(0 comments)

Walk for a Cause

A few hints can help you find a charity event that’s right for your fitness level and interests.

Supporting a worthy cause and staying fit can be as easy as putting one foot in front of the other when you sign up for a charity walk.

“Charity walks can help provide a goal to motivate you to stay active,” says Mark Fenton, author of The Complete Guide to Walking for Health, Weight Loss and Fitness. “The number of walks continues to increase. They’re more popular than ever.”

Here are five steps to help you successfully stroll your way through your charity walk:

1. Seek out a charity
Maybe you want to help support research for curing an ailment of a family member or friend. There are walks that support just about every cause. Here are a few examples (and how to find them online):

• Asthma (www.lungusa.org)
• Breast cancer (www.walk.avonfoundation.org)
• Mental illness (www.nami.org)
• Leukemia and lymphoma (www.teamintraining.org)
• Diabetes (www.stepout.diabetes.org)
• Arthritis (www.arthritis.org)
• Cancer (www.cancer.org)

In addition to such national charities, local organizations often sponsor walks. A good place to start your search is www.active.com, which lists dates, distances, and registration requirements for thousands of charity walks.

2. Gauge your goal
Figure out what you want to get out of the event, advises Fenton. Is your aim to participate in a fun, social event with friends, or are you using the walk as a fitness goal? For fun seekers, aim for shorter events, such as 1 mile or, at the most, a 5-K. If your primary motivation is fitness, look for longer events such as a 10-K or a half marathon if you have the time and persistence to train.

3. Find your fitness
Especially if you’re aiming for longer events, you need to figure out how far you’re capable of walking. For example, can you walk continuously for 30 minutes? Fenton recommends being able to walk the following amount of time for event distances:

If you plan for this distance        You should be able to walk this long beforehand
1 mile                                               15–20 minutes
5-K                                                    30–45 minutes
10-K                                                  75–90 minutes
13 miles (half marathon)               3 hours
26 miles (marathon)                       5 hours

4. Build endurance
When training for an event, remember Fenton’s basic rule for preparation: The longer the event, the further ahead you need to plan. For example, if you’ll be walking a half marathon, you need about three months to work up to that distance. For a full marathon, Fenton recommends starting six months or longer before the event.

5. Plan on prep
To prepare for an event, you should count on the amount of time needed. Once you know how far before an event to start your training, you can create a weekly training plan, suggests Fenton. Your training schedule can be as simple as marks on a calendar in your kitchen or as thorough as a training log to record what you eat, along with distances and time walked. The number of days a week you should plan to walk varies with the distance of your event. For a 5-K event, plan to walk three days a week; for a 10-K, shoot for four or five days; half marathon, five days a week; and a marathon, put in six days a week to ensure you’re ready for that distance. For more walking advice, check out Fenton’s site at www.pbs.org/americaswalking.