You’d imagine by the ripe old age of 38, I’d be reasonably proficient at walking. I’ve had quite some time to practice.
It may sound odd to say, however, that for someone who aims to run over 50km per week, I don’t really walk very much. Given the sedentary nature of my job and the fact I commute by car, I am either sitting or running, with the possible exception of the mornings when I end up parking at the far end of the carpark at work. I might squeeze in a whole 90 seconds of walking then.
Why is this, now somewhat lengthy, tale important? Next weekend my lovely better half and I, along with a group of friends are tackling Race to the King. This can take many formats and we’re opting for the hopefully more sociable two-day walking format. 53 miles over the South Downs in Southern England spread over the weekend. Walking, we’re anticipating a good 20 to 24 hours of time on our legs.
I may run. I may run 20 miles on a Sunday. I do not spend 24 hours on my feet though. I’ll perhaps cover 20 miles in 3 hours or so, then sit down and have a sandwich. Therefore, it was time to get some Race-to-the-King-specific training in at the weekend.
We headed off to Gloucestershire with the aim of tackling the well known May Hill, in a good 20 mile loop giving us leg time of over 6 hours with a bit of luck.
It turned out to be a beautiful walk and it did take about 6 or 7 hours in total, depending on whether you include the pub and coffee shop stops. I know, serious stuff. In spite of Mother Nature threatening to put a dampener on proceedings, it stayed dry and the sun even came out to ensure our 3 layers felt like massive overkill.
By golly did my legs ache more than if I’d run the same distance though. By golly, did I just use the phrase ‘by golly’. That’s when it struck me that I don’t really do enough walking so, on a day like that, my feeble walking muscles get woken from their ivory tower and forced to work.
I certainly knew about it in the evening. Would I have been able to get up the next day and do it again? Probably but it would have been harder work than I might have imagined previously. It’s a good job, as next weekend I’m going to have to get up and do it again, and then some. In the meantime, I’m glad I’ve had a bit of a wake up call to get my walking muscles on the move.
On the plus side, it was a wonderful day and the views were fantastic. One of those hills that when you reach the top, you can see so far that you can’t understand why it isn’t visible from most places on Earth. Photos don’t really do it justice but here’s a taster:
These walking events will also ultimately help my ultra running too. There are obviously several walking spells during an ultra. Now I come to think if it, they’ve always felt quite tough. This is no longer surprising given my non-existent walking strength. Interestingly, during a downhill we broke into a jog and it was unbelievable how comfortable it felt, using a different set of muscles that hadn’t really been tested for most of the day.
So, we’ll see how we get on next weekend with my new found muscles and appreciation for walking. And walking. And walking. It’s certainly something I’ll do more of as an alternative cross training. I am now 38 after all so it is time I learnt to walk.
I’d be interested how many other runners have the same experience finding walking more difficult than running for extended amounts of time? If it’s just me and my weak legs, then let me down gently.
longruntom 
Now you mention it, I also have experienced something similar to this; but I presumed the walk made me sore because I had already run that day… I’ll have to pay better attention.
Have fun on your country stroll…
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Hi Matt, nice to know I’m not alone, part of me was just thinking I was a particularly poor walker! Thanks, really looking forward to it!
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Yes! I did the Birmimgham Walkathon in about 2011 and it was absolute hell, I thought I was fit because I ran half-marathons so I don’t remember putting in specific training for it. I had blisters like in Run Fat Boy Run, I was crying by about mile 18, fed up by mile 8 (I run slowly but walking is SO SLOW), and I literally wailed as my then-boyfriend (now husband: this did not break us!) made me walk past *our own house* to get to the finish.
Three official and one DIY marathons run and every one was easier than that. Each time I have thought well if I can do the Walkathon I can do this. And it’s not like it’s on different surfaces – 21 ish miles of my DIY mara were the Walkathon route!
I am better at walking now because my friend Ruth came back to running via Jeff Galloway Method and we jeff quite a lot of long distances together, so I’ve got a better speedwalk in. We’ll see how that translates in Race to the Stones (one day, running).
But I have the Bumble Bimble on Sunday which is waterlogged woods, long grass with uneven going underfoot and stiles, so that’s going to test my off road abilities (we’re also practising on the RTTS route the next weekend). So it’s all difficult, whatever it is.
Good luck with the King!
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Thanks for the message Liz! It does seem to make quite a difference running rather than walking. Sounds like Jeff’s method is mixing it up nicely now.
Good luck with all your training coming up, that’s a lot going on. It’s not helped that it seems to have rained continuously this week, turning all the trails to bog! Good luck on Sunday 🙂
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Trail race DONE and I did it. Lots of walking but I felt OK with that, the jeffing has definitely helped. Some scrambling, sliding, climbing and swearing, too …
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Brilliant, great to hear it! …swearing too… 😂
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I agree, the views are amazing. Well worth the walk! And I also agree- with a sedentary job, it’s still possible to be too inactive, even while marathon training. It’s a good thing you realized this thing about walking now, because now you can built up your feet physiognomy and prevent something like a “marching” fracture (which is what they used to call stress fractures, since soldiers would also do too much walking without preparation).
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Yep, I am very conscious of how little I move around during work, except for perhaps between a few desks. I sometimes go crazy and go to the loo on a different floor to give me some stairs! I agree about the walking, it was quite an eye-opener but I’m also really glad as it’ll be another aspect to my training I can work in.
I have had what seems like a skufht shin splint pain this week which I suspect is related and hope is nothing serious.
Never knew that about “marching” fracture. Very interesting 👍
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*slight
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hope the shin pain doesn’t develop into something serious! And I know what you mean about the restrooms, though I don’t have a choice, as for some reason, the women’s restrooms are two floors below the men’s. But I don’t complain for the reason discussed 🙂
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