A Run is Just High Impact Walking

I've often been in conversations where someone inevitably almost apologizes for not being a runner, but a walker.  In truth, I see running and walking as being equally challenging and beneficial to your health.  True, when you run you burn more calories faster, but what's really important is not the calories burned, but what is being burned.

As I've stated in previous posts, your body uses two sources for energy, carbohydrates and fat.  When you consume carbohydrates, your body immediately goes after this as its chief source for fuel, only when the body runs out of carbohydrates does it start to pull from fat stores.  Whatever carbohydrates that are not burned are stored in the fat cells for future use.

When you run, your body naturally goes after carbohydrates first.  For the first 15 minutes of the run, your body will burn primarily carbohydrates, but after 30 minutes into a run, your body starts to burn 50% carbohydrates and 50% from the fat stores.  After 45 minutes of running, your body starts to pull more from the fat stores burning at about a 25/75 percent carbohydrate to fat ratio.  After an hour, it burns almost exclusively fat.

Why?  When you run, your heart rate immediately increases at first to a cardiozone level and your body doesn't have the time to pull from the fat stores for energy, so it must use the carbohydrates.  Over time, your body starts to settle into the workout, your heart rate actually drops to a more settled rhythm and your body starts pulling from fat stores.  Over a longer period of time, it starts to become more efficient at pulling exclusively from fat and starts to burn mainly the fat.

We can apply this same logic with walking, but with walking your heart rate is more likely to start at and remain at the fat burning zone significantly longer than with running.  In a shorter amount of time during a walking workout, your body switches over to the fat cells and will switch almost exclusively to fat stores much quicker than when running.

As far as physical fitness, muscle strength, and cardiovascular benefits, I don't see much of a difference between walking and running, neither are superior.  They are not mutually exclusive either.  To do either competitively you need to train over a long period of time to build muscle and respiratory strength.  You can have just as much trouble crossing the finish line of any race 5k, 8k, 10k, half-marathon, marathon, and on and on; and completing any race whether running or walking is a significant accomplishment in life.

There are three exercises that I feel are a bit more superior than others.  Walking, running, and swimming.  I don't mean to exclude other exercises like biking or weight training, but with the three mentioned above you don't need any special equipment in order to participate or master.  They are the most natural form of everyday exercises that a human or animal can do.  With cycling, you need a bike; with weights, you need weights.  You could, if you really wanted to, run, walk, or swim completely naked and get excellent health benefits.  With strength training, one could argue that you don't need anything special, there are many different exercises you can do in weight training that uses only your body, but I would submit a different argument for the big three I mentioned above.

Conceivable, the only life skills that are essential is to walk, run, or swim.  If 75% of the earth's surface is water, then it makes sense to be able to swim and develop the leg, arm, and core strength in order to do this.  The same goes for walking, a skill we use everyday; and running, as it makes more sense to escape from danger by running rather than walking.  Plus, the three mentioned above requires a certain level of strength in the whole body, which develops better by doing the activity.  The muscles required for these activities help with the here and now parts of life.  The cardiovascular strength needed to complete a walk, run, or swim aids in daily activities and builds power in your everyday life.

So, when you read Run and Eat Simply, remember, a run is just high impact walking.  Get out there, and get moving!