Several of you recommended the Galloway training method (or variants of it) on my recent thread about marathon walk/run ratios. I'm still not sure when/if I'll do a marathon, but I did look into the Galloway method, and it made so much sense to me. Potentially faster times? Potentially fewer injuries? It sounded like it was worth trying. I didn't want to use the specific ratios he suggests for slow-pokes like me; I decided I'd just need to figure out what walk/run ratios work for me.
So Saturday I did a run a little over 6 miles, running 4 minutes/walking 1 (doing away with the final walk break at the end of the run.) I really loved it. It was freeing, feeling like I could let myself run fast instead of having to so carefully conserve my energy. My legs felt loose--even when my IT band/hip got a bit tight, it worked itself out during walk breaks. It was fun! My time wasn't amazing, but it was better than most of my training times have been for that distance, so I figured the walk breaks will probably help with my race time too once I do another 10K.
So today I decided I wanted to see if walk breaks could improve my 5K time too. There's a fun 5K route in and around our neighborhood, with plenty of hills. My previous 5K PR was on that route 4 weeks ago, 31:05 (10:01/mile.) Today I did a half-mile warm-up (mostly running, a little walking) before starting the 5K route, which I think helped a lot. But I think the walk breaks during the run helped even more. I did a 5 minute run/1 minute walk ratio, and I shortened the final walking interval to about 15 seconds since I had enough energy to push more at the end. I pushed my speed when I could, and my time ended up being 29:09...9:24/mile! WOW, a new 5K PR that's almost 2 minutes lower than my previous PR! (My runs lately have all been in VFFs, by the way.)
I've always kind of felt like walk breaks were "cheating" even though I told other runners they weren't. So it's a little hard to get past that mindset! But really, if it's making me go faster and if it's easier on my legs...that's not cheating, that's just smart, fun running. I'm looking forward to continuing to experiment with run/walk ratios at various distances, and to seeing what it does to my race times! Thanks to everyone who gave me the advice to try this!
So Saturday I did a run a little over 6 miles, running 4 minutes/walking 1 (doing away with the final walk break at the end of the run.) I really loved it. It was freeing, feeling like I could let myself run fast instead of having to so carefully conserve my energy. My legs felt loose--even when my IT band/hip got a bit tight, it worked itself out during walk breaks. It was fun! My time wasn't amazing, but it was better than most of my training times have been for that distance, so I figured the walk breaks will probably help with my race time too once I do another 10K.
So today I decided I wanted to see if walk breaks could improve my 5K time too. There's a fun 5K route in and around our neighborhood, with plenty of hills. My previous 5K PR was on that route 4 weeks ago, 31:05 (10:01/mile.) Today I did a half-mile warm-up (mostly running, a little walking) before starting the 5K route, which I think helped a lot. But I think the walk breaks during the run helped even more. I did a 5 minute run/1 minute walk ratio, and I shortened the final walking interval to about 15 seconds since I had enough energy to push more at the end. I pushed my speed when I could, and my time ended up being 29:09...9:24/mile! WOW, a new 5K PR that's almost 2 minutes lower than my previous PR! (My runs lately have all been in VFFs, by the way.)
I've always kind of felt like walk breaks were "cheating" even though I told other runners they weren't. So it's a little hard to get past that mindset! But really, if it's making me go faster and if it's easier on my legs...that's not cheating, that's just smart, fun running. I'm looking forward to continuing to experiment with run/walk ratios at various distances, and to seeing what it does to my race times! Thanks to everyone who gave me the advice to try this!