From Run-Walk to Running

Audio Transcript

Coach Michael: Hey Runners Connect fans. Welcome to another episode of Run to the top Extra Kick podcast.

I am here to answer today’s training and racing questions. Today’s question has to do with the run-walk method and how to progress into pure running.

Matt: Hallo, I am currently using a run-walk program. I’d like to continue doing this to a certain extent maybe on long runs.

I’d like to also start running consistently, maybe in the future do a half marathon or a marathon. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

Michael: That’s a great question. First off, there’s nothing wrong with run-walk. We’re big proponents of it.

Some people know it as the Galloway method. We implement a lot of run-walk into our plans and schedules.

Think of it this way, you’re out there moving. Just because you’re not running the entire time but you’re moving your body, you can still get some pretty solid development by walking.

Run-walk is a great method especially for beginners and even for people who want to slowly work up their training, with less of an injury risk.

It’s a very effective training method as it can help increase your fitness faster, recover from harder workouts quicker, and it can allow you to better return from injury.

Run-walk is a great method for getting people who usually run and get a bad injury like a stress fracture, which is going to have to take a lot of time.

This method, will get them back into training without risking any further issues with the injury they had before. It allows you to better return from injury.

The run-walk allows you to train more and longer without all those risks that come with pure running.

For beginners, we will start with maybe 15-30 minutes of total activity including, both walking and running.

Keep in mind, aerobic development benefits typically peak between about 30 and 90 minutes. Obviously, we want to get that total time up and this is where the run-walk comes in.

Now in terms of how to progress into running, do the next method very slowly and gradually. For example, if you’re currently running three minutes and walking two minutes, you’re doing three-minute run, two-minute walk alternating that.

You gradually want to increase in running and slowly decrease the walking intervals. It doesn’t have to be simultaneous.

You can increase the running or keep the walking the same or can decrease the walking while keeping running the same. They don’t have to happen at the same time.

Let’s start with that three-minute run and two-minute walk as one example. Let’s move to 3-minute run but 1 minute 30 walk, then you slowly move to three-minute run, one-minute walk.

Now that you’re at a one-minute walking break, you can start to slowly up the running. Try four minutes of running with maybe a minute and a half of walking if you need it.

Maybe just a minute or four-minute run, one-minute walk, then to five-minute run, one-minute walk. You want to get to the point where you want to slowly work it up like that, maybe with those one-minute walking intervals.

Work up to the point where you’re running a mile at a time and then from there, slowly work it up to the point where you’re running a 5K.

This is a great milestone because at that point, you can go run a 5k race all running, which would be fantastic.

That’s a great milestone to work up to and then you can keep going from there using that same method.

For a slightly more advanced example, let’s say you’re currently running 1 mile and walking two minutes. Let’s you’re running 10 minutes at a time for simplicity.

A 10-minute mile and you’re walking for two-minutes in between. That’s a good amount of time. You’re not necessarily doing the Galloway method, you are, but not necessarily the way we usually think about it.

So, you get to the mile, then you take a short walk break maybe a minute or two, and then you keep running.

That’s very good to work up to and hopefully some of those beginners that we’re referring to before, will be able to work up to that point then you can keep moving from there.

As I mentioned before in my opinion, a big thing is getting the walking down to one minute. Then you can up the running distance.

I think that getting the walking down is more important than necessarily increasing the running by a lot, yet keeping the walking the same.

Once you get the walking down, it’ll be much easier to increase or up the running. Once you get that walking down a little bit, you can up the running maybe a mile and a half and still take a two-minute rest or two-minute walk interval and then knock that down to one or so minute.

A mile and a half of running and a minute and a half of walking. A mile and a half of running, a minute of walking.

Slowly up that to two miles and maybe keep the walking at one minute, depending on what you’re able to handle.

Either way, you want to be slow and gradual. One quick example with workouts is you can easily do something like mile repeats.

Let’s say you’re at that point where you can run a mile at once, without taking any walking breaks, then you can easily do like a mile repeat workout.

So, let’s say you’re doing four times a mile at threshold pace and you take about a minute or a minute and a half of a walking break in between.

Your rest is the walk. You’re basically doing a run-walk but you’re getting solid threshold workout in.

Fartlek is another example. You can do two minutes, at maybe a tempo pace or half marathon pace for anybody who has a half marathon time.

Do two minutes of tempo pace and then take a 30-second walk times ten. That’s going to get you 20 minutes at a tempo pace, with some walking in between. That’s a nice workout.

There’s a whole lot of other workouts that you can do even utilizing the run-walk method. Any time you have a rest or recovery period, you just walk during that time.

You can absolutely run-walk in races as plenty of people do run walks in races and do just fine. That’s a great way to complete a race distance that maybe you’re not 100% sure you’re ready for.

Let’s say you run a 5k but you haven’t quite done a 10k and you’re not sure if you’re ready to do that. Implementing the run-walk in the race would be fantastic.

Make sure that when you do that, you go in with a plan. Don’t just say that I’m going to run until I get tired and then walk.

The issue there is that that’s more likely to lead to a bit of a bonk and much more walking later in the race. Go in with a plan and execute it.

If you’re going to do 4 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking, then go in and make sure you stick to that.

Even if you’re feeling good, you can save the full running for the next time you’re out there racing.

The only caveat is that you’ll only run your best “with all running” that much is obvious. You’re going to run a race faster than you’re going to run-walk it.

You can absolutely work up to that over time. I would highly recommend anybody who’s doing the run-walk to keep doing it.

Keep progressing. You want to progress slowly. Sometimes you want to do two steps forward, one step back, even if you’re progressing in those run-walk intervals.

Maybe take a bit of a down week where you go back to your old run-walk intervals where you’re doing a little more walking and a little less running.

Either way, take two steps forward one step back and you’re going to eventually progress to the point where you’re running fully.

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See you next time.