The long weekend, spent in Wales, was good for taking my mind off the problem of not having a place of our own. However, the prognosis is good, we should be in our own home this weekend. Despite the rain in Wales we had a really good time, still managing a good coastal walk and driving with the roof down during a sunny period. In fact I was so relaxed that I hadn’t thought about any subjects for this week’s blog, even the news items had left me bereft of any inspiration, but a timely facebook comment and link, sent to me from one of my New Zealand friends, Mark Anderson, prompted this subject.
Mark’s link was concerning a certain Quentin Rew, who seems to be taking New Zealand race walking by storm. Mark recalled how I beat Quentin in a sprint finish in the Wellington 3000m Championships in 2002. I remembered it, but not as well as I maybe should, I was touring New Zealand at the time with my wife. I wasn’t intending to race over there but was training hard whilst out there, on the Thursday we were in Lake Taupo, which was a great place to run my 30 x 1 minute reps with 10 seconds recovery. We arrived in Wellington on the Friday, to stay with Mark, and his wife Liz. They were going to a barbecue that night so we joined them. Of course barbecued food and two bottles of wine would not be my usual choice the night before a race but at sometime during the night Mark must’ve mentioned that the Wellington District Champs were taking place the next day. Mark was down to run in, either the 800m or the 1500m, and he suggested I go along and enter on the day, if possible.
So the next day we turned up and the organisers were happy to accommodate me. It was a wet day, probably windy too, knowing what it’s like in Wellington. I was in ordinary trainers, I never took racers on holiday, but I trained on the track in them anyway so I wasn’t too bothered, in fact I wasn’t taking the race too seriously, I just wanted to see where I was at. Jonathon Wyatt, New Zealand’s World Mountain Running Champion, was also in the race and he set off at a cracking pace. Nobody went with him and I settled mid field. After 2k about two or three of the younger members of the race dropped out, I assume there was a 2000m championship going on at the same time. I don’t remember much more except that I must’ve been running with Quentin on the last lap and managed to kick past him in a fabulous last 100m, to finish 2nd to Jonathon Wyatt. Jonathon’s time was an impressive 8:12.35, mine a far more modest 9:03.81, just ahead of Quentin’s 9:03.95
But this blog wasn’t supposed to be about running, it’s supposed to be about walking. Walking can be an appropriate means of fitness, even a stroll around the park is better than sitting in front of the TV and contrary to what I’ve heard said, golf is not a way to ruin a good walk but rather a way to exercise muscles other than your legs. Of course if you want to challenge yourself more, walking up and down hills and mountains really work the leg muscles and can achieve aerobic fitness too, especially when you push on as you’re getting out of breath. I enjoy a good walk up a big hill, mind you I don’t like walking back down them as it puts a lot of pressure on my knee joints.
Now if you can’t get access to a good hill you could always find a set of steps and do repetitions up them. I was in Wales at the weekend and walked a coastal path from Saundersfoot to Tenby, the most difficult part of which was a steep section with steps on it, nice and easy to come down on, as it gave a flat surface, but a killer to climb up in one go. When I reached the top of the climb my heart was pounding I was in a state of slight perspiration and breathing quite heavy, so very good training. When I was staying in Perth, Australia I noticed a bunch of ladies out for a power walking session doing a session up and down the steps up to Kings Park.
Nordic walking can be an effective training method, if done correctly. The use of the poles ensures you get an all over body workout, particularly if you’re in a group session with a qualified instructor. I myself am qualified to instruct in Nordic walking and it can be quite a lot of fun, plus you can use the poles to carry out alternative exercises if the clients get out of breath.
Power walking is very good, essentially it is walking with purpose or fast walking (not race walking). There are some power walkers in Britain, especially in the cities, but it tends to be much more predominant in the USA or Australia, from what I’ve seen. Also, the participants tend to be mostly women. Non of this should put you off trying it, if you’re new to exercise, obviously you need to build up, like any activity.
And finally onto the one that started this blog off, race walking. In this country race walking has found it difficult to attract youngsters into the fold, perhaps not surprising, as middle distance running suffers the same fate to some degree. Race walking isn’t seen as trendy, again not surprising as the majority of competitors tend to be over 30 and quite a few I have come across are wearing kit older than the youngsters they could potentially pull in. Perhaps it’s time to think about making it more interesting, make the races shorter, why shouldn’t race walking feature events from 100-400m, at least that way people may try it, they may even find they like it, or are good at it and then they might well consider the longer distances. In order to really pull people in though, you need a figurehead, a charismatic Olympic champion, the Lewis Hamilton or Jenson Button of race walking, so I think we’re a few years away from that as we struggle to even get a team out, perhaps at London 2012 we might have a full complement of committed walkers and that would be a start.
When I was a member of Belgrave there was a walker who wrote an article about how he had been a reasonable runner but once he turned to race walking he became a Surrey Champion. At the time I read the article, I was already a Surrey Champion and it did make me think how much further I might go should I change to walking, but there was something about the style of walking that I didn’t like, I thought it would mess up my body, plus I wanted to achieve more as a runner. Then years later, when my body was going through an injury period, I considered it again, but my wife threatened to divorce me if I ever did. Perhaps I should have taken the hint, as she divorced me only a few years later anyway, maybe she caught sight of me practicing in front of the mirror. So I never did give it a go, and I still feel that I’d rather run than walk, but never say never, at least I no longer have a wife to stop me.
The link, which started off this blog can be read here (http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/news/2315141/Forward-roll-a-backwards-step).
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