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Training for Long Distance Walks

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 08:08 PM

by BlogMasters

From Wendy Bumgardner
Your Guide to Walking

Training is critical to comfort and success in a long distance walk.Your training should concentrate on building a base of walking, then increasing your mileage in a systematic fashion. Avoid injury by not increasing your total mileage per week or distance of your longest walk per week by more than 10% Ultrarunners have much in common with ultrawalkers, and indeed they usually mix stretches of walking into the longer distance events. Training schedules derived from ultrarunning are good for walkers as well.  

How Long is Enough?

When training for 50 kilometer to 100 mile distances, the longest distance to train at should not need to exceed 20 - 25 miles, which you should perform at least twice in the the two months prior to the event.Then taper during the month before the event down to a 20 kilometer long distance.
For shorter distances, such as for the multi-day walks, follow a marathon training schedule for mileage building. But build some back-to-back long days into you training so you can assess any problems that crop up from walking long distance on successive days.  You Don't Need Speed Forget going training for any speed faster than a 15-minute mile. You will not need speed but endurance and the mental conditioning of walking for hours and hours at a steady pace.  

Gear Up and Nutrition Up

All clothing, shoes, sunscreen, packs, etc. need to be road tested on your longer training days well in advance of the event. Now is the time to experiment, you want nothing that is new or untried at the event itself.  Proper sports nutrition will prepare you for endurance events. As an endurance athlete, you should stick with a diet that is the traditional mix of 70% carbohydrates, 20% protein and 10% fat. Avoid high protein diets - they cause problems with dehydration and will strain your kidneys under endurance walking conditions.  

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