If you go out walking strongly with a purpose but don’t try to walk as fast as you can, is it still Sport Walking and can you go Sport Walking without a speed focus? This is a question we get asked a lot, so what better for Roger to dig deeper into and try and answer!
INSIGHT: By Roger Burlinson
For me, Sport Walking is all about managed speed and how fast I can complete any given route, although I must admit, I’m only interested in what I can do with a normal walking technique, rather than pursuing speed for speed’s sake, so I’ve never really been drawn to going that extra step and moving up to Race Walking.
I like that feeling of walking normally on trails but walking fast and pushing hard – it’s a perfect mix of something that feels really natural and familiar (walking with a normal technique) but getting a kind of workout fix by seeking to draw as much speed out of my normal technique as possible.
I think once you discover your speed potential and have trained yourself to walk fast efficiently, it’s a difficult thing to prize yourself away from! But not everyone shares this outlook or is motivated by speed. So, can you go Sport Walking and be a Sport Walker if you’re not seeking to walk as fast as you’re able? As far as I’m concerned, yes, you can.
Now if that sounds like a bit of a contradiction, let me explain. You can still have challenge without speed. Challenge is whatever challenge is to you. If you find it challenging to walk a marathon, regardless of your speed, then that marathon’s going to be a challenge and a test however fast you walk. But I think it goes beyond that to fundamentally defining what Sport Walking is about.
It’s about pushing yourself and achieving something you maybe didn’t think was possible by walking. Now that could involve walking at a speed you didn’t think you could achieve but equally, it could just simply be about staying strong when things get tough and getting over the finish line, when you doubted you ever would.
But although Sport Walking has that breadth of scope to fit different people’s objectives and abilities, the elements that must always be there are challenge and having some kind of objective. You also need to make more of an effort than you would normally, if you were simply going for a walk, otherwise it’s not challenging and this is where speed does come into it. You have to be walking faster than you might otherwise walk because if you don’t, you’re just going for a walk!
So, you can go Sport Walking without a speed focus but you do need to be walking faster than you might normally walk for it to be a Sport Walk because that’s when challenge comes into play. But this doesn’t mean that your speed has to drive what you do, it simply means that when you go Sport Walking, you walk faster than normal and you make an effort. Whatever speed you settle on from that point is up to you.
And this is an important point really because Sport Walking is arguably the most accessible foot sport there is and we want everyone to feel that they can engage with it and benefit from all the positives Sport Walking brings but for some, it’s as much as they can do to just walk strongly, if they feel that they need to be striving to achieve a certain speed, they feel intimidated and that’s no way to build an inclusive activity.
It also doesn’t prevent those of us who are motivated by speed from pursuing fast times. Someone challenging themselves just to complete a half marathon as quickly as they feel able is no threat to me being able to take on my next 50k Sport Walk and to go for a PB! The scope to build speed is still there for everyone who wants it but for those who don’t, Sport Walking can still offer challenge and can still be challenging, it’s simply a question of what challenging means to them.
Two of my best friends decided they wanted to walk around an island they have a holiday home on but they wanted to do it as a multi-day hike. Now, compared to my approach, theirs was very easy going, so you could ask how this is Sport Walking. But for them, this was a big challenge and simply completing the distance they needed to do each day to reach their accommodation was a test. Their walk had challenge, for them – they were doing something they hadn’t done before and they were also embarking on a bit of an unknown test – could they do it?
Some might argue that this means that any hike could then be considered a Sport Walk but that’s not quite the point. Challenge is personal and as long as someone is pursuing an objective and seeking to achieve something by walking that fits the Sport Walking approach. Is it the same as going non-stop over 100km in the fastest time you can? No, but then is walking up a small hill in the fastest time you can the same as that? No. It’s all down to what motivates the walker and if challenge is in there, then it fits the bill.
The reason we try to give as broad a scope as possible is because if someone feels that their walk is valid as a Sport Walk, then they may be encouraged to develop their speed and to try something else a bit faster – to challenge themselves more. I know this because this is exactly what happened with me!
My first ultra was a self created non-stop 80km walk across the National Park where I live. It took me just under 18 hours and I essentially did it as a hiker. I carried a 10kg rucksack, used heavy approach shoes and all the normal kit a hiker would use. I had an objective – to complete the route in under 24 hours but I didn’t focus that much on speed. I just tried to walk at a pace I thought would be safe for me to sustain.
You see where this is all going? I had an objective – to walk across my National Park. I made an effort – I walked faster than I would normally walk if I was just out for a nice walk in the country but I had a very generous pace target. In fact, if anyone saw me, they would have said I was out hiking!
And, yes, it was challenging. I had no idea if I would be able to complete 80k in one go. In fact, at my dinner stop (yes, I stopped to have a McDonalds next to a dual carriageway at about 50km), I did consider stopping there, such was my uncertainty over how the next 30k would play out.
Did this walk compare to my later exploits? Well, in some respects yes but in an awful lot of ways, no. I walked the route again (as what some might describe as a ‘proper’ Sport Walker) in 2020, during a brief period in the summer when we weren’t in lockdown and although I didn’t have a good training build up, I still managed to knock six hours off my previous time.
It’s partly my own trajectory and partly the reaction we get from others when they first learn about Sport Walking that has broadened our view of what constitutes Sport Walking. Many react very positively and are enthused by the potential of it but quickly say, “I’m not sure I could do it as fast as you but I would like to go out at my own pace”. For me, as long as we leave the door open, with some caveats, then Sport Walking can thrive for everyone, regardless of their ability or level of self belief.
It’s not just about bringing as many people into the fold as possible, it’s about Sport Walking being as broad as possible while staying true to the ‘challenge yourself’ element. Speed is a factor in Sport Walking but it’s not everything. This is not Race Walking. It’s about using walking strongly to achieve something for yourself and if that simply means completing the challenge, then that’s good enough for me!