Why is even a slow, short jog much more taxing than a long walk?

Question

I’m trying to do Couch to 5K at the moment to improve my personal fitness.

I can do long walks of an hour or more (10k+ in one go) with relative ease.

Yet a one minute run (which is Week 1 Workout 1 in C25K!) at an INCREDIBLY slow jogging pace is pushing my heart rate nearly to dangerous levels and I am finding it immensely challenging.

So what is it about a light jog that makes it so much more difficult than walking?

In: 38

Answer 1

As a once heavy guy myself, it hurt badly my knees when I started running. When running you often land with all the weight in one point…

This is because when you walk, you always have 1 point of contact (and thereby at times 2 points of contact) with he ground. When running, you never have more than 1 point of contact (and thereby have times of 0 point of contact)

If your stride is short, you land downward with that weight. A slow stride is often downward if you are new to running. But if pushing more for a forward stride you will also land more forward, not pushing as much force down (forward, not necessarily longer strides. There is a difference)

And if problem persists, increase you walking speed for a start instead of do a full run