initiative on your social channels and website using #stepitup #keepwell.

Can you run an in house competition?

Yes! This is a decision that should be made in house by your club. Sport Ireland and Cricket Ireland will not be holding a national competition.