Question:
Training for a marathon is walking
4 miles three times a week with
no walking three times a week and
then a long walk on the weekend.
Walking for health is building up
to walking say 5 miles per day six
days a week for a total of 30 miles
per week.
Any comments?
Answer:
Walking for health is walking as
often as you can, for as long as
you can manage. If you can only
get out a couple of times one week,
or can only get out for a half hour
at a time, then you should still
do it. Walking for health is saying
No thanks, I'll walk. if it's less
than two miles. It's walking to
pick up the paper instead of having
it delivered. It's refusing to drive
your kids somewhere, but offering
to walk with them instead. Walk
down and meet them instead of picking
them up. I do 'exercise' walking
whenever I can, 7k most weekday
mornings, but it's a separate activity.
I
think the most healthy lifestyle
change I made is not that, it's
incorporating walking into regular
activities.
The difference
between walking for health and 'long
distance' hiking is the way in which
you train and build muscle and stamina.
The health walk is based upon just
getting out there consistently and
not walking to the point of 'almost'
hurting yourself. 'Marathon' training
increases the mileage every week.
Health walking may not.
A (typical) long distance walker
(runner) training is a medium length
walk (day 1) followed by a rest
(day 2) and two short distance walks
with no rests (day 3/4) and then
a rest day (day 5) and a hard long
walk with a rest (day 6/7). (or
other variations). If the long (or
medium) walk is more than 15 miles
in 4 hours, usually there are two
rest days following. A short walk
day and a rest day may also be substituted
with 'cross training', weight lifting
or swimming, rowing, biking.
To get be able to walk 20-30 miles
a day almost every day (maybe including
a backpack at high altitude) involves
a training method that quickly (
4-6 months) and safely gets a walker's
muscles and tendons built up to
take that kind of strain -- and
then maintains that strain to help
'peak' out on the 'race' day. It
involves more rest days than it
does exercise days.
And two of
the exercise days during the weeks
are very strenuous and in many cases
produces very sore muscles (and
sometimes feet). Marathon training
is more strenuous and requires the
rest days for the injured muscles
to recover. Also it requires an
almost no exercise week around the
4-6 week of the process. This allows
the tendon's healing process to
catch up a bit.
Most people tend to be satisfied
with 'health walking'. A few want
to 'go for it'. Walking 20 -30 miles
a day every day (even for relatively
short periods) is not a particularly
comfortable or healthy past time
for most of us physically or mentally.
