race walking AMA

This has really been a great thread. For fun today I even went out and “race walked” about 3 kilometers (it took me like 25 minutes but my technique is non existent and my shoes are falling apart)

Do y’all incorporate hills or even hiking or does that affect technique too much?

What kind of weight work do you do?

Great thread. Due to a hi hamstring tendonitis thing I've decided to shut down my running until January, in the meantime I've been doing walks instead of runs. Today I tried to race walk a mile.

I watched one of the technique videos and couldonly manage 11:55. I felt like the hardest thing was maintaining focus to keep up the turnover. Weird that I couldn't go any faster yet I hardly broke a sweat and was nowhere near cardio limit. Interesting. I'll continue to try it out on my running hiatus. It does not bother my hamstring at all.

Thanks for answering questions and being such a good sport about it!

This is all SUPER interesting. I know one judge in particular who is a bit high and mighty but he's been suspended twice and no longer allowed to judge, so it was clearly dealt with. I've genuinely only ever seen 1 person intentionally and tactically use a pack to "cheat" in in a race. We have video of this athlete doing it on multiple occasions now and we've brought it to the attention of those that should see it.

I've never seen the type of buttering up and gift giving. I am definitely cordial with the judges. I know most of their names. I've had a beer with a few of them. I mostly ask them how I could improve my technique and seek out their expertise.

Me saying I've never seen it by no means is me saying I don't believe you. I think of myself and the guys I hang out with as the rag-tag group of elites. We are a bunch of guys from different countries who pool our limited resources and for the most part coach ourselves or have part time coaches and above all else just have fun working hard. That kinda shenanigans just isn't us.

But I have an idea in my head of who it could be. I'd love to hear more about this though, we should talk privately!

But I mean at the IAAF and IOC level the corruption is rife anyway, so the playing field isn't level to begin with. Ukraine get away with covering up positive tests, the IAAF still haven't banned Russian athletes who were caught competing while they were serving a ban. The whole thing becomes a joke if you start looking to deeply into it.

Wannabe racewalker wrote:

Hey Evan (and others now too), thanks a ton for doing this. I just happened to stumble across it at the right time.

I'm a former casual runner and I had to quit because of recurring achilles issues.

I was wondering if you know of achilles injuries being common in race walking, and if you know of any runners with achilles issues who transitioned to RW and what their experience was?

I'm terribly, embarrassingly out of shape right now and thinking of trying casual race walking (like as in, walking in road races with runners, not judged RW) to try to bring it back.

Just not sure if it will be safe for me or how to get started really.

Other smarter people than me have talked a bit about the injury side of things. Quentin Rew, a Kiwi and consistent top 12 finisher used to be a runner and started walking only in his late 20s because of achilles issues. His first 50km was I believe well over 5 hours, but he kept chipping away and now is a 3:48 guy.

In terms of fitness, don't worry to much about maintaining legal race walking technique, just the movement in general being lower impact will be better on your body and as long as you are able to work hard and get your HR up then you will see the fitness benefits.

Wannabe racewalker wrote:

Another thing how do you guys determine training and racing paces? Do you guys have an equivalent of vdot or McMillan? Or do these formulas work for walking?

Do you train by heart rate?

I vaguely use HR. As in I have a HR monitor and I look at the data but I dont dictate my paces off of it at all or change my training based on my HR.

Easy stuff I try to go easy

Hard stuff I try to go hard

Thats kinda it. haha. But I do try to keep most of my walks under 5min/ km unless Im doing real easy recovery stuff then I can drift all the way up to 5:20s. Hard stuff is whatever I can manage, but if I were doing a 10km tempo I'd be bummed if I was slower than 42min any given day.

One of my favourite workouts is a 2km hard with 1km easy fartlek for 25-40km. I've done this averaging 8:10s or so for my hards and 5min for my easy's and it was an amazing workout!

Im sure the formula's carry over for walking. There is no reason why they'd be different. But I tend to just listen to my body and train off of what my body is telling me.

I know other athletes are very different. I know some US groups do their training primarily based off HR... whatever works and whatever keeps you happy is my opinion :)

butwhy wrote:

My biggest issue with race walking, is "why"? You kinda addressed it earlier but I still feel like the event is just running with an arbitrary rule to make it harder. If the point of a race is to finish the first, why introduce the variable of "who can finish first....while keeping one foot on the ground (or get away with the most amount of cheating)?"

I mean most events have some arbitrary variable. High jump is a 1 foot take off, long jump your head has to stay superior (no mid air somersaults that used to be done), javelin you can't spin...

Yah race walking is weird. And it might have out lived it's appeal. It was big back in the days of pedestrianism when people would walk for 6 days straight and see who went the furthest. Sport was a different beast back in the 1800s and early 1900s. Race walking is just holding on for dear life, a relic of that era. That is why walking exists as a whole...

for me personally. The "why" is because I started when I was 10 years old, I was good at it, I really liked being good at it, I started to really like it, it gave me confidence, taught me all these amazing life lessons that one learns through sport and I got hooked to it. Now I love the challenge, the fine line between technique and speed, the fuelling, the dealing with heat, all that stuff I just love it. I love being able to go out and do 40km and feel completely fine, feeling so fit that you feel invincible.

I think when you think about it too much you get into this "racing is to finish first etc..." but honestly its an event that makes me fit, happy, healthy and confident... and if it does that for even a couple other kids out there, then I think it is a totally legitimate thing.

doctorj wrote:

Race Walking is expensive? Explain me how the hell. You guys use special shoes loaded with springs too?

I think you missed the point... The fundraiser, and KidSport, helps get kids into sport, any sport. It helps pay the registration fees for a club or a team or a league...

But yes, track and field is expensive, it costs money to join a track club. Some families can't afford that, KidSport helps.

