So long story short due to my job I walk somewhere between 11 and 13 miles daily so doing Simple Math I’m walking roughly 55 miles a week before I even do any training. I’m curious as to what you guys think the effect on my running would be from all this walking. I’ve posted similar questions before and never really got a great answer but with other running threads right now I’m hoping someone will chime in. I really don’t notice a big effect on my short runs through the week but my mid runs and then my long runs late and weak my legs just feel like cement. this was never a great issue when I was doing sprints and Olympics but over the past couple years as I’ve stretched into longer races and with Ironman Maryland 7 weeks away it’s weighing heavily on my mind.
The walking is part of your training regimen. It is not as race specific as running, but those 11 - 13 miles add to both your conditioning and your fatigue. The walking will reduce the amount of run training you can safely do – but I would just reduce your running to what is sustainable and don’t worry about it.
Training wise this is probably horrible, but whatcha gonna do, quit your job? Just run a little less and with some more warmup and see where it will take you. I cant even fathom how horrible I would feel walking 15-20km a day outside of training. I ride my fixie everywhere and rarely walk more than 500m at a time tho.
Not trying to be harsh here, but I gotta think that’s gonna make you slower. At least on the run.
Fit, and thin, but slow.
My guess would be that when it’s time for training, you can stop worrying so much about endurance, and really work on things like turnover and just straight speed. But also, that time swimming and on the bike would help. Probably worth thinking about flexibility, stretching, etc as well. But this is all just guesses on my part.
That’s really a lot of walking to do. (Tour guide?) Sounds like it might be a neat life, and probably beats sitting at a desk all day.
Ups delivery driver pretty heavy route with a lot of driveways I have to walk back and then some apartment complexes where I’m talking a lot of stuff up 3 flights of steps. A couple years ago another driver at the same Center as me who’s just into doing marathons checked how far he was walking in a day and then told me I was blown away so I’ve checked it multiple times never less than 11 sometimes as high as 15 miles a day
The walking is part of your training regimen. It is not as race specific as running, but those 11 - 13 miles add to both your conditioning and your fatigue. The walking will reduce the amount of run training you can safely do – but I would just reduce your running to what is sustainable and don’t worry about it.
This. Basically you do a lot of broken ‘easy pace’ training. A different variant from when Brett Sutton had Ryf running a marathon every 3 days for a bit in the lead up to Kona - having broadcast the soundbite it he broke it down into the all the different sessions that turned out to just add up to a marathon.
So, a slight radical idea, why don’t you ditch your long run from training. You are clearly use to being on your feet a lot. Perhaps just do one (at easy pace) two or three weeks before racing (and only 2 maybe 2 /12 hours, I don’t mean a 3 1/2 special.)
Well it’s your job so I am guessing you don’t have the option to not doing it
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Interesting thought.
The walking is part of your training regimen. It is not as race specific as running, but those 11 - 13 miles add to both your conditioning and your fatigue. The walking will reduce the amount of run training you can safely do – but I would just reduce your running to what is sustainable and don’t worry about it.
This. Basically you do a lot of broken ‘easy pace’ training. A different variant from when Brett Sutton had Ryf running a marathon every 3 days for a bit in the lead up to Kona - having broadcast the soundbite it he broke it down into the all the different sessions that turned out to just add up to a marathon.
So, a slight radical idea, why don’t you ditch your long run from training. You are clearly use to being on your feet a lot. Perhaps just do one (at easy pace) two or three weeks before racing (and only 2 maybe 2 /12 hours, I don’t mean a 3 1/2 special.)
that’s what i was thinking - you’re getting the volume anyway so focus on quality rather than quantity in your run training.
could you jog some of the distance (when not carrying heavy parcels) to make it more specific?
Yes I can/ do. I’ve had several conversations with coaches and when this comes up they always shrugged it off like it doesn’t count for anything. Maybe why I still don’t use a coach…Well ST is kind of a coach.
There was a question on people who do lots of physical activity for a living (but related to cycling) on Endurance Planet recently, link to the show here: https://www.enduranceplanet.com/atc-242-eating-for-very-high-volume-sub-3-marathon-tips-benefits-of-training-by-heart-rate-not-pace-the-special-block-beastly-workout-and-more/
You might be able to garner some helpful information and principles for training here. I usually find Lucho’s advice on the show particularly helpful as he’s very performance focussed and was a real triathlon stud back in the day before winning Leadman in 2012. Tawnee is a bit more holistic but that might help in general with your training.
