Run/Walk Intervals
Spring Break if finally here for me! I work as school nurse, but I think the germs from last week caught me, I've been in bed Sunday and today---but knew my body felt weak. Feeling much better this evening, so back at training tomorrow ( at a lower intensity of course!)
Anyway, let's talk "not so fast" runners and Run/Walk intervals for Ironman. I had been doing 4 min run/1 min walk, but found I got a little tired after about one hour. Last week I did a 3 min run/ 2 min walk and felt great. I was READY to run by the time the 2 minutes was up, and I stayed at my Zone 1 pace as I will in my IM.
I guess I need suggestions about the interval. I'm a back of packer runner---12-13 min/mile---I've accepted that, just need to see about my intervals......
Comments
The people who got me through my first half marathon 3 years ago did run/walk loosely based on the Galloway method. It's worth it to get his book or check out his web site if you want to do it right. Back to the group... they get 200+ new people through the local half and full marathon here each year. The 5x1 group does 11 minute miles. The 3x1 group does 12:30 miles, they have 5 groups at various paces. Galloway would say that's too big a split. 1x:30 or :30x:30 is better. In any event, you can sort out what works for you. It does take time. I also used a metronome to make sure I was keeping my cadence reasonably quick (no clomping along). If 3/2 works for you, then do it.
) I'm slower than you. I get it. Make sure you enjoy it and don't listen to the negative types. You are doing a great job of finding your "happy pace".
She should definitely do what she feels comfortable doing.
Because she is 50 and perhaps doesn't have the base that some others have. Perhaps she will get stronger! but to have someone over do because it works for someone else, is foolish.
We'd all like to run faster, longer but we don't all know each others story intimately. Running is tough on the body. My appointment at the ortho next Wednesday will tell me just how silly some of this running schedule has been for me. No one can know it all, for everyone. Injury is never worth somebody's idea of what they 'should do'.
Unless there's a better way, because training and becoming more fit is inherently uncomfortable at times...just sayin'
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You mention that you're getting tired after an hour. Well...sorry, but that's called training and that will get better as your fitness improves.
Millions and millions of runners have been successful using a strategy of walking 30-60' every mile. And as others have noted, IM run courses are a perfect venue for this, with aid stations every mile. So my recommendation is that you adopt the pattern of running a mile and walking 30-60 secs. Or call it run for 10' and walk for 1', so you can just use the timer of the watch to manage this for you. And if feel you need to, slow down/find a pace on the run that allows you to run the entire running interval, recovering during the walk.
As you will learn this summer when the race reports start coming in hot and heavy, the last 10+ miles of the IM run are alllll mental. You need to develop the mental and pacing strategies now to do what's uncomfortable (but safe, not gonna injure you, etc) so that the uncomfortable becomes the norm and this run/walk strategy becomes routine and automatic. Trust us, if you can do the IM marathon running 12' miles and then walking for 30-45" every mile for a net pace of about 12:20-30, you'll be a rockstar after mile 16 of the run.
As a fun exercise, (1) calculate what a 12:20-30 marathon is and then (2) look through the results in your AG so see where _that_ time would put you. I think you'll be surprised at how many are running very, very much not fast at all. And I can tell you that's because a lot of these people walked a LOT in the last 10-13 miles of the race.
Do what you gotta do to run, at nearly any pace, much more than you walk and you'll pass hundreds and hundreds of people on the run course. You do that by working this 10/1 strategy now, resetting your tired-o-meter and comfort-o-meter, adopting a new normal.
I'm no speedster and if I complete Lake Placid run in under 5 hours this year I'll be happy given the amount of running I'm currently doing.
I would like you to define a little tired after about 1 hour. For me I think you are going to get tired after an hour workout so I'd probably just keep training and work on keeping the walking a short as possible. You will have lots of long runs/bike days and couple race rehearsals to see what the pace feels like.
Part of the training process is making it a litter harder to get body adaptations.
Edit - What coach Rich said.
I see what you are all saying. My concern was just running too fast for me to sustain the whole mileage. I want to be the one passing people. I will take the "speed" down some to make it through the aide stations---7 weeks left, so will work my way back up to a one mile run/30 to 60 sec walk.
Today, I ran a 6:30 run/45 sec walk. My mile times were: 12:32, 12:49, and 12:39. It definitly took a bit more out of me, but it was doable. My long run is Thursday, so I will try a 0.5 mile run/30 second walk.........
To get back into the swing of things after the injury I started with 30 seconds run and 1 min walk, now I'm at 2:10 run, 50 sec walk. I'd like to end up at 2 x :45 or something like that. The key is fast running. Right now I still feel pain when I try to push it so I'm doing "the glide" thing. Trying to take shorter strides and keep the cadence up. Less pain and going faster.