Answers
First some food for thought: a teacher at the Daily Kos (Teacherken) wrote an interesting diary concerning national standards for public school education. The diary can be found here: decreasingly diary.
I have to digest what he said and think further.
Dus7 has asked some questions in a comment and I shall attempt to answer them.
Walking paces for distances vary widely from walker to walker. At a typical walking division of a marathon (here I am using the Lake Geneva Marathon (26.2 miles, or 42.2 km), which is on roads but features some stiff hills), the times typically vary from 5:15 (12 minutes per mile) to 8:40 (20 minutes per mile) with 7 hours (16 minutes per mile) being typical. World class racewalkers can go as fast as 7 minutes per mile (the world record for the 50K (31 mile) is 3:36, which translates into 6:58 mpm, a pace which most runners can't even dream of meeting for this distance. Typical road 50K runs are won with slower times than this.
I typically walk marathons between 5:13 and 5:35 (12 minute pace) and 50kms (road) in 6:20 to 6:45 though I go faster when I walk with bent knees (illegal in judged racewalking). So my typical 20 mile training walk is at a slower pace than that and usually takes 4:30 (if I am going well) to 5:20 (tired, just strolling) and perhaps slower if I use an off-road trail. A National class racwalking friend of mine takes his "easy pace" 20 milers in 3:40; an Olympic walker may take 2:40-3:00 for the same distance (in training).
I do not listen to music while walking.
I don't stretch prior to the long ones, but I take yoga 3-4 times a week (and adore my maternal, matronly, middle aged yoga teacher).
posted by Harriet at
11/07/2005 04:29:00 AM
2 Comments:
Ah, your answers are much appreciated. So a 12-min. mile is 5 mph. (The math gene is weak or missing in my family.) I'm sure I walk a lot faster than that - but only over short distances. I will try some longer walks sometime. Re yoga, years ago I found a wonderful library book that illustrated doable poses and movements. I really wanted to steal that book! Practicing those moves made me feel more graceful and balanced and flexible. Since then I've never come across a regimen that I could relate to like that long ago book, probably because I'm more interested in the physical aspects of yoga than the philosophy, esp. if it's quasi-religious. Relaxation and controlled breathing is fine - I just don't expect to learn a lot of complicated terms and ultimately levitate or whatever. Lol, I saw supposed levitating on tv once, and they were actually only bouncing up and down on the bare floor while in the lotus (legs folded) position. It looked, I'm sorry, very silly. I'm not going to address the maternal, matronly, middle-aged description. I'm sure it's true, it's just that these three don't automatically go together anymore (thank god).
Hi. You might time yourself; a 12 minute per mile pace is a very quick walk. Or put another way, when I walk at that pace, I just blow past almost all of the other walkers and some of the slower joggers.
12 mpm would be slow for a good racewalker though.
as far as the description of my yoga teacher: yeah, it fits. :-)
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