As we begin January bursting with enthusiasm for great things to come, it’s a marathoner’s privilege to appreciate the significance of small steps that turn into big accomplishments. Those first small steps begin this week as we open the page on a new training schedule for 2007 events. Our schedule becomes our conscience. And it’s an especially effective conscience if we post copies all over the place. Don’t worry if friends and family feel that power walking has brought on early dementia. We will need all the help we can get as our new year’s explosion of energy and good intentions diminish in the face of the long slog of winter training before the sun comes up, enduring temperatures that would keep most people in bed with duvets up over their noses.

Yes, that schedule can do a lot to get us out the door. And grateful we are for that little push because as much as the accomplishment of crossing a finish line, or adding a finisher’s medal to the collection, is an experience worthy of congratulations (not to mention a good steak and a glass of beer), it is our daily walk that brings us endless gifts of beauty and well being. If you’re pulling on all your layers in the early morning darkness, you may be enjoying a spectacular sunrise in an hour. If you are rushing home from work to make it to walking class, you’ll likely discover the tension in your head fading away in an hour. If you’ve taken 60 minutes to walk with a friend, two lives have been enriched in an hour.

At Wow Power Walking we’re looking forward to sharing schedules, small steps and big goals with all of you in 2007!

Safety tip. Beware the right hand turn. Marathoners often walk on the roads to train because the asphalt is easier on joints than the concrete of the sidewalks. When you are walking on the road, consider the possibility of the following scenario for an ugly vehicle-pedestrian conflict. You are walking on the road on the side facing traffic. As you come to an intersection, a car approaching the intersection from the cross road makes a fast right turn on to the road on which you are walking so that it is moving directly toward you. The driver likely won’t be expecting a walker. And really won’t be expecting 2 or more walkers, if you are walking abreast! We suggest getting on the sidewalk as you approach the intersection or crossing the road to the other side at least 3 to 4 car lengths before the intersection. At the very least, walk single file as you approach the intersection and be alert to the possibility that a car may turn directly into your path. Remember: this scenario is doubly dangerous in the dark.

Speaking of challenge. Is the Chilly Half Marathon in Burlington on your agenda for 2007? If so, sign up soon. The organizers put a limit on participants and it is becoming a popular race as an early season preparation event. While you are signing up for the race, get a ticket for the pasta dinner. I’m going to be speaking at the dinner. I’ll be offering some motivational words of encouragement to walkers while educating the runners about the amazing accomplishments of power walkers. It would be great to have you there.

WoW Tip :: Change requires challenge and challenge requires change.

Those of you who have taken our classes know we believe in challenge. Research has shown that change in the form of improvement to such fitness indicators as Resting Metabolic Rate, bone density, resting heart rate and more happens most successfully if we push ourselves to the point where we exert our bodies to a level of 17 to 19 on the Borg scale of Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE). This scale starts at 6 with the exertion that is required to sit on a couch and ends at 20 with the exertion that can last for only a few seconds. In other words, to exert ourselves between 17 and 19, we need to get huffing and puffing.

At the same time, challenge is achieved by making changes to our activity. The body has a profound ability to accommodate change and, in that process of accommodation, become stronger and fitter. That’s why we always change the speed work, the lunges, the stretching, the hill drills in our classes so that you are constantly challenged and your body changes for the better! If classes are not a possibility for you, be mindful of the need for both change and challenge in your daily activity.

Speaking of change. We’re going to be adding some new things to our newsletter and website over 2007 including some product reviews and new classes. Stay tuned!

Words to walk and live by.
An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
- Henry David Thoreau

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