Mike Dales

Mike Dales went out on nature walks with his maternal grandfather from the age of three. The seed was sown, and walking in nature has been one of his great passions ever since. His nature walks in adult life have taken him to the Himalaya, Andes, Alps and Scottish Highlands, but he traces his love of the outdoors all the way back to the paths and woodlands of East Yorkshire in the early 1960s. His interests in hillwalking, sea kayaking, skiing, cycling and running led him to Scotland and the wide-open spaces of the Highlands and Islands. Now living in rural Perthshire, he has climbed all of Scotland's mountains known as Munros and Corbetts, and cycled from Land's End to John O'Groats and the Irish end-to-end equivalent from Mizen to Malin. A keen hill runner, his favourite forms of running are the alpine activities of uphill marathons and Vertical Kilometre races, although he is more regularly seen at parkruns and can occasionally be spotted running indoor 800 metres races in the winter season. In 2013, Mike and his partner Fiona turned their activities into an exercise streak that has, to date, gone unbroken for over eight years. Find Time for Exercise begins with the story of that exercise streak, then goes into the exercise challenges that a range of Mike's friends and contacts have taken on, and ends with a call to action for the reader to think about taking on an exercise challenge as a way to improve their own health and well-being. What began as a childhood bonding session with his grandfather has developed into a passion for taking exercise in the great outdoors and promoting the benefits of regular physical activity to wide ranging audiences.