Born to Walk

I recently completed the book Born to Walk by Mark Sisson and found the premise of the book that humans have evolved to walk extensively each day quite compelling and consistent with my personal (albeit anecdotal) experience with walking.  What I especially appreciated was the coverage of the book with regards to the importance of low intensity training and how even walking in zone 1 or more purposeful walking in zone 2 can still have huge aerobic base building benefits without being as physically taxing as running. 

While I don’t see myself giving up running any time soon, the book has made me make some adaptations to how I have been approaching my training.  I have been using a standing desk for a while now and rarely sit down during the day, but the arguments in the book pushed me to take it one step further and spring for a walking pad for under my desk. I’m still following the Mountaineering and Hiking Prep plan I’ve been running in an unmodified form, but have added a couple of hours of zone 1 walking to my daily routine.  I’ve had no issues with recovery with the added zone 1 work so far and intend to continue the practice going forward.  It seems an efficient way to add volume and time on feet in a non-taxing way and one I plan on continuing as long as recovery doesn’t present an issue.