senior games – Page 4 – Retirement Media: Active Adult Living

Walking Styles

Walking is the number one physical activity for the over 55 crowd, so naturally in an Active Adult Community, walking is very popular. There are lots of documented benefits to walking.

Walking is something we have done all of our long lives, so you would think people would know how to do it. They do, but in their very own way.

You can see examples of the different walking styles on our own Deaton Creek Parkway every morning. There are the dog walkers, with their tug of war with fido, stopping, waiting, adding to their bag sometimes and starting again. They probably get a pretty good arm workout handling those leashes, with tugs from their friendly canine.

There are the romantic couples holding hands strolling along, getting some time together. There are the strollers, who are pretty good at keep their walking routine up several days a week, as they stroll along at a comfortable pace for a moderate distance, maybe from their house to either the back or front entrances.

Surprisingly, we have very little social walkers who walk in small groups, chatting and then encouraging each other with a “See you next time”. You really get to know each other when you are a member of social walking groups. It’s supportive of keeping your walking schedule up. If you miss a day, you have a little explaining to do. I did this type walking at the Johns Creek Senior Center (they call it Park Place Active Adult Center) and had the best time walking with Don and Lamont. We rarely missed a day in two years walking M-W-F at 8:30am, 12 months a year.

There are those commuting to the athletics fields or the clubhouse. These are usually pretty good walkers as they frequently tend to walk, rather than drive. Walking is probably not their main physical activity but some other sport, as they are in good condition. Becky in my Cardio class walks all the way from the back of the community to our class at the clubhouse, then a mile walk back home.

Our community has the trail walking club and many people like putting on the boots, grabbing a walking stick to head out in nature.

Then there are the Fitness Walkers, who are out for exercise with a more vigorous effort with their arms swinging back and forth and their long strides and quick steps. The real dedicated ones like to start early before it’s gets too hot in the Summer and in the Winter they are out there as long as it’s above freezing. They move pretty fast and are noticeable. Many of those doing fitness walking were former runners, who still want the cardio from moving fast, but now walking is the better way to do that.

Those doing fitness walking also have observable styles.

Some are just starting fitness walking and you see then struggling as they start a full out fitness walk without ever have walked much at all. A sure tell is when they have weights in their hands, something an experienced walker would never do. Sometimes they are overweight and seemingly new to any type exercise and you hope they don’t have a heart attack. They will probably burn out. They would probably be better off starting slowly and develop a normal walking routine first, but increasing their distance and speed over time.

Then there are the rare distance walkers, that start early and really cover a lot of distance, going at least six miles at a time. The distance from my house on Autumn Crest Lane out the front, right on Friendship Parkway down to Spout Springs Road and back is six miles and something I do that in my training routine. There are several people in our community that does that trip often. The longest I have heard is Bruce who told me he walked Friendship down to I985 and back, about 15 miles. He’s retired military, so he’s probably done distance before.

Then there are the fast or speed walkers who still walk a pretty good distance but also concentrate on their speed. They usually have the proper attire including quality walking shoes and socks. They are in it for the work out and probably have a runner’s watch, maybe even a Garmin Forerunner like I have or a similar watch that can record speed, distance, heat beats, steps per minute, average stride length and many more details which can be downloaded to your computer for analysis. Some of these walkers even learn how to race walk and go to various senior games at the local, state and national levels.

In Conclusion

All walking is good for you. Any chance you get to take a walk, do it. Better yet, make walking daily part of your life style. We are fortunate living here in an Active Adult Community to be able to walk right out the front door to streets with sidewalks on both sides of the street and a two mile parkway with a wide walking path. Plus there are many other places to walk in our community. As more people have become experienced walkers, there is more interest in fitness walking, a subject on my list to write about in the near future.

Robert Fowler, the Race Walker

Road to National Senior Games

Update: 2021. Well the next National Senior Games are postponed to May 10th to 23rd 2022 in Fort Lauderdale. The following is how I met my competitor and friend a few years ago.

I first met Michael Devaney when they called race walkers to the starting line at the Georgia Golden Games last year. He said he was from Arizona and he was planning on going to all the state senior games and then the National Senior Games (held in Birmingham, Alabama, June 6-8, 2017). He already knew my name because he had made note that we are in the same age bracket and have similar times.

So far Michael has gone to 36 state senior games. He has won medals in every state visited, many times the gold medal in race walking, a sport both he and I enjoy.

We hooked up on facebook to keep in touch. I posted that I was going to be race walking in the Singleton 5K by The Atlanta Track Club in nearby Norcross, GA and he posted back that he was making plane reservations and would be joining me. I told him this was not a judged race walk, but a general running event, but we both liked the idea of a race on a road course like we will have at the National Senior Games and it would be timed as well. A little friendly competition also.

This was great news since my last competitive race walk was last October, even though I have been in a couple races since without competitors. Racing without competitors is not the same.

Yesterday morning, I left home at 5:15am on my journey down to Norcross. At the Atlanta Track Club check in table they told me 2100 people had registered for the race, starting in Thrasher Park going out on a 5k long loop. It was Chronotrack chip timed event with the chip embedded in your race bib pinned on all four corners to the front of your shirt. When you cross the starting line an electronic mat that you step over reads your chip and starts your time. When you cross again, it records your race time.

I met Michael at the registration area and we warmed up. It was amazingly great weather for a race and all the people were buzzing around.

Most were much younger than we were and were runners, so we found ourselves in the D heat, which was the last to start. Mistake! We were in the back of this D heat when it started and the slowest runners/walkers were in front of us. We crossed the starting line and our time was activated. As we turned on to the race course we couldn’t pass the much slower people, shoulder to shoulder in front of us! I let out a curse. Micheal said lets hit the sidewalks that went around to the right. I tried to follow and was blocked so I went to the left.

The blockage went on for almost three minutes until we converged side by side ahead of and free of those slow pokes. We were off and race walking. Micheal took the lead for a while, then I took the lead for a while. He took it back. On the hills I would do better, because of my training on hills here at Village at Deaton Creek. Going down hill he would do better and catch up.

About a mile out from the finish line I took the lead going up a long hill. We topped the hill to take a right on the main road to the finish line and a race official said it was only one half mile to the finish, downhill from here. It wasn’t. Turning on to the main road it was uphill again. That’s OK with me because I was still in the lead. I was really breathing hard but it wasn’t far I kept telling myself.

The hill peaked and started downhill. With 200 yards to go, Micheal pulled up to pass me going pretty fast. He was a sprinter back on his college track team and that is his specialty. I wanted to go faster but couldn’t. He crossed the finished line and I crossed 7 seconds later.

Micheal looked at his watch and we couldn’t believe the time. I looked at my Garmin GPS watch and was shocked. We had both done our best times ever! 33 minutes and 56 seconds was my time. That beat my previous best time last year of 34 minutes and 20 seconds by 24 seconds. We both said at the same time “And that was with that hold up at the first of the race!”

We went over to The Flying Biscuit for breakfast where Micheal took the photo at the top of this page. We talked and shared our race walking experiences, tips, and talked about life in general. We talked about how grateful we both were to be able to do this, when so many our age have mobility problems and there is no guarantee about the future.

Micheal is planning on going to another 3 or 4 states this coming month to compete. I told him about a 1500 meter race walk in Lawenceville on May 6th and he made a note. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see him there. If not, I will see him at the starting line at The National Senior Games on June 6th.