Ups delivery driver pretty heavy route with a lot of driveways I have to walk back and then some apartment complexes where I’m talking a lot of stuff up 3 flights of steps. A couple years ago another driver at the same Center as me who’s just into doing marathons checked how far he was walking in a day and then told me I was blown away so I’ve checked it multiple times never less than 11 sometimes as high as 15 miles a day
Don’t have a job like yours every day but i have done some weeks of military duty wherein i walked 10-15 miles during the day, then did my normal training afterwards. I found that, as long as i ate and drank enough during the day, i had no problem with my workouts, including sometimes a 20 mi run on the weekend. Opinions vary but I just don’t think walking is strenuous enough to give a well-conditioned athlete any sort of training effect; sure, you’re burning an extra 1100 to 1500 cal/day in your 11-15 mi/day of walking, but i bet your HR never gets above 40% max, except possibly at the top of those three flights of stairs, and then only for a few seconds maybe at 50%.
Similarly, when I’ve taken breaks from training and just walked 8-10 mi/day with my dogs, my run pace has definitely taken a hit, e.g., i no longer had an easy run pace as every run felt hard, for about 5-6 weeks. Same thing on the bike and in the pool but i could more easily compensate by just riding an easier gear, and by just swimming slower. I never seem to be able to quite do that on the run. 
So long story short due to my job I walk somewhere between 11 and 13 miles daily so doing Simple Math I’m walking roughly 55 miles a week before I even do any training. I’m curious as to what you guys think the effect on my running would be from all this walking. I’ve posted similar questions before and never really got a great answer but with other running threads right now I’m hoping someone will chime in. I really don’t notice a big effect on my short runs through the week but my mid runs and then my long runs late and weak my legs just feel like cement. this was never a great issue when I was doing sprints and Olympics but over the past couple years as I’ve stretched into longer races and with Ironman Maryland 7 weeks away it’s weighing heavily on my mind.
This is actually run training. Walking is the easiest form of running. This has a huge positive impact on your run training and longevity. Just cut back on your overall run volume. Ideally you can crank out short faster runs 4-5 days per week early morning when your legs are fresh, walk all day, and in the evening do your swim or bike training that you can do on heavy tired legs.
I don’t know if you do any Ironmans, but I bet your Ironman run ‘fade’ relative to a lot of people is very low fade. Time on feet walking adds up. When I used to race IM’s I did several IM’s where my long run was just the 21K in 3-4 half IM’s and other than that my longish run was jog to the track, do mile internals with 400m jogging till I hit the 80 point and then would jog home. Long run 90 min, 4 other runs of 45-50 min at lunch and daily 60 min walks split in 4x15 min (I would often do these in the parking lot during conference calls that I don’t need to present). So my running was barely 5 hours per week, but I would get 7 more hours on my feet walking and I did zero long runs. I was also racing multiple IM’s per year, so the marathon in my last IM was the long run for the next IM, but even for the first IM there would be no long runs.
My daily training would look something like this
Sample weekday option 1: bike commute 30 min easy, 4x15 walks during work day on calls or with team members rather than sit in an office, jog 10 min to pool, swim hard 30 min, bike home hard 30 minSample weekday option 2: run 45-50 min bike commute 30 min easy, 4x15 walks during work day on calls or with team members rather than sit in an office, jog 10 min to pool, swim hard 30 min, bike home easy 30 min
Usually on Monday I would skip the morning run but the routine would be pretty much the same daily. The bike ride home may be extended to 45 min with TT work or intervals. But daily training was 2-3 hrs of SBR plus 60 min walking. Weekend day one was the 90 min ride with an optional 60 min swim, weekend day 2 was the 3-4 hour hard ride in the TT position at half IM type effort. Most of my weekday run training was jogging other than Saturday intervals. Total training was 15-18 hrs plus 7 hrs walking. That was plenty of training for an IM but mainly it fit into life.
What type of shoes do you wear while working?
Back in college I worked in a warehouse walking on hard concrete all day lifting cases of beer/soda to the store floor or trucks. When I got into my runs after work, 6-8 miles felt like hell and I always felt like it negatively impacted my training. 11 years later now that I think about it, I wore old worn out running shoes at work. I probably should have worn better shoes.
used to do long backpack/mountaineering trips, carrying 40-50lbs over 10-15 miles per day, several days in a row… “legs like cement” on the long runs afterward is about right. For training purposes I’d figure the backpack trips as long run efforts and do mostly swimming and maybe short hard run efforts, until the legs came back.
Andrew Skurka is a pretty good ultrarunner whose job is backpacking… his thoughts,
https://andrewskurka.com/2015/backpackers-training-plan-for-100-mile-ultra-marathon/
“I think that backpacking can be an excellent complement to running, or at least to ultra running, especially for the longer distances (e.g. 100K, 100M) and for mountain courses. In some respects, it is probably even better than pure running in developing a deep base of endurance”
All that walking is certainly having an effect on the leg muscles. I’d have expected some kind of training adaptation to kick in, though, so the long runs would get more tolerable. How long have you been in this job, and have the long runs always been a problem ?
For the IM - 3 or 4 weeks out from IM, really focus on getting off your feet as much as possible, after work.
As AndysStrongAle says, think about shoes - Hokas for work are probably a good idea.