It’s interesting how we tend to view different phases of the year. So often, we thing of summer as the time of ultimate productivity – it’s generally when we take on our challenges, the long days mean we have more time to get more done and, perhaps, kids being on holiday forces a change of schedule that gives more time at home to get a few key tasks nailed.
But if we look at the Sport Walking process or any sporting or athletic process come to think of it, autumn is perhaps the most critical season. Why? Because it’s the prelude to the winter phase – when you do the work that paves the way for you to have those good times in summer. Get it right and you’ll sail right through (injury permitting) to summer and everything will feel like it’s coming easy. Overlook this period and it’s all much harder.
Autumn is such a valuable time. It’s both optimistic and beneficial from a training management perspective. You have the exciting part – planning your preparation and training needs for next year’s challenges, which means looking forward to the fulfilment these events bring. It’s also a time to take stock of your gear and the logistical elements of planning a challenge. Will you need new shoes for the challenge and if so, when will you need to buy them? How about your other kit and clothing? Do you need to give everything a deep clean up or reconfigure your set up? Now’s the time.
On the less exciting side (unless you’re like us and thrive on planning), there’s the admin of getting yourself to each of the start lines you have signed up to – travel, accommodation (if necessary), logistics etc. These are all things that ideally need to be covered off, at least in principle, in the autumn, so that you’re going into winter with everything clarified about next season, leaving you free to simply get on with and, most importantly, enjoy all your walking through the winter.
Of course, if you’re entering autumn without having signed up to any challenges, this really is the time to spring (autumn) into action! While it’s true that for some organised events, who’ve implemented a ‘ballot’ system (this is a whole post in itself for another time), you really need to make a decision about a summer challenge the summer before, to be able to get the best prices. But it’s still possible to sign up to major organised events at this time, so if you have one or two in mind, get on it while you can!
But big events are just a part of the whole challenge scene and often, the smaller events can be just as fulfilling, just as enjoyable and, on some levels, mean more to you. These events rarely hold ballots but they do often have entry cut offs, so that they are able to book facilities confident in the knowledge that they will have the entires to make it pay. So there’s a time imperative here too. Basically, get your challenge program laid out and as many of the events that are important to you entered as you can during the autumn, then you can relax.
While you take care of all this admin, the really great thing about autumn is that, from a training perspective, it really should be an easy time. That doesn’t mean you don’t need to do anything, quite the opposite – maintaining frequency of activity is important. It just means that you can free yourself from structure and simply go out and enjoy Sport Walking regularly in beautiful places, without needing to do any specific sessions or focus on holding a target pace. As long as you keep walking positively, with a high cadence and a good pace, you’ll be fine.
We like to call this phase ‘free-styling’ because you’re not constrained by a need to achieve a particular target or distance per week. It’s a time when you can refill your tank and fall back in love with simply walking strongly in nature!
If you can get yourself into a process and get all the key admin done during autumn, you can steam ahead with building endurance through a more structured training program when winter arrives properly.
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