September is not just a great month for Sport Walking, with temperatures being less oppressive than in high summer, it’s a really important month for planning ahead.
Why September you ask, why now? Well if you divide the year up into quarters, September is the last month before the final quarter of the year (obviously) but as a planning month, its significance is that it’s getting structure in place before the most challenging months, when it can be hard to motivate yourself.
You can map out your pathway to next spring in September, quite comfortably, and you know that when spring comes again, you’ll have renewed enthusiasm to get outside, to go walking in nature and this means that you can then carry that onwards into summer.
If you drift plan-less into autumn and winter, it’s way too easy to lose motivation when everything starts closing in. The days are shorter, the weather (usually) is less conducive and it’s far too easy to park the outdoors and to get into a slump.
Also, by planning ahead for autumn and winter in September, you can shape the walking you’ll do so that you arrive at spring in exactly the sort of condition you need to be in to get the best out of that new season. You can set out the distances you need to be covering to build your endurance and you can identify your target pace to walk to, so once autumn hits, you simply go out and do what you planned.
Essentially, you set yourself a goal for spring, to be in this sort of shape and with that sort of capability, so you can go out walking on spring trails, be in great shape and really enjoy it. By setting that goal that you want to achieve by spring, you then need to plan how you’ll get there and that directs what you set out for your plan during autumn and winter.
The other reason it’s good to plan ahead is that you can identify routes and places you can go that will give you an enriching experience and this can help massively when the days are short and dark. Get yourself a list of all the different and interesting routes that you can walk, which will give you the distance you need but which will feed you because of their interest or beauty.
Doing this now can not only prepare everything so you just get on with it when autumn comes, it can also get you in a very positive mindset about the approach of autumn. It makes you look forward to these two colder seasons because you’re thinking about all these places you’re going to go walking and the landscapes you’re going to see.
Remember, a really big part of Sport Walking is the pleasure you get out of the natural world around you and the landscapes you move through, so plotting out walks that you’ll do during the duller seasons gives you a real boost, when otherwise you may be feeling rather negative about the passing of summer.
Get Fit Walking
Now if you’re just Sport Walking for fitness, you might think that you don’t need to plan or divide your year up into different seasonal blocks. You might think you just need to keep on going out walking strongly and that will give you what you need, which it will.
But the truth is that this approach means you’re essentially just drifting along, doing the same thing over and over without any structure or direction, apart from your aim of becoming fit.
Sport Walking is all about taking a sporting approach to walking, as well a bringing challenge into play and this is why it’s so powerful as a fitness only activity. So planning out what your walking focus will be during each season, what sort of distances you’ll aim for, the places you could go walking and seasonal goals that break down your over-arching goal into smaller more achievable targets, really helps you build that commitment and consistency that will give you strong results.
This doesn’t mean you need to plan your walking in the way a challenge focused Sport Walker would but it’s always better and much more effective if you’re working to some kind of plan, than if you’re just going out walking by feel.
So give some thought to the approach of autumn and winter. Be honest with yourself about your motivation to go out during these seasons and then think of what would help you to get out that door and do the work you need.
How can you make what might feel like rather dull repetitive walks, possibly in the dark during the depths of winter, more interesting and more fulfilling. That could mean developing tactics that you can implement, simply to make the time pass more quickly. You could rack up a playlist of podcasts and listen to an episode on each walk.
You might decide to keep a photo journal of your walks to record how your neighbourhood changes through the year. There are a whole array of different ideas that you can attach to your regular Sport Walking workouts to motivate you to go out and to help assuage the demons telling you “it’s too cold, too wet, too dull, so stay inside”!
The beauty of Sport Walking is that it is a sport and because of that, you can tap into all sorts of sport science and training best practice that athletes of all levels use, to help them stay motivated. You can learn from what works for them and then think of what would work for you.
But above all else, hold onto your ‘why’. Why are you doing what you’re doing? This is the most important element in your Sport Walking because it’s your foundation stone, it defines you.
Why are you Sport Walking? Why are you trying to get fit? Why are you seeking challenge and adventure in your life? What do you want to get out of all this and how will that change you or change your life? These may feel like rather big, existential things and, to a certain extent they are but challenge, achievement, fulfilment, is all really about change and change can only come about if you open up and go into these places.
So start thinking about what the autumn and winter mean to you. Are you naturally drawn to going out in all weathers or do you struggle with motivation when it’s less than 18 degrees outside? Then, think of what would make it better and from that, you can identify places, routes, types of terrain that would give you a more enriching experience.
Get planning for autumn and winter during September and you’ll be giving yourself the best chance of success in whatever you’re seeking.