Windy Monday

Wow,

It was a really wild night last night but managed to convince myself that I needed to get out despite a late night at work and feeling pretty tired as I was away at the weekend. I have also picked up a bit of a niggly knee injury over the last few days - think I need a massage to release the legs as I have put some miles in recently. I therefore decided to try to walk a bit slower and stretch the legs out a bit more.

I have read a fair amount about race walking technique and the general consensus seems to be to warn against overstriding, shorter strides out front and try to increase stride length behind you for the push off. A good site if you are interested is http://www.eracewalk.com/Tech.htm. I have been trying to improve the technique as the better the style the more efficient, the less energy used the more likely you are to get round...
That said due to the knee pain I decided to slow up a little and increase stride length so that I take a few less steps and go the same distance with a lower cadence with the logic that you do not need to maximise speed for the parish and less steps to an extent means using less energy? That was my logic anyway... I felt pretty fresh when I got home so maybe the experiment worked, I did not really race walk more like longer striding power walk but was only 2 mins slower than my usual time over nearly 9miles so not a huge difference. I would be interested to see if anyone else has any theories on this, as most of the sites are technique for speed rather than efficiency for an ultra walk.

Anyway despite the wind a refreshing walk and a few more miles under the belt. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I am trying to loose a few pounds to help me up the hills. I have managed to loose a few just with the training and being a bit careful about the intake but there is still a bit to go - I am hoping to loose another 4 or 5 pounds over the last 2 weeks or so of heavy training - time will tell I guess!

Keep on going - not long left now...