This isn't a race walking fundraiser, it's a kidsport fundraiser. Im just using my skill of walking fast for long periods to help raise money for them, because I think every kid should get to play sport and experience all the great things Ive experienced and learned through sport.

I hope that answers your question.

Thanks for playing.

awesome stuff man wrote:

Love this AMA!

I got mad respect for race walkers. Don't know a whole lot about the sport, as my questions will illustrate. However, I respect the effort that race walkers put in. These cats have discipline and tenacity. A few queries...

1) Why don't they include race walking as part of marathons? That would bring major exposure, especially in the case of televised marathons. (And if it's because it would be a logistical nightmare/impossibility to judge, will the new shoe technology make it possible?)

2) Are there cross country race walking races?

3) Are there any inside jokes or jabs against runners that race walkers have?

I did the Vancouver Marathon last year. Walked 3:10, people made a big deal about it. Olympics did a little social media video on it. It was one of Canadian Running Magazines top read stories of the year (I've actually had a couple of Canadian Running's top stories since 2016, which is awesome and ironic!) SO I agree. We should do more of that. I'd love to do them!! Even if they aren't judged, just doing them as an exhibition. It gives you great exposure to the 1000s of runners I pass and earns their respect (nothing like losing to a walker to have to begrudgingly respect them amirite!).

No XC races. We need consistent steady surfaces before of how much ground contact time we have and how low our foot carriage is.

Not really. But it is really fun to pass a runner during a training session and then watch them respond and try not to let you go by. Guys get really self conscious about it and it's fun to play with them. And then when they eventually give up, quipping to your teammate that you only have 35km to go in that workout. That's always fun!

Flo’da boy wrote:

This has really been a great thread. For fun today I even went out and “race walked” about 3 kilometers (it took me like 25 minutes but my technique is non existent and my shoes are falling apart)

Do y’all incorporate hills or even hiking or does that affect technique too much?

What kind of weight work do you do?

That is awesome! Glad to hear it.

We do some hill stuff. Mostly on training camps. Where I live in BC I can do 40km and gain 1m of elevation! Richmond ftw!

But in St. Moritz we have done this 20km walk that starts at 1700m and goes up to 2300m

And we do it as a tempo. That was one tough. We also do a hill workout in Canberra every week when im in Aus. 400m elevation gain, 14km again as a tempo (one of my favourite and hardest workouts)

My weight training is a lot of deadlifts, different variations of squats, glut bridges, some shoulder strength and stability. I have an awesome strength coach who does all that for me because it's not an area I know much about!

Can you walk . . . on Pure Hate?

https://media.giphy.com/media/84CRvhy2DJlwA/giphy.gif

This was a lot of fun guys! Thanks for doing it.

Im probably going to stop checking this now but if you ever have any questions, shoot me a message on IG and I'll be happy to answer them.

@evandunfee

Remember to check out

www.dunfeewalks.com

to learn about the fundraising initiative I'm doing now and if it resonates with you I'd love for you to share it amongst your network!

Thanks all,

Evan Dunfee

Bye Dunfee! ?

Dunfee wrote:

I don't, New Balance all the way! Except they don't pay me, so like New Balance most of the way? I don't know.

Dude! They need to start!

I love the Zante (previously the 890/825/833?) and the 1400 (though I am not crazy about the Vazee).

I see you repping NB so consistently, and with your blog and a positive spirit toward fans and athletes (e.g. as in this thread), they would be smart to give you some ca$h, too!

Dunfee wrote:

LoneStarXC wrote:

Here are more questions I have:

Does it feel weird for you to walk normally? Or do you just race walk everywhere?

I walk quite slow leisurely. Unless I have a destination, then I like to get there.

OK, more specifics necessary...

Let's say you are leisurely walking, about to cross the street or get on a bus. Suddenly, the light is about to change, or the bus is about to pull away, or whatever... do you break into a run, or do you break into a racewalk? (Most people are hesitant to fully run in these situations, and they instead do this thing where they walk with a lot of effort but not much faster. Race walkers, though, could really motor!)

new walkfan wrote:

Dunfee wrote:

I walk quite slow leisurely. Unless I have a destination, then I like to get there.

OK, more specifics necessary...

Let's say you are leisurely walking, about to cross the street or get on a bus. Suddenly, the light is about to change, or the bus is about to pull away, or whatever... do you break into a run, or do you break into a racewalk? (Most people are hesitant to fully run in these situations, and they instead do this thing where they walk with a lot of effort but not much faster. Race walkers, though, could really motor!)

Not as fast as Dunfee but as a former race walker, I will answer. I remember chasing a city bus for nearly half a mile on my way home from a summer job- I eventually caught it because it had to stop for lights and bus stops, etc. And I ran- not walked. I didn’t want to wait for the next bus.

So the answer is- we run, and we don’t start race walking.

Huge Evan Dunfee fan here. I just came across this thread despite being a regular Letsrun user for the past few years.

Evan just finished fourth in the 20k walk in Budapest. This is quite amazing as Evan had mastered the 50k distance over the last few years before it was inexplicably dropped by World Athletics for 2022 and beyond.

Evan has had to go back to racing shorter distances (the new shortest event is 35k which requires an entirely different energy approach and nutrition strategy) and finishing 4th in the 20k (a Racewalking sprint) is an outstanding performance.

Also worth mentioning that 3rd, Bonfim of Brazil tested positive for doping in 2018.

Well done Evan and fantastic AMA.

+1

and he broke the Canadian National record today too I believe?

they really need to bring the 50k back, honestly a 50k and a 100k would make more sense IMO than a 20k and 35k

I don't know if you'll check back on this thread after all this time but I missed seeing it then and just found it. It's a great thread. Thank you for starting it and well done for your race today.