annals of power-walking

I wish you the best, but no need to be embarrassed or to rag on race walking.

Previous thread, for noobs: http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=6869405&thread=6869400#6869405

Good luck and stay safe. Whatever happens, you're already my hero. I still want my own seven years of continuous improvement.

I'm also working through tendon issues, so I want to hear about what works. Links posted on your previous threads, to Sherry/Best "Comparison of two Rehabilitation Programs" and to the lunge matrix, have really turned things around for me in the last 2-3 months.

I basically ignored the gist of that article on two modalities and went for 8 weeks with a PT who convinced me to go with the stretching/strengthening thing. It didn't work. It didn't begin to address the core issue: scar tissue at the hamstring attachment point. I'm still working that through with my ART guy.

I've got nothing to add right now. At some point I will probably need an MRI. But I can walk! 75 minutes of fast walking this morning left me feeling, for the first time in two months, like a normal person.

I wasn't familiar with the lunge matrix. I thought you were making that up! I'm going to do that starting tomorrow. Thanks!

My apologies to any competitive walkers who might have been offended by my mock-horror at the idea of succumbing [sic] wholly to your sports curious hip-wiggling technique. I was just funnin' ya.

3 mile walk yesterday at 16:10 pace, a little slower than recently.

5.2 miles this morning @ 14:48 pace. Cloudy, cool mist. Felt great. Hamstring OK. Legs felt pleasantly loose several hours later, walking across campus.

Hard to put my finger on it, but this sort of power-walking creates something of the same sort of meditative space that LSD running for the same length of time would create. (1:18 or so; about 8 and a half miles). Much less joint stress and muscle wear, of course, and, at 55% of max HR, not a whole lot of aerobic benefit--at least nothing that will translate immediately into fitness when and if I'm able to return to running. But the psychological benefits are real, especially re-accustoming myself to the feeling of being "out there" for that length of time.

BTW, I invite any and all injured runners who are rehabbing themselves with walking to post away in this thread. Also any former runners who have remanufactured themeselves as walkers.

Why walk on public roads and not find a trail to hike on? What you describe doesn't sound fun. Hiking is enjoyable.

hiking is great but it's not like most people can walk out the door on a tuesday morning and hit the hiking trails before work.

Edward Teach wrote:

Why walk on public roads and not find a trail to hike on? What you describe doesn't sound fun. Hiking is enjoyable.

Good question. I've got a trail--three miles out, three miles back--that I could use. In fact, I could walk there: it's a 2.8 mile walk from my house. (I often used to run my 14-milers by starting the same way, hitting the woods, running the length of the trail, then heading out onto a country road until the 7-mile turnaround point.)

As I start to explore longer walks, I will almost certainly head into those woods. A two-hour walk of about 8 miles would take me that way, for example.

I like the convenience, though, of beginning my walk straight from home. And although I studiously avoid concrete when running, it's actually a great surface to walk on, since it enables a fast light stride. I've had no foot strain at all in long concrete sidewalk walks.

I think you can get your HR over 55% max by power walking if you want to- Maybe you just need to keep doing it to get used to the technique. I am about same age as you and I can get the hr well into training zones but I have been doing it for years (when injured long ago) and also was a competitive walker, and I think there is some carry over in the ability to "power walk" fast even though the technique is different.

But there is a way you could do it immediatey- which is, of course, on a treadmill with an incline (for example, 10%). Maybe you don't have access or don't like the experience of walking on a tmill- but it is great cross training for injured runners and you can make it a hard workout.

Keep at it, you are a tough minded runner and it's good to read your posts.

KudzuRunner wrote:

Again: this is a pitiful, painful story if you're a runner. But I suspect that a few souls here have been through this particular house of horrors and will empathize.

Today I decided to go long: 5 miles in just under 75 minutes. Significant uphills and down hills. 14:53 pace. Average HR: 56% of max.

More to come.

I walked after several months in hospital. Built up to 2 h/day @ 14 min/mile, flat course. Hamstrings and lower back got real tight, much tighter than from running. Take care. Toddler squat loosened things up. Good luck.