Author Topic: Are they Long Diastance routes, long distance walks?  (Read 5253 times)

dav

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SLOGGER posting.Many of you will know my preffered way of how I do my walks.The Long Distance Walkers Association describe a 'long distance' walk as at least 16 miles.The Ultra distance community describe an Ultra Distance Walk as beyond the standard Marathon distance of 26.2 miles.With those in mind, is it that, those walking less than 16 miles a day are simply average day walkers, doing a long distance route, rather than being actual long distance walkers?Certainly no one would class themselves as an Ultra Distance walker if they couldn't handle more than 26.2 miles a day.I mean given enough time and inclination, just about any abled bodied person could finish a long distance route.
I'll take shelter now! :o

harland

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Re: Are they Long Diastance routes, long distance walks?
« Reply #1 on: 17:28:28, 03/11/18 »
I would class myself as a long distance ambler!  Whilst I have walked a number of LDPs and have walked over 30 miles in a day recently should I now class myself as an "Ultra Distance Walker"?  I think not! :D

Rob Goes Walking

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Re: Are they Long Diastance routes, long distance walks?
« Reply #2 on: 17:42:22, 03/11/18 »
I looked and the long distance walkers association said on their website  that "We think that any walk over 20 miles counts as a long distance walk". So they are saying 20 miles now not 16 (or they are at that part of their website anyway). A long distance walk can take place over more than 1 day in my opinion. Those walkers doing a long distance route at less than 20 miles a day would still be long distance walkers in my view because they are walking a long distance, their walk just doesn't fit the criteria of the long distance walkers association day walk.
« Last Edit: 18:51:59, 03/11/18 by Rob Goes Walking »

bricam2096

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Re: Are they Long Diastance routes, long distance walks?
« Reply #3 on: 18:00:25, 03/11/18 »
surely a "long distance walk" depends on the persons ability, fitness and health and the general walk in question?

I can walk over 26 miles a day and consider this a long distance. To other people who might not be able to walk as far and do a 8 mile walk, if they consider that to be a long distance walk then it is.

Also, a 20 mile walk around where I live does not take too much time and not very strenuous whereas an 20 mile walk in the Lakes/ dales etc is a full day walk and this I would consider to be a long distance walk.

In short, a long distance walk is what you want it to be.
LDWs done - 32 in total including 16 National Trails and 3 C2C

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Bigfoot_Mike

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Re: Are they Long Diastance routes, long distance walks?
« Reply #4 on: 18:05:14, 03/11/18 »
Outside the Olympics and similar walking is not a competitive sport. Therefore, I don’t think any society’s definition of a long walk really matters. What is long to one person will be short for another. In fact, what classifies as long to a particular walker may vary with age, fitness and experience. In the past, 15 - 20 miles in a day was not particularly difficult for me, even if it included mountains, and much longer walks were quite common. Now, I am older, fatter and carrying some injuries, so 15 miles would seem pretty long. I hope to remedy these shortcomings in the future, so that I can readily take on longer walks again and so that my wife will be happy for me to be up high by myself again. (I haven’t found the fountain of youth, so my age is one thing that I won’t be improving). I would also like to be able to return to multi-day walks.

Owen

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Re: Are they Long Diastance routes, long distance walks?
« Reply #5 on: 18:41:34, 03/11/18 »
I always thought "long distance walks" were based on walks that took more than a couple of days to do rather than how much you walked per day.

ninthace

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Re: Are they Long Diastance routes, long distance walks?
« Reply #6 on: 18:55:47, 03/11/18 »
Surely it also depends where you walk.  In mountainous country people talk of vertical metres and time spent on the trail rather than kilometres travelled.  Do the LDWA even consider vertical ascent and hours on the march as well as horizontal distance travelled?  My personal log records all three.
Solvitur Ambulando

tonyk

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Re: Are they Long Diastance routes, long distance walks?
« Reply #7 on: 19:55:36, 03/11/18 »
 Sounds like elitist marketing nonsense.Who cares what the LDWA and ultra community think. ;D

Islandplodder

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Re: Are they Long Diastance routes, long distance walks?
« Reply #8 on: 20:02:35, 03/11/18 »



