Walking Place, for Wishers walking their races

[Daisybelle]

OOPPPSSS sorry,

Dead last finish,
beats did not finish
which greatly trumps did not start.

That's very excellent. I'll have to put that up by my desk.

 

[CliffordM]

I LOVE the DLF>DNF>>DNS philosophy. So true for everything else in life too.

 

[Hockeychic]

I have worn my WISH shirt for every event I have ever done and I always have people come up from behind me (I am not very fast) and comment how much they love the motto and how very true it is.

 

[windwalker]

I had continuing education classes yestersay and a nice rest day off my feet. That and 8 hours of sleep has me ready to train again.

Walk training is a lot like run training. You need the long slow, the short fast and some inbetween. Today I'm going to do the short fast, I will go to the local high school track and do an interval waorkout.

Walk easy to brisk for 2 miles, 8 laps, then do a lap as fast as I can. I'll walk easy again a lap and then another lap as fast as I can. I'll repeat the fast and slow laps 5 times then walk two miles easier to cool down.

Dave

 

[es45]

I thought I'd start a thread for those who were planning to walk thier races. We can post our daily training, help the ones who are going to walk their first race and talk training tips and training plans.

It's 6 mo till the January race weekend at WDW so it's time to get serious again about getting your walks in, getting your healthy habits started and time to drop the winter fluff.Dave

I'm in! My best friend and I are walking the Princess Half in '11. I'm training for my first 5k (at the end of July) but I've quickly realized that training to run a 5k and training to walk a half are completely different. Thanks for the great tips.

 

[Daisybelle]

I LOVE the DLF>DNF>>DNS philosophy. So true for everything else in life too.

I made a little print out of that to put up in my little cubicle here at work. It's a nice little reminder to just keep moving and progressing!

 

[windwalker]

I want to say something about training for half marathons. I have had good personal success and helped several others prepare for a good strong half with 8 miles as the longest training walks.

I try to get in 20 miles a week spread out over 4 or 5 days. I have found that an 8 mile walk every two weeks and a 6 miler on the opposite week works well. I did the Goofy with a longest walk of 8 miles and don't recommend that. I was tired by the end of the marathon.

For a marathon I really should have had a few 16 milers in there along with the 8 milers.

A good schedule for half training should also include regular stretching and some type of strength training. Strength training can be as easy as making sure you walk some hills during the week and doing some push ups and sit ups. Better is the hills and a pilaties class or type or some other type of aerobic training like step.

Dave

 

[johde]

In my limited experience, I would agree that average total weekly miles is more important that longest distance walked. I used the John Bingham "Marathoning for Mortals" walking plan for the basis of my first 1/2 marathon. His plan is 3 days a week of walking. I worked up to 5 miles 2 days a week and then my long walk. His plan peaks with weeks of 8, 6, 10, 8. I had started early for fear of bad weather and was able to add 2 9's with 6's inbetween as well. So, I had an average weekly milage of 18 to 20 miles for a good month or more before the half marathon.

From what I've read, the advantage of the 10mi or longer walk, in a person who's goal is just to finish, is more psycological than physical. A friend of mine finished a half marathon with a longest walk of 6 miles, but she was walking 4 to 6 miles five or six days a week for a couple of months before someone mentioned doing a half marathon about a month before competing.

 

[Hockeychic]

Last year while training for my goofy I ended up with bone spurs and PF so I only got in 1 long walk of 16M and 1 of 15M and was fine. I would like to get in a 20 M this time and will follow MFM. Haven't decided yet on the marathon or goofy but will train for the marathon

 

[windwalker]

Kimmer, that's a problem I share, I have a bone spur and occassional PF that I brought home from the Air Force. My long running career left me with that and if I try to increase weekly miles to fast it gives me discomfort.

That rule of increasing no more than 10% per week with miles and never work on increasing speed and miles in the same week, is a good one. Training every other day is great if you do quality workouts and then do some sort of cross training on the opposite days.

Dave

 

[nkkilala]

Hello everyone!

Just had to chime in and thank you for all of the wonderful advice!

Also regarding PF. I work in a physical therapy clinic (going to school to be a physical therapy assistant) and we do this GREAT treatment for PF that has really good results! It is called ASTYM. I would recommend you see a physical therapist for this treatment. It requires special certification so you can look up which PTs perform ASTYM on their website! Maybe it will work for you!

 

[Daisybelle]

That rule of increasing no more than 10% per week with miles and never work on increasing speed and miles in the same week, is a good one. Training every other day is great if you do quality workouts and then do some sort of cross training on the opposite days.

Dave

Quick question if that's ok! I've been adding a mile every couple of weeks. What you are saying is that I should add an extra 10% each week instead? For instance I'm planning on going to 4 miles this week. With the 10% rule I would only do 3.3. Is that easier on the body?

 

[windwalker]

Quick question if that's ok! I've been adding a mile every couple of weeks. What you are saying is that I should add an extra 10% each week instead? For instance I'm planning on going to 4 miles this week. With the 10% rule I would only do 3.3. Is that easier on the body?

Yes by all means do the 4 miles. Right now you can add more, when you have built up to doing 10 miles then the 10% rule is more important. that's ten miles for a total week. For your long walk of the week right now still only increase a mile every other week.

If you are doing 3 miles total for the week then you can safely add a mile per week till you reach 10 total. Once you hit 10 miles total for the week then don't add any more for a week. Then add a mile to your long walk of the week. Each week after that you can add 10% spread out over the whole week, not all on the one day.

An ideal schedule to build toward right now is 4 walks a week, alternating a rest or crosstraining day between. Walk 3 days of 3 to 5 miles and the 4th your long day increasing to 8 miles. When you are comfortably doing 20 miles a week you can cruise at that level since you are in shape to finish a half and need only add a couple of months of slowly increasing miles to 30 when you want to finish a marathon.

