When I started walking regularly, I was slower than 11 minutes per kilometre.

That number became my first target.

Not because 11:00 min/km is some special fitness threshold.

It was simply a clear number I could understand and work towards.

I like measurable targets.

Other people may not care about pace at all and may be better off simply walking for 30 minutes.

Both approaches are fine.

For me, though, pace became one of the easiest ways to see progress.

Today, my normal walking pace is around 9:45 min/km, and my current target is simple:

stay consistently under 10:00 min/km.

There is no perfect beginner walking pace

I would not tell a beginner that they need to walk at 10, 11 or 12 minutes per kilometre.

The right pace depends on:

• fitness
• body weight
• age
• terrain
• weather
• injuries
• walking experience

For somebody starting from a low fitness level, 12–13 min/km can be completely fine.

So can slower.

At the beginning, consistency matters much more than speed.

If you can walk regularly without pain and recover well enough to do it again, that is already useful progress.

My first pace target was 11 min/km

When I started walking consistently, my normal pace was above 11 minutes per kilometre.

I wanted something concrete to work towards, so I made 11:00 min/km my first target.

That worked well for me because it was:

• easy to understand
• easy to track
• easy to compare between walks

Once that became normal, I moved on.

Now I focus on staying below 10:00 min/km.

I have managed around 9:30 min/km once, but my normal pace is closer to 9:45.

That is the number I care about more than chasing occasional faster walks.

I prefer a stable pace

My walking pace does not usually vary much.

I do not normally speed up and slow down depending on whether I am walking 4 km or 7 km.

The goal is a steady power walk.

That matters to me because I am more interested in whether I can hold a pace consistently than whether I can produce one fast kilometre.

If I can stay below 10:00 min/km for 4–5 km, the next target is to do the same over 6–7 km.

Eventually, I want to hold it over 10 km.

The distance target and pace target work together.

Pace matters more to me than heart rate while walking

I think mostly in minutes per kilometre.

That is the clearest number on my Apple Watch while I am walking.

Heart rate is the second number I look at, but usually afterwards rather than during the walk.

My normal heart rate during a power walk is around 110–116 bpm.

The first kilometre may be below 110.

After that, it tends to become very steady.

That stability is something I like seeing.

It tells me that once I am warmed up, the effort is controlled and repeatable.

My normal pace is not conversational

My normal walk is a power walk.

At that pace, I am not comfortably chatting.

I could probably say something short, but I would not want to have a normal conversation.

At the same time, I am not completely exhausted when I get home.

I do not need to lie down and recover.

That is the kind of effort I personally prefer.

Clearly exercising.

Clearly working.

But sustainable.

Slower walking still counts

Family walks are completely different.

With children, pace can easily be 18–20 min/km.

They stop.

They play.

They change direction.

That is not a training walk in the same sense as my power walks, but it is still physical activity.

The important point is that slower is not automatically worse.

Different walks can have different purposes.

I normally keep the same pace on longer walks

I do not deliberately slow down much on longer walks.

If I am doing 60 minutes instead of 45, I usually try to keep roughly the same pace.

The same is true for recovery walks.

I have not found that distance itself forces me to slow down very much.

What changes pace more often is the environment.

Sometimes slowing down is the sensible choice

Yesterday was a good example.

My pace was around 10:15–10:20 min/km, clearly slower than my normal target.

It was raining.

It was getting dark.

Many of the roads around me are gravel roads, and they become slippery when wet.

Because I have had foot problems before, I am careful about slipping.

So I slowed down.

That is not failure.

There is no value in forcing a pace target when the conditions make it unsafe.

The number is a tool.

It should not overrule common sense.

My pace improved mostly because my fitness improved

I have not done specific speed training for walking.

The improvement came mostly from:

• walking consistently
• better general fitness
• stronger legs
• weight loss
• simply getting used to walking faster

That is important because it means I did not have to force pace improvement every session.

The faster pace came gradually.

I also notice that the first kilometre often feels different from the rest of the walk, especially before I am fully warmed up.

The same routes make progress obvious

I have several regular routes.

That makes progress easy to notice.

If I walk the same route again and again, I can compare:

• time
• pace
• heart rate
• effort

The changes are not dramatic day to day.

They are not even always obvious week to week.

But I have been walking consistently since January.

Over that period, the difference is clear.

The same routes are now faster.

The effort is more controlled.

The pace is more stable.

That is the kind of progress I find motivating.

Pace should come after pain-free consistency

If I were starting again, I would not make speed the first goal.

I would first focus on being able to walk for 30 minutes without pain.

If you are just starting out, I have a separate guide on how long a heavy person should walk when starting out.

Only after that would I start paying more attention to pace.

Then I would look at whether heart rate becomes more stable.

Then I would start using speed as a target.

That order makes more sense to me than immediately trying to force a fast pace.

Faster pace at the same effort is my favourite progress measure

For me, the most satisfying indicator is:

walking faster at the same effort.

That feels like a direct sign of improved fitness.

If I can walk the same route:

• faster
• at a similar heart rate
• without more discomfort
• and recover just as well

then something has improved.

That is more useful to me than obsessing over one number on the scale.

Clear targets work for me

I like numbers.

So I use simple targets.

My progression has been something like:

First: walk 30 minutes consistently.

Then: get closer to 11:00 min/km.

Then: make 45 minutes normal.

Then: get below 10:00 min/km.

Next: hold sub-10 pace over 6–7 km.

Later: complete 10 km at a pace I am happy with.

I have written separately about how I think about 3 km, 5 km and 10 km as walking distances.

That gives me something concrete to work towards without needing every walk to be a personal best.

What if you do not care about pace?

Then do not use pace.

Some people find numbers motivating.

Others find them annoying.

If you are the second type, I would focus on:

• walking regularly
• building duration
• reducing discomfort
• recovering well
• making the habit sustainable

The best metric is the one that helps you keep going.