Hi team, Coach Alexa here.
I thought I’d just take a moment in this series about walking to explain a little bit why I love it so much.
I do quite a lot of walking, both for practical, getting-to-places reasons, out with the dog, and also out for fun at the weekends, walking holidays and things like that.
I really love it, and I think it’s a key part of my own personal mental and physical fitness and health regime.
Walking Takes the Pressure Off
So why is that?
It started because I can be quite a target and numbers-driven person, and running really feeds into that for me, which can be a really good thing, that extrinsic motivation. But I notice that sometimes, particularly as my body has got rather more complicated as I’ve got a little older, that’s not always a good thing.
With running, I still have a tendency to compare those numbers.
Walking takes the pressure off me personally.
I know that I’m never going to be able to walk as fast as I can run, so it puts walking almost mentally in a different category for me. I can very much focus more on being in the moment with walking, just enjoying it for what it is, as opposed to thinking about times, paces and so on.
Walking Helps Me Connect with More People
For me as well, it’s also a fantastic opportunity to connect.
There’s a number of people that I can go out for runs with, which is great, but there’s a much broader range of people I can go out walking with. My parents, who are in their late 70s, my younger nieces and nephews, friends who don’t run, and also my dog.
I’ve tried running with her. She is much more of a stop-and-sniff, stop-start creature, as most dogs are, to be brutally honest. Not all dogs.
It was frustrating for both of us when I tried to do some sort of run with her in tow. Walking, or just a bit of walking, running, stopping, whatever, just going with the flow a bit more, works far better for her and her getting what she needs out of her time outside every day.
It’s allowed me to connect with a different range of people locally as well.
It’s allowed me to bump into people when I’m out walking. I think when you’re running and there are other people walking, maybe you can stop and chat, but my tendency was not to, perhaps because I’m a little bit focused on what the watch is saying.
When I’m out locally walking, you stop and chat, you get to know people. I’ve made a few friends through that. The dog helps with that.
Walking Fits Easily into Everyday Life
I can also build walking into my day just that little bit more easily.
Running is a fairly low-friction sport. There’s not a lot of prep needed if you just want to get started and head out the door.
But I find walking, I can fit that in, even in very hot weather. Walking to the local town, walking to a friend who’s a little bit further away, that sort of thing.
You can turn up without being really, really sweaty, looking a bit weird in your running gear. You can turn up to a café somewhere, having walked there, not feeling quite so flustered, not feeling quite so hot in the summer.
Why I Love Walking
So, loads of different reasons why I really love it.
Love running too, but just love walking in a different way.
