I started out as a proud devotee of the Galloway method. Jeff Galloway advocates for run/walk intervals. In other words, if you can't run continually, you can start out maybe with run 1 minute, walk 3 minutes intervals, and work your way up to maybe running 5 minutes, walking 1 minute, and so on. Maybe eventually you would run the whole time, but walk breaks are valuable for keeping you injury-free and preventing the infamous "bonk." I even MET Jeff Galloway - he sat with me at the 2011 Des Moines Marathon pasta dinner. Life goal: achieved. (He was very pleasant!)
After I kept getting injured (see my first blog post), I made a gradual switch to exclusive walking. My last foray into running at all was the Fargo Half Marathon, where I only ran down hills. Ever since then, it has been all walking, all the time, and I haven't looked back. But is walking for you? Or are you better served by intervals? There are a few questions to ask yourself.
1) Do you get bored easily? As a personal trainer, I tend to recommend interval cardio to my clients who find exercise boring or otherwise tedious. Having a bit of difficult followed by a bit of easy makes it more motivating to get through the hard parts of cardio. If that is appealing to you, you may want to do a run/walk interval method. If on the other hand you prefer a consistent pace and/or want to either continually push yourself or continually "coast" (depending on the workout), walking alone might be for you. There are no right or wrong answers, it's just personal preference.
2) Do you have poor walking technique? If so, you can improve upon it. But if that is just not a fun option, and you are hopelessly slow at walking (many men are like this, because they don't have naturally good hip rotation), you will probably prefer to run/walk. Conversely, if you have poor running technique (*raises hand*), you will want to walk to avoid injury.
3) Who would you rather be - the tortoise, or the hare? If you are a good walker, but you just get bored with it and feel like running (tm Forrest Gump), and you are doing a shorter race, you may feel the need to get done as quickly as possible via run/walk. In a 5K, you will probably beat most walkers this way. I will tell you, though, that I have beaten MANY run/walkers in longer distances. Half and full marathons are the bread and butter of the endurance walker. There are few things more gratifying than passing that rabbit in the later miles and seeing them look totally miserable because they started out too fast. A good run/walk interval can eliminate that slowdown, though, so not every run/walker is the hare in this scenario. But it is something to think about.
4) How far are you going? To add on to what I said in point 3, running in half and full marathon training can add up and become difficult on the body. If you follow a proper training plan, that may be enough to avoid injury, but then again it depends on you and your physiology.
5) How important is the "I'm a runner" identity to you? For many, it is extremely important. Extremely. I remember the first time I had "good job, walker" yelled at me during a race, and I was offended. "Hey, I'm running too! Every 3 minutes!" I thought. Now I love representing the walking community, especially when people say I am walking fast, or better yet, "you look so relaxed for walking so fast!" But for people who worked hard to overcome difficulties and run, the identity is very important. My thoughts: if you run for more than 1 minute of every mile, you're a runner.
Not everyone is destined to fully embrace walking as their sole race strategy, but hopefully run/walkers will find a lot they can use on this blog. I have found in the past that working on walking faster is the easiest way to improve my race times as a run/walker. Running faster = injury city. Walking faster = new PR.
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