Walking: Mileage or Time?

Just a general question, in terms of physical fitness, does it matter more the amount of time you walk, or the mileage? I try to walk for an hour every night (on top of cardio and strength training), and every night I end up walking further in less time. Tonight I walked about four miles in 54 minutes! So should I try to slow down and walk longer, or keep speeding up and walking more miles in the same time duration?

Wed. Oct 17, 10:10pm

It is really dependant - problem with walking a set distance is that you do become fitter and if you dont increase either speed or distance you plateu. You can also do same distance just carry weight with you - I have a weight vest that I wear when I run with wife as she does not run as fast or far but I still get a great workout too and we can do it together.
So keep up the hour I suggest but never walk the same path twice - turn another direction and see new stuff - you might be suprised what is in your area. that you didnt even know about.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007, 10:26 PM

If your purpose is calorie-burning, then speed.
Unless you're just starting out. Then it's more about endurance/time.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007, 10:27 PM

Sounds like you have a well rounded fitness thing going! I'd work the speed on your walks, if you slow down you may not be challenging yourself.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007, 10:36 PM

Generally, for caloric burn, excersise falls under a few "catergories".

Not doing much - your heart rate is under 60% of your "max heart rate. You should be upping your excersise intensity if you're here with heart rate.

Aerobic - this is the best for caloric burn. It's at about 70-80% and at this type of intensity, you should be able to keep at it for about 30-60 minutes. It's really great for fat burn.

Anarobic - this is usually at around 85-100% and can usually only be sustained for about 1-10 minutes at MOST. This excersise will burn more calories per minute that the lesser itensity, but less calories are burned from fat. At this point, your body's going into "oxygen debt" and that's when you get lactose bulld up, etc. However, this type of excersise DOES lead to a boost in metabolism.

In comparison to running, thing of jogging as aerobic, sprinting as anarobic.

On my track team we do "fartleks" which means "play on speed". Which is literally what you do. You can change the interval legnths, total time, etc to match your ability level, but we usually go 2 minute full sprinting, 3 minutes jogging, for about 30 minutes. It hurts after a while, but you'll feel the up in endurance and you're working your speed muscles, so you're getting faster and better at long distance.

I attatched a link that helps show your MPR. :]

Link

Wednesday, October 17, 2007, 10:44 PM

OP here

Thank you all for your comments/suggestions! It's so refreshing to get good feedback on this site.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007, 11:44 PM

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