Walking - those who did the Moonwalk this year, or anyone who walks could you advise me on training please

[bran]

A friend and I are planning to do the Moonwalk in London next year and I have a couple of questions.

Firstly, is it a full marathon walk only or is there a half marathon too? My friend doesn't think she would be able for a full marathon (although if training goes well she may change her mind). I have tried looking on the official site but for some reason the page that is all about the London Moonwalk just hangs on my computer and never finishes loading.

Secondly, could you point me in the direction of some training information please. How far and fast we should be walking and how often, that sort of thing. We will be training in the evenings I think. We can't start training until DH comes back from his contract abroad in mid-July as I can't go out in the evenings then, but that is still absolutely loads of time, isn't it?

Bumping, although I expect you're all out for a lovely walk and not slumped over the keyboard in a tatty dressing gown clutching a cup of coffee as I am.

I have done the sunwalk (the daytime equivalent) and we did the full 26 miles. we trained about 3 times a week.

Well, I say trained, it was a long brisk walk with much gossipping which was the best part.

We built up the length of walk, and the longest we did before the event was 17 miles. I figured if we could walk that we could do 26.

A few tips... Keep yout toenails short! Stretch out after every walk and especially the final one.

You will feel like you can't walk again but it only lasts a few hours! Have fun, its a great thing to do.

How many months did you train for before the event? Did you aim for a particularly time (ie 16 minute mile or so) or did you just walk a particular distance and not worry about speed?

We started training about 4 months before the event I think, maybe three. And it was distance and speed we wanted to work on, and endurance, , and we nailed the 26 miles in just over 6 hours!

So we were really going like the clappers. We were 'power' walking if you like.

To answer your question properly we didn't time each mile. Just really went for it!

To answer your question properly we didn't time each mile. Just really went for it!

That's fab, thanks maidamess. I'm probably being a little over enthusiastic to be thinking about it already then, perhaps we will just walk for an hour or two a couple of times a week and worry about a proper training schedule at the beginning of next year.

I saw there was a Moonwalk thread for the Moonwalk just gone, so there will probably be one next year as well, which will be a big encouragement I think.

Bran, I would strongly recommend getting hold of a copy of the book Marathoning for Mortals by John Bingham. I walked the Moonwalk four years ago, fantastic experience, and used this book for a training schedule - it has full training schedules in the back of the book for walking and running full and half marathons. Try and do the full 26 miles if you can!

Good luck!

Hiya

I am doing the Moonwalk in Edinburgh on Saturday night for the first time so will let you know how it goes.

More power to your collective elbows!

There's some info on this thread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/138/470733

what did you decide Bran... are you going to enter the moonwalk?