Here's a question for you all.

I run for exercise, and I walk around briskly, like walking my dog and stuff. But a couple of times recently I've gone on a long (about an hour and a half) walk with a friend. She's super fit (skinny, athletic, multi-sport type). She walks briskly and has to slow down to my speed....

But for some reason, I find fast walking much less comfortable than running. When I run, nothing hurts, but when I walk briskly, my hips hurt. At the end of a long walk, I tend to be sore. At the end of a run, I'm tired, but I don't hurt.

When I'm on the treadmill, I really don't like to walk faster than about 3.3-3.5 mph. 3.3 is comfortable...

Am I strange? I thought that running was "harder" than walking and that being fit for running would make me fit for walking. Walking doesn't do much cardiovascularly, but it makes my legs hurt.

Do you run on the treadmill but walk paths and trails? I know that when I exercise in the gym (running or walking) that my ankles,knees and hips never ache but if I do the same thing at the park then I feel sore for the rest of the weekend. I figure it's the uneven terrain and variation in incline and speed. Just a thought

I'm not fond of walking but for different reasons. I DO enjoy walking with company and occasionally in solitude, but not every, every, every day. I get bored. For me it is not enough of a workout until I've walked 5 miles and that just eats up too much of my day.

I agree that speed walking is hard and I don't enjoy it enough to do it.

I like it a lot, but not as a daily form of exercise.

I have to schedule it around the Northeastern snow, sleet & rain; impending darkness; and traffic patterns in my neighborhood. (I mean, I already got hit by a car once, back in April, crossing the street with a yoga mat, so I'm careful about morning & evening rush hour.)

That leaves it uncertain and unreliable, when I know that, based on my own personality, it needs to be regular, scheduled & unthinking for me to make it part of my routine, like toothbrushing or showering. ("Don't think, just show up at the gym when you're supposed to.")

But I loved hiking in Montana last month. And what is a hike but a walk turned deadly serious? The hikes were a genuine workout. I mean, I'm losing two toenails as a result of those hikes. (They turned black on me, after a lot of downhill hiking, a thing that I've only had happen when I ran a lot -- but that's another story ...)

I do think there's something about our individual physical builds that makes one gait more comfortable than others. I hike every weekend and often walk 3.5 miles on my lunch hour when I know I won't be able to get an evening workout in. During the summer I would sometimes walk on the track at gym and loved running sprint laps just to break up the routine.

And yet, I can't seem to find a jogging speed that's comfortable. Last month, I signed up for a 5k that takes place on Thanksgiving day, figuring if I can walk more than a 5k every day I certainly should be able to run that distance. After a few weeks, I gave up even trying to find a pace. I was starting to dislike exercise and don't want to go there. So I'll still participate in the event next week but will be a combination of walking and sprinting. It won't be pretty, but it will get the job done.

You know, this wouldn't surprise me at all. Even at my biggest, I was still, all things considered, a pretty good walker. I just couldn't go all that fast. Now, though, it's like I was born for seriously brisk walking. Granted, with my height and the length of my legs, I have a big, big stride, so I'm covering a lot of ground with each pace, but it's just so comfortable and enjoyable for me to do. I have a hard time walking with anybody else, because trying to slow my pace is actually very difficult and uncomfortable for me.

Count me in as another super fast walker. Like you I have a hard time walking with other people because no one can keep up with me. It's strange because I'm short and my stride length isn't all that great, but I can really move. My cruising speed (the pace I can keep up for hours on end) is five miles an hour and I can walk at a seven mile per hour pace for brief periods. On the other hand I can't find a comfortable running speed to save my life. Jogging is too slow and jerky and if I try to run faster I get out of breath in no time.

Goes to show we're all different.

Walking shoes != running shoes. Were you properly equipped for speed-walking?

Uber -- I can run and have not problems, I go for a brisk walk with DH and I get sore hips... Go figure ... My mom always says don't run it's hard on your joints, I tell her I get sorer when I walk than when I run/jog....

Interesting. But you know, I just realized the I used to ADORE walking, and even super fat I was a pretty good walker... except that toward the end as I got fatter and fatter and more out of shape, I used to have problems with my hips hurting when I walked, especially when I was pregnant, but also when I just walked far....

So, now, my theory is that because I NEVER ran during the time I was morbidly obese I didn't stress out my joints for the running motion, but maybe there is some wear and tear on the walking motion? I don't know. It's kind of disappointing because I've always loved walking.

It doesn't seem to matter where I run or walk. I even hurt more if I try to run too slow. Hoping it's temporary.

How flexible are you? A speed walking stride is longer than one used for jogging or running, so if your hips are sore from walking fast, you might be like me, tight in the hip joint, so that long stride is uncomfortable. Improve your bendy superpowers, and it would probably be more comfortable.