Sport Walk Ultra Challenge ‘Walkshop’ – The Ridgeway

Date:  TBC
Time: Walk departs at 10:00am sharp
Cost:  FREE!

Trail:  The Ridgeway – Sparsholt Firs to Wayland’s Smithy via Uffington White Horse

Meet:  Sparsholt Firs Car Park, B4001 north of Lambourn.  What 3 Words location: butchers.chickens.sweeten

Distance: 20km approx

Who’s it for? This is a group walk designed for anyone taking on an ultra challenge event and therefore a reasonable level of fitness is required (otherwise you wouldn’t have entered an ultra right?). All abilities will be accommodated however, with regular stops where information and advice will be given (the workshop bit). You don’t need to be able to walk at a really high pace but in order to get the most out of the walk, we’d advise being able to maintain a reasonable pace (10-12 minutes per kilometre) for this distance, as you would during your challenge event.

“Ideal for entrants of Race to the Stones or any other challenge walk”

Description
This Walkshop is designed specifically to assist anyone entered into an ultra challenge event or anyone who wants to walk faster, more strongly or more efficiently, either during a challenge or in general.

This walk will use the Ridgeway and therefore is ideal for entrants of Race to the Stones or any other challenge walk.

The walk will be approximately 20km in length, an ideal training session for ‘Race to the Stones’ or a similar event. Walking will be in a group hosted by Sport Walk’s founder – Roger Burlinson, who will share his experience and give advice and encouragement to walkers to help them adapt and improve their walking efficiency.

Roger walked Race to the Stones non-stop in 15 hours 57 minutes in 2017 and in 2019 walked the full South Downs Way (100 miles) non-stop in 27 hours 56 minutes. In 2020, during the partial easing of lockdown, he re-walked our ‘Sport Walk New Forest 80km’ route in under 12 hours. Roger set up Sport Walk in 2016, specifically to help walkers taking on challenge events and he’s developed an approach to walking trails fast that anyone can adopt, regardless of their ability.

The walk itself will follow the Ridgeway west initially to White Horse Hill and then on to Wayland’s Smithy long barrow. Outbound, there will be regular stops where Roger will give advice on walking more efficiently, on nutrition, hydration and on equipment to use. There will be another break at the turn around point and then on the return leg, walkers will be coached to walk back at their optimum pace and to implement some of the adaptations they’ve learned. There will be a final open Q&A at the end and follow up information given.

This Walkshop is expected to take up to 4-5 hours in total and walkers unable to complete 20km comfortably within this time are advised that this session may not be suitable for them. Participants will need to bring food and drink to sustain themselves during the session (guidance on this and also what to wear/bring will be posted on the Facebook event page).

How to attend
Attendance will be restricted to a manageable number, so that advice and support can be given to as many as possible. Attendance will be administered through a Facebook Event page that will go live as soon as the next dates are set.

Important
Please note, this is NOT a ‘guided’ or ‘led’ walk. Anyone attending is entirely responsible for their own safety, wellbeing and state of health. They must also be able to navigate using trail way markers. This group walk is designed purely as an opportunity to walk with and learn from an experienced Sport Walker. The walk will stay on the Ridgeway at all times, meaning that if anyone needs or wishes to return to the start before the end of the walk, they only need follow the way mark signs and retrace their steps.