Fitness Expert replies:

Dear Wonder Walker

Thank you for your enquiry about training for the Taranaki half marathon. You should be fine with the amount of walking that you are doing now – as long as you have no expectations about trying to do a specific time and as long as you have time afterwards for a longer recovery. People who go into races better prepared enhance their recovery time compared with people who haven't had the time (or motivation) to train.

I also encourage you to pick up your longer walk over the next few weeks so that you are closing in on the actual distance of a half marathon in your training. This becomes important as you need to 'stress' your body and understand how it responds to walking that far. As well, you need to replace carbohydrate/ water every hour in a half marathon so you need to get used to doing this in your training. Finally you need to ensure that the terrain that you are training on emulates the type of terrain that you will be walking on during race-day, so try to get an idea of where the Taranaki half marathon goes (hilly, flat, or both etc) and set out your own training course similarly.

I have designed a half marathon training programme which is on the web-site. It is a tailored approach to training and should get you through the half-marathon in the time you have available.

Happy training,

Wendy