These are the minimum required to comfortably walk and finish a half or full. If you are a runner you need more miles. The difference is that you don't run during your daily activities but you do walk. So if you normally walk a couple of miles a day or more that adds up.

Dave

 

[windwalker]

Cross training should work some different muscles than your walk muscles. Pushing a mower, raking leaves, walking on trails, swimming, biking, gym classes, most anything that get's your heart rate up and makes you sweat works.

I like to go to the pool, get in the 5' deep end and run laps in the water. I do that a couple of days a week for an hour, then stretch. This works well for me since the resistence of the water makes the workout similar to a light weight workout.

I try for an hour to an hour and a half of exercise 5 to 6 days a week with my rest day determined by my work schedule. The older you are the more recovery time you need between workouts. My days of twice a day workouts are over, darn it.

Dave

 

[windwalker]

Monday, June 14, 2010
Heat Training

I have spent a lot of my life in hot climates. Four years in Southern Louisiana, nine year in the Las Vegas desert and five years in Okinawa. All these places were very hot and in the case of Vegas, although not as humid, very extreme temperatures. I leaned a lot about training in the heat from my years of running in these climates.

To start with we were designed to not only survive but to thrive in these temperatures. Human civilization, according to what our best scholars can figure out, started in the hotter climates. We only later branched out to the other areas of the planet.

I learned that you need to stay hydrated all the time, keep a drink handy all day so you can drink some several times an hour. The old rule of thumb of 8 eight ounce glasses of water is a minimum. If you exercise in the heat every day that's not enough. Remember this: It's an old American Indian saying, "it's the water in your body that does you good, not the water in your canteen". Basicly that means if you are heading out into the heat for a hard workout you need to have all your required fluids in you not in a bottle you are going to be sipping during the workout.

I don't drink during a 5K and I will only occasionally take a drink during a 10K. But I will go into the race well hydrated and start drinking again as soon as the race is over. During a 10 mile or longer race I will hit all the aid stops and drink the Powerade or Gatorade, I drink that for the fluid but also the electrolytes and calories. Since you burn a 100 calories a mile, the calories from the sports drinks helps you feed your cells with easily digested sugars. Solid food takes to long to digest to do you any good. That's why Goos and Gels are so popular. Fruit will digest quickly also so a lot of longer races will have bananas and oranges on the course for the athletes.

Another observation I've noticed over the years is that sometime after the heat of the year starts that I will have a workout where I feel the heat really bad and I get a dizzy feeling. I will stop working out when this happens and cool down with water and shade or air conditioning if available. But after this happens once, my body handles the heat much better. It's like I'm feeling my body acclimate to the heat. This has happened many times and I've learned that untill it does I need to stay close to where I can get water and cool down. Once it happens I can start doing longer walks where I cover a lot of distance.

Heat is dangerous but heat is also not a reason to stop training. It just needs to be respected and you need to be prepared for how you will react to heat training. Stay hydrated and untill your sure of how the heat will affect you, stay close to help.

Dave

 

[Daisybelle]

This last post on dealing with heat is perfect timing! It finally got warm here in Oregon over the weekend and I about did myself in yesterday. I was well-hydrated (I thought) and had water with me but about an hour after my walk I felt TERRIBLE.
Is this when drinks like gatorade come in handy? Would it be more beneficial to have that with me instead of water on warmer days with big walks?

 

[windwalker]

This last post on dealing with heat is perfect timing! It finally got warm here in Oregon over the weekend and I about did myself in yesterday. I was well-hydrated (I thought) and had water with me but about an hour after my walk I felt TERRIBLE.
Is this when drinks like gatorade come in handy? Would it be more beneficial to have that with me instead of water on warmer days with big walks?

Yes the sports drinks have some electrolytes and calories of easily digested sugars so they keep you from getting that feeling you were experiencing.

Dave

 

[windwalker]

We all want to be winners, we dream of it, we hunger for it. But if we did win every time we took the field then winning would be routine and not the amazing moment that it is for most of us. For most of us finishing well in a race is satisfying and special, even when finishing well is to merely finish.

The heat will be with us for a while now but we can't let it stop our training. If we are to call our selves athletes we must be able to function in heat and the cold. We are winners each time we don't give in to excuses and do our workouts.

Dave

 

[es45]

windwalker: so glad that you posted about the heat. Last week, the heat during my training was so unbearable that I cut it short. I didn't want to go out the next day (it was hotter) but decided to do it anyway. You are right, in spite of it being hotter, I could handle it a bit better and a bit longer because of the experience the day before.

 

[windwalker]

Free Form

Today was, I believe, a turning point in my training. It was hot, 82 degrees with high humidity. My plan was to have an LSD to start acclimating to the heat of summer and working on endurance. Then I had one of those moments. The song lyrics, on my iPod, were, "Freedom comes when you learn to let go". Wow, talk about a Revelation, the light bulb came on and I realized something I'd been missing.

I went into free form mode. Suddenly technique was natural not something I was forcing my body to do. Because I just loosened up and let it flow. Now this was my first long distance on a really hot day this year, but the pace was easy, my body was responding to the rhythm. My original plan was 10 miles but by 9 miles I'd had plenty. It was an amazing workout but I didn't force it, I went with how I felt, my body performed well, but when I started running out of steam I stopped.

I had a couple of rough spots, the first when I hit where my normal long distance walks stop, six and a half miles. Then when I passed a fence with a large angry pit bull behind it. My heart rate soared there and finally when I was nearly run down in a cross walk by a couple of guys smoking and drinking beer. The driver had to swerve the old Buick wide to keep from hitting me.

I can't wait to get to the track next week and practice what I learned today about letting go and letting the motion flow.

Dave