I've had a lot of things "not going for me" physically in my life. One of those things was always weak biceps. Even when I could lift fairly heavy weights, I had very little isometric strength in my upper body.
What does this have to do with walking fast? A LOT. If you have some free time, try a little experiment. Walk one mile as fast as you can, keeping your arms down the whole time. The next day, try it again, but with your elbows bent at 90 degrees the whole time. I have found that simply keeping my arms up results in about a minute per mile faster pace. That is a big damn difference. You are able to pump the arms effectively and use that momentum to help your legs and hips. It also just gets the arms out of the way so you can get proper hip rotation.
Usually when I have trained up my walking distance, the arms are the last things to get strong. It could take me months to get my biceps strong enough to hold my arms up for an entire one-hour workout. Not this time! Why? I had a baby! Carrying a baby around for hours a day, one that grows and therefore increases your resistance gradually over time, is the best way I have found to develop isometric biceps strength that will increase your walking pace.
Obviously, this idea is not practical for everyone. If you do not have access to a newborn baby, you might need to do this differently. Carry things around. If you are standing in line at the store, hold your purse (or a grocery item) in front of you with elbows bent at 90 degrees. Take opportunities to build the strength in your biceps and back so that you can keep your elbows bent for an entire workout, no matter how long. My ridiculous baby-carrying biceps didn't require any training this year, and as a result I am walking as fast as I did when I was 15-20 pounds lighter than I am now. That is the importance of isometric biceps strength - keep those arms up, and train those biceps so they can hold the weight of your forearms for hours. You'll be glad you did!
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