Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Another question ... Galloway, anyone?

Since I skipped intervals on Saturday in order to simply survive the hills on our route, I knew I needed to get them in this morning during my 5 miles on the 'mill.  I was feeling pretty sluggish this morning, likely due in part to having woken up at 4 instead of the planned 5:15.  

I started out doing the intervals after 10 minutes of walking and jogging.  The training program called for 10 x 4 minute intervals at 10-Miler pace, with 30 second recovery (jog) breaks.  During the 5th interval I was really running out of steam--in fact, I wasn't sure that I would be able to finish the intervals--so I decided to switch to 30 second WALK breaks instead of trying to stick to slow running.  [An aside:  I am reading Jeff Galloway's Half Marathon book right now, not in preparation for the 10-Miler but for a possible half later this year.  I get the feeling that our 10-Miler coach wants us to jog/slow run through rest breaks rather than walking, although I have not discussed this with him directly.]

Anyway, after that 5th interval I walked for 30 seconds during each rest break between intervals, and I not only finished all 10 intervals, I even picked up my speed a little during the final interval.  This makes me wonder if the Galloway walking break theory might be a better idea than I had originally thought.  Was it just a mental trick, or was I really more rested after those brief 30 seconds of walking?  And can I get over the feeling that walk breaks are somehow "cheating"??

What about you?  I would LOVE to hear from anyone out there who has read and/or tried Galloway's run/walk method.  Do you like it?  Do you think it gives you a better overall pace?  A better recovery?  Or do you feel like this is cheating?

LET ME HEAR FROM YOU!!!


4 comments:

  1. I haven't officially tried Galloway but I did take a walk/run approach when I was training for my full marathon.

    I found that for those long runs that if I took one minute at the end of every mile to walk, sip some water, etc that it really prevented me from hitting the wall.

    I started walking from mile one and it made a difference to start walking before i got fatigued.

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    1. Thanks, Jen! It is so helpful to have input from those of you who have gone through these issues before! I think I'll try doing all walk breaks during my next set of intervals and see if things go better. There are a lot of Galloway fans out there, and I really like his attitude that running should be ENJOYABLE!

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  2. I haven't officially tried Galloway either, but I do take (unplanned) periodic walk breaks and it seems to help my overall pace be a little faster than when I do not take the breaks. I've heard Galloway speak twice now and I have one of his books and he really makes the point that if you do allow the walk breaks, you will not only have a faster pace overall, but will recover faster after the race. Also, you won't have the buildup of lactic acid that you would have if you hadn't walked. I'm sure at some faster paces (probably 9 min mile and faster), it stops being a benefit to have periodic breaks...but I'm still slow enough that they really do help. I DO NOT FEEL LIKE IT IS CHEATING!!!!!!!

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    1. Great to hear this, Jen! The more I get into Galloway's book, the more sense he makes. I'm not sure I have the discipline to follow his half marathon program to the letter, but it might be nice to try--it might help me break through some of the speed issues I have. And really, what do I have to lose??

      By the way, have you noticed how many Jens are runner/bloggers? That is so cool! Must be some connection between the name Jen and running!

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