The Walking Guide

One Foot In Front of the Other

Get the Most from the Walking Guide

First, follow the Guide faithfully. If you can keep to this general plan, you’ll finish the half or full marathon easily. If something happens to you, say you get injured or you have to take care of a sick relative and you can’t walk, do not jump back into the schedule as though you weren’t gone. Take your time and thoughtfully work out how to rebuild to get back where you were. And be honest with yourself, if something takes you away from the schedule for more than a few weeks, maybe this isn’t your year. In that case, you could focus on walking several 5-milers or get out on the hills and switch to hiking. There are many ways to satisfy the goal of being active and having fun.

Second, cross-training really works. To build strength and endurance some people cycle, some swim, some hike. Others take a conditioning class, but a class in a gym is optional. Instead of heading to the gym, you could replace the sod in your front yard, clean out your garden from winter’s mess, or pressure wash your house to spiff it up for summer. Other options include participating in a neighborhood cleanup or mowing a few lawns. The point here is to be active and use muscles you don’t use when you’re walking. Being stronger will enhance your ability to finish the event easily and reduce your recovery time.

Third, resist the urge to add lots of miles at any one time. Notice that the miles are increased gradually. There is a reason for that, primarily to keep you from getting injured. A good rule-of-thumb is that it’s safe to add on a mile at any time. The way that would look is this: if the last long walk you did was 7 miles and now it’s a week that calls for 10 miles, you should compromise. Split that different and walk 8.5 or 9 miles. Then, the following week, you can walk 10. You’ve split the miles and made the jump more gradual. It might be that walkers can tolerate a larger jump in miles as long as they are very healthy and have walked for many weeks.

Fourth, give up judging yourself for the next five months. You could think of it as a judgment-fast. Judging oneself is the easiest way to get discouraged and drop out or push yourself too hard and into an injury. Judging has become such an automatic part of our culture, so ingrained that it’s possible you’re reading this and thinking, what’s the big deal, who cares, so I’m worrying that my thighs are too big or my fat jiggles when I walk. Uh huh, that’s a deep dive into the emotional sink-tank of I’ll-never-be-any-good-at-this. I suggest that you monitor yourself and at the first sign of judging, you go douse yourself with the garden hose. That may cool you off and when it does you’ll be reminded of how ridiculous it is to spend a single moment on anything except the fact that you are out there, you are making the effort, you are deciding to take yourself for a walk. So, dump the judging, don the noticing all the details of your surroundings, and get ready for the fun to begin.

The Novice Walker: Guide

The X-perienced Walker: Guide

And now, to the walk . . .