Fast Walking

[famlyhistorynut]

I have begun to participate in fast walking. There was a half marathon in my town last weekend, my first. Is anyone else here doing fast walking? I'd love to see a weekly thread like the runners have to learn more, get tips, and stay motivated.

I wish I had gotten hooked on this years ago, but better late than never, I guess. I am in my late 50s. About a year and a half ago we changed the way we eat to a much healthier diet and started exercising. The walking just sort of evolved.

[lisalee]

I'm thinking about starting fastwalking. How did you get started? Did you join a walking group? How did the half marthon go? I love to walk! I walk the dog twice a day and at work I end up walking about 5 miles a week as I go from class to class. (we affectionaly call my class "reading on the run") What kind of training do you do a week?

Lisa

[famlyhistorynut]

You're a dog walker, too? That's how I got started. We have a Springer-mix, a high energy dog who absolutely requires his morning walk! Weekdays are only a half hour, but there's nothing flat around here so I get a lot of uphill intervals. On the weekend I walk a different, longer route. I do some stretching before heading out - I didn't do this at first and my thigh hurt enough that I had trouble walking until it warmed up. Then I read about being sure to walk with the heel first and pushing off with the toe. I also bend my arms at the elbow and pump. I don't know if this arm stuff is really necessary, but it keeps me from swinging my arms across my body which is sort of self-defeating. I read about doing intervals -- really pushing for short spurts, which eventually get longer. On my longer weekend walks I've measured the exact mileages (no treadmill) and just time myself to see how I'm doing. Some days there's no progress, others a little. Either way, I feel terrific when I get home.

No, I don't walk with a group - this is a small town and I walk pretty early (5:30am) so that options is pretty limited. Without the dog, I think a buddy walker would really help to keep the motivation.

[lisalee]

Too bad we don't live closer! I'm out the door around 5am to start our walks! I walk my dog about the same on weekdays and longer on the weekends. She's a lab mix coming up on her 9th birthday so maybe we don't walk as fast as we should. I live in a pretty flat area and would have to drive to the mountains to get some uphill work in. Not that it can't be done, but I wouldn't want to walk to far and have difficulty getting back if something happened. I found a group of walkers here in Surprise that I am considering joining. I don't know the exact distance we walk, but I know that I can walk an hour with her on the weekends.

Let me know how things are going. Once I join the group, I'll let you know if they have any tips I should share.

Enjoy the walking!
Lisa

[wallycat]

Is this similar to race walking??

Any exercise is great!!

You're in Alaska?? Cool!!!!!!!!!!! DH and I eloped in Alaska :D

Welcome to the BB.

[FitAlli]

Originally posted by wallycat
Is this similar to race walking??



I was also wondering this. I've been running on my treadmill for a while now. While I love it, it is giving my back and shins fits. I would definitely be interested in learning how to "fast walk". Every time I try to though, I end up breaking out in a jog.

[famlyhistorynut]

Sorry, Wallycat, I didn't see your post, or I would have responded earlier. Thanks FitAlli for furthering the question. I've just been doing some reading on this thanks to a post by Todd "badunnin" on the Running Question thread who referenced http://www.thewalkingsite.com Apparently Race Walking is more stylized than what I have seen called Fast Walking. There are some very strict rules in Race Walking, particularly that the knee of the front leg must be straight when the heel strikes and stay straight until the leg is perpendicular to the hip, when it can be bent to bring the leg forward again. I haven't tried this, but they say this is one of the things that makes race walking so efficient and enables a person to attain high speeds and achieve endurance.

I don't know if I'll ever accomplish this technique. My fast walking seems more than just a usual walk, at least to me. I did the half marathon in 3:21, just a tad slower than 15 minute miles. Since I only started to work on speed, (and I'm working on becoming an old lady though I'll put that off as long as I can) I thought this to be pretty good. I've begun to think in the past couple of days that maybe I could build speed and endurance and even to a full marathon. We'll see.