If you don't worry so much about your weight, and instead take a hike, or jog around the block, the pounds may or may not disappear into the ether, but your health, head and heart will feel better.
If you don't worry so much about your weight, and instead take a hike, or jog around the block, the pounds may or may not disappear into the ether, but your health, head and heart will feel better.
“I tell people to throw away their scales and to run for fun. You shouldn't run so that you look like Twiggy but instead I think you should do it because you enjoy it,” said Running Room manager Warren Footz.
Many runners feel shy about jogging in public, Footz said, and that's why joining a club can help.
“Like most runners I didn't want people to see me so I ran in the dark in the morning or evening,” said Footz, who said he joined the Collingwood Running Room group in 1995.
“That got me over the hump and I got over the social fear of running,” he said.
St. Albert residents have at least three ways to get into walking or running with others: through the Running Room, with the St. Albert Trekkers Volkssport Club and at the Servus Credit Union Place track.
The Running Room has walk/run clubs that leave from the St. Anne Street store at 6 p.m. Wednesdays and 8:30 a.m. Sundays. It also offers a variety of workshops to learn how to run properly so there is less chance of injury. The workshops range from how to get started running or walking to courses about hypothermia and dressing for the weather, to stop-smoking clinics that combine walking or running with ideas to help stop the nicotine cravings. Running Room also has clinics to help cancer survivors get back into a fitness regime.
“The trick is so no one runs alone. We try to match you up for the distance you want to run and the pace. If you run with others it's more challenging and socially more encouraging,” Footz said.
For safety reasons, Footz invites everyone to drop their keys off at the desk before they set out.
“That way we know you are out,” he said.
Volkssport
The St. Albert Trekkers Volkssport Club has 110 registered walkers with participants coming from all over the Edmonton region. The club's next scheduled event will be Saturday, Jan. 14, with registration at 1 p.m. and the walk at 1:30 p.m. The fee is $2.
Newcomers will be welcomed and they will quickly find an experienced new friend to walk with them either five or ten kilometres.
“We will give them a paper and stamps to record their walk. They will get stamps for distance, and a five km walk takes about an hour,' said past president Sharon Tchir.
Tchir joined Volkssport in 2010. She was already a walker and quite active, but she wanted to meet other people with a common interest. Since then she has travelled to Volkssport events throughout the province, in the United Kingdom and in Arizona.
“I learned more about Edmonton and about Alberta than I ever knew because when you walk by yourself, you tend to walk in the same place again and again,' she said.
The Volkssport reward system and stamps gave her new goals, Tchir said, and walking with others inspired her to walk more quickly.
“I'm motivated by the achievement markers,” she said. “And I am more fit. That's for sure. Volkssport keeps me active and with people.”
Volkssport walkers can take classes in how to walk with poles, and many people who have difficulty with their knees, find they help.
“They help you take the stress off your knees,” she said.
Volkssport and Running Room athletes use a variety of different kinds of footwear to help them navigate icy trails and one advantage to walking with others is they know where the icy places usually are.
“There are times when it's too dangerous, like last year after we got freezing rain, but it's a question of confidence,” Footz said.
The Servus Credit Union Place track is a good alternative for walkers and joggers because it's inside. There are no organized groups using the track but if you go at the same time every day you begin to recognize others and soon will hear a cheery, “Hello!” as you lace up your runners.
