Reasonable Goals

You’ve decided that this whole walking thing seems like a great idea and you’re wondering how to set some reasonable goals for your health and fitness. I’ll write more in another post for those who have been doing it for a while now and want to explore optimizing the benefits. But this one is for those of you getting started.

The trick for me when starting some new venture is to regulate. Before I start I want to completely understand all of the why’s and how’s and each step between where I am today and immortality, or whatever your BIG goal is. Don’t be like me. If you are like me you need to work to short-circuit these tendencies. For walking, it was not the challenge that, say, the perfect dovetail in the woodshop presents. I was able to just start walking every day while I worked out much of the rest. You can too.

Walking appears to be the most studied form of exercise, and perhaps the most studied thing of any kind out there. When I went searching for validation that this was the way forward I found myself buried in that nerdy, oooh, cool, another study to dissect way. My searches got narrower and narrower and yet were still full of rabbit holes links to pursue. Its great and I love it. But none of it kept me from scheduling my walks and getting out there 5-7 days each week.

Here’s how to get started

Plan Your Walks

Plan your weeks walks. Studies show that you will be more successful with any exercise plan if you give it some forethought and write it into your schedule. Even if you make changes on the fly you will be more likely to keep going. If you have a time slot you think will work for you each day then write this into your calendar. Start out setting aside 30 minutes and see how you feel.

It doesn’t work for me to do the same time slot each day. I work, I have a family, I have other responsibilities, some of which are not regularly scheduled. My schedule right now in the tail days of summer is to take good longer walks first thing on weekend mornings and shorter walks during the day at work during the week, and then in the evening or late afternoon once I’m home. For you it might involve around your dog walk schedule, or your work schedule might be more or less rigid allowing some opportunities during the day.

There are plenty of studies that say that it is not necessary to take just a single long walk to get many benefits—that taking three 10 minute walks during the day gives you much of what a single 30 minute walk can give you. So break it up however you need to.

Get Support

I walk often with my wife. These walks are generally a bit slower than the walks I do solo because we use the opportunity to talk and connect while dodging the cars and petting every dog we pass. I love these walks.

I also walk solo a lot. When I do that I generally push myself harder and occasionally add in some intermittent more aggressive hills or speed. It feels good and it allows me to drop into a more meditative flow that opens my mind to dealing subconsciously with whatever issues I’m working on. I think about what to write here to help folks get more active. I use that time for self-support. Other days I put in the AirPods and listen Next Big Idea book notes or whatever Audible book is currently in the queue. I purposefully switch off between these types of walks. Its easy today to never be disconnected from the digital life, but being alone with your thoughts can be calming and fruitful and I highly encourage it.

Come up with a strategy to give yourself accountability. Work with a walking partner or significant other. Track your workouts using a tracker (FitBit or Apple Watch among many). And monitor yourself to make sure you are keeping to your plan you made above.

Be public with at least some of your closest peeps about your new habit and goals. This will help keep you moving forward. And you may find some partners you didn’t expect. Send me an email each week and let me know how you are doing if you find this helpful.

Listen to your Body

When you’re starting out, particularly, listen to the feedback your body is giving you. In virtually every study I read about the effects of walking they use a minimum threshold of a “brisk walk.” I’ll write more about speeds and hills in another post. But know for now that they are talking about 2.7 to 3mph walks when they use those words. That’s a 20 to 22 minute mile. That may feel slow to you, and you will find increasing benefits with a quicker pace. You are expending more than 3X the energy to walk at that 20-minute mile pace vs. your body at rest.

Make that your initial goal. All the trackers we have available to us today are great for monitoring this stuff in excruciating detail, but you don’t really need to stress about that yet. Walk at what feels like a comfortable pace. And then walk just a bit faster and see how that feels. Ideally you want to work up to the 20-minute mile pace. It may take a bit of time, but you will get there. The go faster as you can. Or at least intermittently. Recognize when your body is telling you to back off, but also when it may just be a little uncomfortable with this new thing and you can push through.

One of the great things about walking vs running, is that the chances of injury are much lower. One study showed that somewhere between 19% and 79% of runners suffer an injury while running, and that walkers suffer a very small number of issues.

Goals

So your actual goals will depend greatly on where you are starting. If walking at a 20-minute mile pace is hard, then make that your first goal. Hold yourself accountable to have a weekly plan and execute it, with whatever curveball dodging you need to do.

My plan for this week is to take 2 longer walks on Saturday and Sunday morning before I do anything else. Walking before breakfast may have some benefits for my goals of weight loss. During the week I have a plan to take at least one 10-minute walk during the work day each day and to walk each evening after dinner for 30 to 45 minutes each night. Along the way I’m ok if I miss one of these evening walks, and I sometimes can take a few extra walks each week during the workday. Icing on top. I am aiming for 15 miles each week. But if you are just starting I urge you to create some lower goals. Three months from now something closer to my current goals may work for you. But give yourself a break. I’m happy to write you a note for your boss or significant other excusing you from making way-too-aggressive goals for the first few months. And look for the joy. If this becomes a have-to it won’t last. Take in the details of the world around you. Enjoy the pups you pass or the sounds of the woods.

James Clear in his great book Atomic Habits offers great advice for building new habits into your life. One “trick” he uses is to start as small as possible. Make an agreement with your self that you will put on your walking shoes and clothes, step out the door, and walk for a minute. If you do just that you have kept your promise to yourself. But you will inevitably start doing more. Find your own sneaky ways to take those first steps.The most important goal is to strap on the shoes, open the door, and start.