Saturday Mar. 17 - Wednesday Mar. 21

Almost spring - look at that sky!

Join us on Saturday at Tim's at 8:00 a.m. The distance is yours to choose - be sure to challenge yourself by going a bit further, or a bit faster or add a hill.  Those training for the Niagara Women's Half need to do 10 km followed by 6 km and 8 km during the week. Join them as they do their distance - company really helps those training.

Sunday morning walkers meet at the Running Room on Queen Street at 8:30 am - the more walkers, the merrier the group.

Day time walkers often meet on Wednesday at Tim's at 9:00 am- Charlotte will most likely send a confirming email message.

Weekday evening walkers meet at 6:30 pm on Monday (Loblaws) and Wednesday (Occasions) - it is so nice to be able to walk in the evening and still have day light. We had two great walks this week - join us - we'd love to see you.

I read an article on the health benefits of walking and a few recommendations to improve your walking workout in order to maximize the health benefits. I have reduced the content without changing the message:

Sections of a Blog post by Leila Dale on the Carrot (Health Canada) website:  

I’m a big fan of walking for exercise. Walking is good for your heart health (i.e. lowers blood pressure and resting heart rate), it’s also easy on your joints and great for your leg muscles. Regularly participating in outdoor walking groups has been shown to lower the risk of depression.

Aim to do physical activity at a moderate- to vigorous-intensity for 150 minutes per week. While any light movement is good, brisk walking, has even greater health benefits. Here are a few ways to turn your walking into moderate- to vigorous-intensity:

                       

Go up! Adding stairs or hills is a guarantee way to work harder. My motto is that for a walk to be a great workout, it should have at least 3 hills or sets of stairs.

Go fast! Walking at a faster pace will increase intensity. Try walking as quickly as you can for a short period of time (1-2 minutes), then resume your normal pace for 1-2 minutes, and repeat. Or walk fast until you reach the next light pole or stop sign.

Go longer! Add distance to your walk to increase the intensity.

Go different! Walk on different terrain, like a trail in the forest, the beach, or even in water. Sand or water can increase the resistance.

Add beats! Listening to music that has a fast beat can make you walk faster. Just be safe and pay attention to your surroundings.

Let's do this!