As a full-fledged Acorn, you need to have targets – our mission is not a joy ride but to participate and contribute equally. So how this did begin and as a newbie how do you reach your peak?
Prior to becoming an Acorn, I was walking solo and the only marker I had was my cousin, Sandra in Wolverhampton. She was posting some good times and I was thinking surely I could improve on mine, so I started competing against my last time. That is basically competing against the clock 😊
The logic is you do the same walk for a period, at least 4 - 12 weeks, no detours, no change just the same route, up and down, yes it is boring but optimising is not about sceneries and landscaping.
Whilst doing this (the up and down, no change), I became conscious of the split times I was setting per km and started to notice my km points (breakpoints). So now I knew the terrain and splits and all I had to do was focus on increasing my speed (target walking).
For beginners and to get the stamina I advise working on the flats first and then take on the challenge of the inclines, otherwise known as the hills, so stick to the same route but on the flat section open the turbo and power walk and then on the inclines you move to the comfort speed.
By doing this and overtime I noticed I dropped from 10.45 per km to 8.19 pkm and that set the tone for targets – chasing your last best time to improve on it.
When an Acorn starts, I spend time reading all this information to give support and show and encourage areas where there is a push or keep it consistent. Even keeping the same average over weeks is a big achievement that initially you don’t recognise so if you out walking have an app that can track your session, review it and repeat the same process, look back after a few weeks and you will see the difference.