Topic - Off-snow training: nordic walking (advanced)
Date first posted on eCommunity - 6
August 2006
INTRODUCTION
Nordic walking has been the subject of previous
postings made on 17 April 2006 (a general overview) and 25 June 2006 (a piece on hill work with poles). The present posting is aimed at people who have already done
at least a couple of months of regular nordic walking at a moderate level, who have coped well with the physical demands, and who now
want to increase the intensity. At this time of year, as autumn approaches, many cross-country skiers will be trying to step up the
intensity of their training – and many others will be thinking of making a start! It is hoped that the following can give them some ideas.
The general approach has been to borrow training methods from endurance running and adapt them to the requirements and fitness
levels of enthusiastic walkers. The specific examples given below are based on work I have been doing with groups from NFER, an
educational research institute based close to our local park, and are intended as illustrations rather than prescriptions. A different
group using a different park will call for a different schedule.
Generally speaking we try to maintain good technique – the group members all know what to do: abdominals engaged, shoulders soft,
good pushback of poles. But we are quite prepared occasionally to sacrifice technique for speed in the interest of a good workout,
especially on our 5km route, when the improvement of personal best times is a strong motivator. Our primary aim is to improve stamina,
but some of the routines also develop muscle strength and endurance. All sessions are preceded and followed by appropriate mobilisation
exercises and stretches.
We meet once a week, and our eight-week programme is a mix of the following elements:
LONG, MODERATE DISTANCE. Our park is a venue for Cancer Research's "Race for Life" series, and a 5 kilometre course has been
accurately measured and clearly marked. We walk round it at a sustained moderate pace – it feels strenuous and we sweat, but the
pace is easy enough to allow some conversation – and we aim to complete the course in less than 50 minutes. This calls for a
respectable average speed of at least 6kph (3.75 mph). Our 5km sessions are taken at sustained intensity. In all our other
sessions we stop from time to time to rest and drink, and we always include a lengthy period of slow walking, to allow time for chatting
and for warm-down.
LONG, SLOW DISTANCE. The park is adjacent to good walking routes on footpaths and bridleways in the parks surrounding the town of Eton
and along the Jubilee River, which is a flood relief scheme for the Thames. We have a choice of training routes, each involving about
1.25 hours walking at easy conversational speed.
SHORT-DISTANCE INTERVALS. In a corner of the park there is a square area of level grass with sides approximately 150 metres long. With
beginners groups I often use this area for simple intervals, in which we walk one side slowly then one side fast: the work and
active recovery phases are of equal distance. But with an advanced group we will do "pyramid" training, in the following sequence and
without pausing:
- walk slowly round all four sides to warm up
- do one side fast, one side slow, one side fast, one side slow
- do two sides fast and one side slow
- do three sides fast and one side slow
- do four sides fast
Ideally, having climbed up the pyramid of intensity in gradual stages, we should come back down in the same, measured way. But as
the above sequence will already have involved almost 3km of walking and will have taken about 30 minutes, we usually content ourselves
with proceeding to a 30-minute easy-paced walk round the main park perimeter, which we treat as a warm-down.
To give variety to the short-interval sessions we will at times work on a pattern of "reducing recovery intervals". The sequence might
now be:
- walk slowly round all four 150-metre sides to warm up
- do one side fast, one side slow
- do one side fast then do a shorter side, say 140-metres, slow
- do one side fast then do a still shorter side, say 130-metres, slow
- continue to reduce the recovery interval by a fixed amount each time. (The square shape of the field helps us keep track of progress.)
(Another interesting, but challenging, version of "reducing recovery intervals" is described in David Downer's new eBook on nordic
walking – see
http://nordicwalkingnewsblog.blogspot.com for details.
In that version you progressively reduce the recovery intervals while at the same time progressively lengthening the work intervals –
so you not only subtract 10 metres from your recovery phase each time, but you also add 10 metres to your fast phase.)
LONG-DISTANCE INTERVALS. At the top of our park there is an extensive flat area, about 750 metres in length. As it takes us
about seven minutes to walk one length, a session of four lengths is enough to give a satisfactory basic workout. The most
straightforward way to handle this area is simply to alternate easy and hard lengths – to walk slowly in one direction and then come
quickly back. With a very fit group we do a total of six lengths in a pattern of "ladder intervals", in which the speed of each fast
length is increased.
HILLS. As noted in the posting of 25 June on hill work with poles, our park has a short, gentle slope on which we do simple intervals –
working hard uphill and recovering on the way back down. Normally we do ten repetitions. There is also a much longer slope, perhaps 200
metres long, but still very gentle. We currently include this in our 5km circuit, going up and down it twice in the course of one
circuit. We plan also to use it for a form of pyramid training. We will start at the bottom and walk up for 100 metres. Then we will
return to the bottom and walk up for 110 metres – and so on, increasing the uphill stage by 10 metres each time.
It is worth emphasising that some of the routines just described are
very strenuous. Be careful!
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