Perfect Pacing
BURN MORE CALORIES
If you want to increase your walking speed and burn more calories, it’s time for a fitness self-test!
This 1-mile walk “test” will get you started in the right place and give you a baseline so can turn your walk into a workout!
Here’s how it works…
Warm up for at least 8 minutes, then start your timer and walk 1 mile at a brisk pace. Try to keep up a pace that makes you breath a little bit hard.. not huffing and puffing. When you finish the mile, record time time and check your heart rate. Were you in your training zone? If so, your mile time is a valid starting point.
LEVEL 1 –
If your test mile was over 24 minutes (or if you cannot walk 1 mile)
• After warming up at a comfortable pace for about 10 minutes, try to increase your pace slightly, so that you’re walking faster than your around-town pace. For the last 10 minutes of your walk, cool down by gradually slowing your pace.
• Monitor the intensity, staying closer to 60% of your maximum heart rate.
• Walk 4-6 times per week, or as often as you can. Walk as far as you can, eventually working up to 1.25 – 1.75 miles.
• Your goal is to walk 1.5 miles in less than 36 minutes.
LEVEL 2-
If your test-mile time was 20:00- 23:45 mins
• Walk for at least 30 minutes, preferably 40-60, this includes warm-up and cool-down.
• After a 10-min warm-up, try to increase your pace slightly and hold that pace for the remainder of your walk. Make a conscious effort to walk at a pace that’s faster than your walk-around-town pace. Cool down for 10 minutes by gradually slowing your pace.
• Monitor your intensity. Aim for 60-70% of your maximum heart rate.
• Walk 4-6 times per week, covering 1.5-3 miles.
• Your goal is to walks 2 miles in less than 40 minutes.
LEVEL 3 –
If your test mile was 16:00 – 19:59 minutes
• Walk for 40-60 minutes, including warm-up and cool-down.
• After 2 weeks, walk for 10 minutes, then pick up your pace for 20-30 mins. Cool down for 10 minutes by gradually slowing down. A typical workout would look like this :
10-mins: Warm-up
10-15 mins: Workout at a moderate pace
10-15 mins: Increase to a faster workout pace
10 mins: Cool down
• Monitor your intensity. Aim for 60-75% of your maximum heart rate
• Walk 4-6 times per week, cover 2-3.75 miles
• Your goal is to walk 3 miles in less than 48 mins
LEVEL 4 –
If your test-mile time was 15:00 – 15:59 mins
• Start with a 10-minute warm-up. Then pick up your pace for 30-40 mins, gradually increasing your speed. Cool down for 10 minutes. A typical workout would look like this…
10-mins: Warm-up
15-mins: Workout at a moderate pace
15-mins: Increase to a faster walking pace
10-mins: Cool-down
• Monitor your intensity. Aim for 60-80% of your maximum heart rate.
• Walk 4-6 times per week, covering 3-4.5 miles
• Your goal is to walks 3 miles in 39 minutes.
LEVEL 5 –
If your test mile was under 12:59 mins
• Start with an 8-minute warm-up. Pick up the pace and workout for 20 minutes. Follow with intervals… 45 seconds of hard walking (as fast as you can) alternating with 45 seconds in recovery. Start with 6 minutes of intervals (that’s four sets… for hard bursts, for recovery walks), followed by 6 minutes of steady, fast walking, and another 6 minutes of intervals. It would look like this…
8 mins: Warm-up
20-mins: Brisk walk
6 mins: 8 x 45-second fast/recovery intervals
6-mins: Brisk walk
6-mins: 8 x 45-second fast/recovery intervals
10-mins: Cool down
• Don’t do intervals more than 3 times per week. On other days, substitute 18 more minutes of brisk walking for the interval period.
• As you become more fit, you can increase either the length of your intervals (keeping a one-to-one ratio between hard and recovery) , or the number of intervals you do. For example, you could do sets of six 1-minute intervals (1 min hard, 1 minute recovery), or so 9 minutes worth of 45-second intervals.
• Monitor your intensity. Aim for 60-85% of your maximum heart rate. Include at least two easy days per week where your target heart rate stays at 70 or below.
• Walk 4-6 times per week, cover 3-5 miles
• Your goal is to hold a 12-minute-mile pace for 3-5 miles.
WALKING ACCESSORY I LOVE! ❤️
I found an incredible workout accessory that I can’t leave my house without! It’s called an SPI Belt… I strap it around my waist and it keeps my phone, credit card and keys so my hands are free during my walks, bike rides, or hikes.
My daughter Perrie is wearing my SPI Belt in the picture above!
It isn’t bulky, so it doesn’t interfere with my arm swings. The SPI Belt is NOT a fanny pack… it is convenient but stylish… a rare combo! And, it doesn’t bounce when I walk!
Move more, carry less!
I keep my SPI belt right by my shoes, so it’s a no-brainer to take on my workouts!
