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While most walkers easily identify a hill along their path, they may be unaware of a less obvious form of uneven surface that causes race walking problems: crowns. A crown is the crest on a road that causes it to be uneven all the way across. Many roads are crowned to prevent puddles forming. While this helps cars, it severely hinders a race walker.
On a crowned road, your foot continually has an unstable landing and must compensate for the improper footing. Over time, this leads to injuries. Choose your roads carefully. Try to walk where there is a sidewalk or no crown in the road. If you have to walk on crowned roads, try to pick those with the least sharp crests in the area of the road you are walking on.
When walking on a crown, walk half the workout with the crown on one side of your body and then turn around onto the same side of the road for the second half of the workout. This balances the stress of the crown on both sides of your body. Be careful, it requires traveling both against and with traffic.
Walking Without a Road
Many people gravitate to a treadmill when the roads or weather outside is inhospitable. In theory there is not much of a difference between walking on a treadmill or road; however, be aware that many treadmills are not long enough to allow a race walker to adequately walk with proper style. When fatigued, treadmills pose another threat. They can force you to extend your range of motion beyond your body’s natural range. Obviously, this can lead to additional injuries. If possible, limit treadmill use in your training.
Often the first question asked by beginning race walkers is, “Can I use hand and ankle weights when I race walk?” The perceived benefit of additional weights is that they provide a better or harder workout.
Do not race walk with weights on your ankles, legs, wrists, or hands: the reality is, carrying weights is not beneficial to race walkers. Weights add stress to the body in a way that we are not designed to handle, thus increasing the risk of injuries to an unacceptable level. They also disturb natural cadence, making proper technique difficult if not impossible. Your walking pace will slow with no net benefit. If you want to tone your muscles, add an easy strength training routine. If you want to walk faster, learn the proper technique and then follow the training schedules provided on my DVD.
