Sunday, October 02, 2011

Walking vs. Jogging

As a rule, I like walking and don't see a need to move up to running or even jogging. Occasionally, I'll jog for a little bit between bouts of walking.  I've thought about trying a Couch to 5K program. But for me, speed doesn't seem to make as much a difference as time.  How long I spend is more of a factor than how fast I go.

Today, I did a little experiment. I compared today's walk with yesterday's walk/jog.
Yesterday:  49 minutes, 2.88 miles = 3.53 mph
Today: 51 minutes, 2.97 miles = 3.49 miles

Not a lot of difference there.  So does this mean that when I walk again after jogging a little, I slow down and end up compensating? Do I even need to care? I'm not planning on racing anytime soon.  And even when I do get to the 10K CropWalk next spring, I don't care if I come in dead last, as long as I finish.

For now, I'm not going to push myself too much.  I'm going to just work on getting out and walking (or whatever) for as long as I can until the weather stops me.

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