I've really got very little idea what I'm doing here. I've been walking in the hills for years, but always for fun and never with a time limit. I'm familiar with speed and endurance work, however, thanks to my running background, so maybe I'm not as deeply in the dark as I could be.
I'm also a trained researcher and project planner, so it seems natural to break the challenge down into aims, objectives and methods. What I need to achieve is dead simple: walk as far as I can without exceeding the time limit for a given section and, if at all possible, keep going for 42 miles. That's the aim. The objectives, then, are to extend how far I can walk and to learn how to walk at a set speed for mile after mile. The method I'm using to achieve those objectives is a training plan incorporating three walks per week, rising to four at around the ten-week point. The first (and later the fourth) will be a short walk at a comfortable pace, the second a short one at race pace and the third a longer one. Once I get used to covering the ground at 4mph, I might increase the pace of the slower walks as well: that's a decision for later.
I kicked this off last week with walks of 2 miles, 1.5 miles and 6.5 miles. The latter was supposed to be closer to six, but we saw Stanage Pole on the horizon and had to go and visit it, as you do. All three walks were well within my capacity - at the moment it's about increasing my overall mileage and getting into the habit of walking several times a week for its own sake. I decided to do the first tempo walk on a treadmill at the gym, because I hadn't the faintest idea what 4mph felt like. As it turns out, for a shorty like me it's pretty close to how I remember the basic marching speed, roughly two steps per second: easy to count and easy to maintain. Encouraging. The thought of keeping it up for 42 miles is a sobering one, but now I know what I'm dealing with.
This week is the same as last week, so another easy two-miler tomorrow morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment