Walking benefits
Walking and running are perfect ways to increase your overall fitness. You can progress at your own pace, it can fit in with any lifestyle and doesn’t require any technical skill.

Walking can help:
• Reduce body fat as part of a weight loss program
• Increase bone density, helping to prevent osteoporosis
• Reduce stress and increase energy levels
• Help to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Helpful hints and tips and even a training plan from the guys at The Runners Guide in Torquay. www.therunnersguide.co.uk

Here are some helpful walking tips and ideas:
• Make sure you have a good fitting pair of trainers. Don't get a new pair of trainers just before the walk it is better to break them in at least a few weeks beforehand.
• If you want to get some new clothing for the walk wear it or at least wash it beforehand to avoid chafing. Please wear your Big Midnight Walk T-shirt when training so people can support you and help raise awareness.
• Try leaving the car at home and walking instead!
• Try to recruit a workmate, friend or family member to join you when going out for a walk.
• Don’t let rain deter you from going out for a walk or run- after all it could rain on the night!
• Any time you see a staircase, walk up or down instead of using the lift or escalator.
• Always warm up prior to undertaking a walk.
• If you are a stranger to exercise, we would recommend that you build up the mileage and train slowly and steadily.
• Stop if your body is hurting.
• Wear reflective clothing if walking in the dark.
• Take the 20-Minute Challenge: promise yourself that you will walk at least 20 minutes every day between today and 7th June.

Got blisters? - If you have got blisters, the real cure is a process of elimination. Try each of these to see if you can get past the pain:
• Check inside shoes for rough spots;
• Use high quality microfibre socks;
• Try petroleum jelly (or petroleum-free substitutes)
• Use blister care plasters
None of these solutions work? Time to see a professional. Go for a long term solution to keep on walking! You can have an assessment done at The Runners Guide, they will then tell you if you are in the right shoes for your foot type!

You don’t have to train to complete the Big Midnight Walk, but if you feel you would like to, here is some training advice:

How to get started on your training!
Start by fast walks 2 or 3 times a week for at least 1 hour each time with the shoes you will be using for the Big Midnight Walk.
It is essential to find terrain which is the same as the terrain you will be walking- this is mixture of tarmac, grass and rocky terrain.

Increase walks to 3 evenings a week and during the weekend try fast walks of up to 5 miles. Wherever possible this should take place over two consecutive days.

For people who are overweight it is important to also use the gym (particularly the step machine) and do regular swimming during this period in order to reduce the waistline. This will make it much easier to walk for 13 consecutive miles.

Count those steps!
How many steps do you walk each day? Maybe you have heard the recent guidelines about walking 10,000 steps per day. How far is 10,000 steps anyway? The average person's stride length is approximately 2.5 feet long. That means it takes just over 2,000 steps to walk one mile, and 10,000 steps is close to 5 miles. A sedentary person may only average 1,000 to 3,000 steps a day.

Wearing a pedometer is an easy way to track your steps each day. Start by wearing the pedometer all day, every day for one week. Record your daily steps in a log or notebook. By the end of the week you will know your average daily steps. You might be surprised how many (or how few) steps you get in each day.

A reasonable goal for most people is to increase average daily steps each week by 500 per day until you can easily average 10,000 per day. If you have any health concerns seek your doctor's advice prior to starting or changing your exercise routine.

Well done for getting involved and keep on walking!

“For all your walking needs visit us, The Runners Guide, in our shop and we will be more than willing to offer more advice on what to wear, how to train and even what to eat. We can also answer any of your question that you might have come across during your training, such as why is this or that hurting me? It could be that you are in the wrong shoes for your foot type, if that’s that case then again the Runners Guide can help you out.”    Adam Carswell, The Runners Guide

Remember you will receive 10% off any purchase from The Runners Guide if you present your Big Midnight Walk sponsorship forms!