Saturday, May 24, 2014

Passing the Walk Test


For those who have medical issues the Air Force uses a walk test. Initially, this walk test was a timed, 1-mile walk that also measured heart rate as you crossed the finish line. In 2013, the walk test was updated, removing the heart rate measurement, extending the walk to 1.25 miles (or 2 kilometers), and awarding no points for a person’s walk time. Instead, the test is either pass or fail.

The current passing times are listed below:


Based on these times, you will have to sustain an average speed of about 4.70 mph for men and 4.32 mph for women (which are pretty quick walking speeds). To give you some wiggle room during the test, I suggest that you should train to beat your maximum time by at least 30 seconds.

In this post, I'll help you prepare for your walk test by discussing basic race walking form.
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Saturday, May 3, 2014

Quick Running Tip: Natural Running Training


The idea of natural running is to go back to the way humans have run for thousands of years, which is largely to run barefoot. Of course, in our modern environment, running barefoot can be hazardous, so many people try to get back to the basics with minimalist running shoes on their feet. Running in minimalist running shoes is usually very helpful with improving running form and efficiency...at first.

As I eventually found out through my experimentation with natural running, minimalist running shoes helped me eliminate many of my bad habits (especially heel striking), but the thin rubber soles on these shoes still allowed a few of my bad habits to stubbornly remain (mostly braking and jumping), prolonging one very annoying injury: Shin splints. Eventually, I was forced to go back to actual barefoot running.

In this post I will outline the natural running training program I developed to improve my running form and decrease my running times, while also allowing my running injuries to heal.
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