Walking a Long Distance Path as in a multi-day route, such as one of the National Trails it seems to me that how you walk it is up to you, it's till an LDP whether you walk 25 miles a day or 10, and in a way the whole point is that any able bodied person could do it given time and inclination.
The LDWA seems to be more about long distances as in long days, of 20 or more miles, whether it's a single day or multi day walk, which is a different thing, and ultra distance is just beyond us mere mortals, we can admire it, but know we can't do it!
The last 3 day walk I did the first day was 8 miles (I only got to the start at lunchtime) the next day was 12 and the third was 22miles.  The next morning I did the 4 miles to the bus home.  Does that make me a long distance walker because of the 3rd day, or an average day walker because of the 2nd?

richardh1905

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Re: Are they Long Diastance routes, long distance walks?
« Reply #9 on: 08:07:38, 04/11/18 »
Sounds like elitist marketing nonsense.Who cares what the LDWA and ultra community think. ;D



I certainly don't. I prefer quality over quantity any day.  8)
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richardh1905

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Re: Are they Long Diastance routes, long distance walks?
« Reply #10 on: 08:11:43, 04/11/18 »
Surely it also depends where you walk.  In mountainous country people talk of vertical metres and time spent on the trail rather than kilometres travelled.  Do the LDWA even consider vertical ascent and hours on the march as well as horizontal distance travelled?  My personal log records all three.



Indeed. The LWDA definition takes no account of vertical ascent, conditions, or the difficulty of the terrain. As an example, it took me 5 hours to cover a mere 8 miles on a snowy Fairfield last February - hard work!
WildAboutWalking - Join me on my walks through the wilder parts of Britain

fernman

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Re: Are they Long Diastance routes, long distance walks?
« Reply #11 on: 10:28:37, 04/11/18 »
I always thought "long distance walks" were based on walks that took more than a couple of days to do rather than how much you walked per day.

Hmm... The walks I do over three days or so on my trips to Wales, which are getting shorter as the years go by, could be completed by some people in one day. I certainly don't think of them as long distance walks, and I'll stick with the term 'multiple-day walks'.

vizzavona

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Re: Are they Long Diastance routes, long distance walks?
« Reply #12 on: 11:39:25, 04/11/18 »

Don't know much, other than I have read on the Forum, about the long distance walking stuff.   It would seem that the long distance walks are completed in a day? or maybe it just walking very long distances randomly.
My own walks as has been said by many folks on here are multi day walks in Europe. My walking in GB has been done by arranging a walk over several days and by using a map to work my way through it.   I have not yet done any of the celebrated long distance walks in GB although I have cycled over a couple of them in Scotland.  After all a cycling in really just an extension of your walking stride.  :) The walks done outside of the island have been using Topo guides that give details of a routes that I have followed.   The range of days taken to complete are of between six and twenty-one days mainly in France, Switzerland and Corse.
The topo guide writers usually give a time for each of the day stages/etapes without any mention of distance....apart from the GR20 topo guide that gives distance for each stage in kls. and miles but that one was written by a GB person.   I assume that the stages are walked by the book writers and are used to indicate a reasonable distance between places to have a bed for the night and to get a meal or a place to camp.  Of importance for the walker are the cumulative height gain and height loss during each day of the walk.  If the topoguide  indicates a 1,600 metre uphill day then the seven to eight hour walk will be a fairly tough day out especially if carrying camping kit in the rucksack. The topoguide will also give a description of the type of terrain that will be encountered.
Each to their own choice I guess the main thing is to out walking and meeting folks in pleasant surroundings and most of all getting to different unvisited places.

rural roamer

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Re: Are they Long Diastance routes, long distance walks?
« Reply #13 on: 17:26:43, 04/11/18 »
I think I would class myself as a long distance walker when we walk long distance paths such as Pennine Way, Offas Dyke, although most days we don’t walk more than about 16 miles. I think I have only twice walked about 25 miles, one of them a charity walk, and I would just call that a very long day walk rather than a long distance walk!

dav

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Re: Are they Long Diastance routes, long distance walks?
« Reply #14 on: 16:42:33, 05/11/18 »
Interesting replies.
For myself, I can walk long distance and ultra distance and very short distance when with my wife. Above all I would rather class myself as a long distance fell runner, but alas those days are well and truly behind me.There are plenty of people referred to as Ultra Distance runners that hardly run at all, even during events.
I agree it is a personal thing, if you consider yourself a long distance walker, then no one can tell you differently.

 

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