Hi, Shannon!
In the past 3 years, my main form of seasonal cardio (spring through fall) has been outdoor walking and it's something I've become quite passionate about.
I'm currenlty in transition from 'speedwalkingn' to actual 'racewalking'.
It takes a while to develop speed, and it's best to work on endurance first and walk distances to develop the muscles (as they are used in the sport) as well as build more capillaries (for blood/oxygen flow).
To speed up your walk, practice, practice, practice...and take some (or all) tips from racewalking (you can read more and see images at
www.racewalk.com and
www.racewalking.org ):
Starting from the top down:
Walk tall, imagining that your head is attached to a balloon that is pulling it up. Keep room between your ribcage and hip to allow for hip rotation (see below). Be sure to keep your shoulders down.
Keep the arms at about a 90-degree angle, and think of digging into the ground with your elbows as you push them back. As your arm drives back, keep your elbows in, and your hands should go a bit behind your waistband. Be sure to keep your shoulders down (it bears repeating, as many people tend to tense their shoulders and raise them as they walk).
In the front, your arms will come across the body somewhat, in about the same diagonal as if you are shaking hands with someone. Your hands should not go above the height of the middle of the chest.
The diagonal motion of the hands in front counterbalances the movement of the hips (this is where the power comes from). Work on moving the hips forward and back and eliminating as much sideways motion as you can. To practice, stand in place doing 'the twist' motion. You can also practice the hip movement by walking uphill without moving your arms and exaggerating the rotation of the hips. Think of yourself as a gunslinger, entering a saloon and pushing the swinging doors open with the guns on your hips.
The forward-moving leg should land on the heel, with the foot at a 90-degree angle with the leg (do this by pulling back on the foot, not by pullling with the toes) and a 45-degree angle with the ground. If you are just beginning this type of walking, your shins will be very sore. Massage them after your walks. This is not shin splints, but muscles not used to working in this way.
For legal racewalking form, your front leg should be straight from the time the heel hits the ground to the time the leg passes under your body.
After your heel hits, roll through the foot (the foot is very active in racewalking) keeping the leg behind you as long as you can before pushing off from the toe (I'm still working on this). To practice the foot roll, do 'fast steps' walking in tiny steps so that the heel of one foot lands just in front of the toe of the other, rolling through the foot and keeping the cadence high.
To be able to do the foot motion most effectively, you'll need the right kind of shoe that won't interfere with the correct movement. Few actual 'racewalking' shoes are available in the US, but some running trainers work well. The shoe needs a lower heel and a flexible toe. Most 'walking' shoes are about the worst choice as they have too high of a heel.
www.racewalking.org has some suggestions for shoes.
To increase speed, 2/3 of it comes from cadence (moving the legs fast, which the bent arms help with, as the shorter arm lever can move faster, and the legs can only go as fast as the arms move). Only 1/3 comes from stride length. Beginning racewalkers should aim for 165-170-175 bpm. Olympic racewalkers can have a cadence over 200 bpm. My "coach," Dave McGovern (whose racewalking clinic I attended) says that if he can't keep at least a 180 bpm pace, he considers he's better off resting and recovering.
As you walk more, you'll train the necessary muscles, build capillaries, train the cardiovascular system to be more efficient. Then you can do interval work to work on more speed. I now do about 1/2 or more of my training on a nearby H.S. track. It's great for interval work.
A good book with all the basics is "Walk Like an Athlete" by Jeff Salvage and Gary Westerfield
If you want to learn racewalking, there are clinics given by Dave McGovern (
www.racewalking.org ) or Tim Seaman and Jeff Salvage (
www.racewalk.com ). As I mentioned above, I attended one of Dave's weekend clinics in June. I'm also planning to attend a Seaman/Savage clinic in August, to refine what I'm now working on.
HTH (and is not TMI!).
