(03-07-2011, 11:05 PM)Bierzo Baggie Wrote: A question I've been wanting to ask, what's hardest, race walking 20k in the sort of time you've been doing or running a fast half marathon? The race walking technique always looks pretty uncomfortable to me....
The race walking is harder mentally as most of these big races are over lapped courses of 2km. But saying this if I am feeling fresh and I have got my pacing just right then laps are a good thing for chasing times. I know exactly where I am at with my lap/km splits which really helped me on The Mall. But when I am not feeling too good and end up dying for the last 10km, 5x2km laps is a long way to go in the head!!
I prefer the race walking technique to running - I stay low to the ground, there's no impact, it's smooth and I seem to roll. But as it's a very technical event it would take a beginner months to get to this stage and feel this way. Running seems so demanding on my back, hips and calves and if I returned to running training 3 or 4 days a week I'm sure that the old lady stiffness would return - particularly in the mornings when I used to struggle to put my socks on!! Anyone else know this feeling??
