The reason that most plans don't go up to 26.2 in training is that conventional wisdom holds that for those longer distances, the risk of injury does not justify the training benefit you get. For Galloway, that logic doesn't quite apply because your risk of injury is lower due to the walk breaks. Therefore, you can go longer, even on fewer miles midweek.

For me personally, I do like to incorporate walk breaks into my long runs, but I don't do Galloway. I use a modified Higdon Novice II plan and then do 5:1 walk run intervals during my long runs. It works well for me.

I can't comment on the run/walk method, but as far as the 26 mile training run and the mental barrier, I think that can be true for some people.  I think that for me, doing my solo marathon helped me, because I knew that no matter what, I could finish the distance (reinforcing that with the trail 50k helped too, knowing that if I could run for almost 5 hours on the trail, I could certainly run a lil harder for a couple hours less on the road).  Granted, my solo marathon wasn't during marathon training, in fact, it convinced me to wait a while before I ran my first official marathon.  The 50k was a double edged sword, I think it helped my confidence, but hurt my training.

Also to note the run/ walk method will garner you some PRs provided you are running slower in the first place.  For me, I can not possibly string together 5 min miles + walk and be anywhere near a full on race pace / finish time. (first of all, I can't string together multiple 5 min miles all Marathon long that would be required to make up for my walk.)

For a 5 min. mile, you are probably right. But I think that even people towards the mid-to-front of the pack can benefit from it. I personally know two women in a group that I run with who BQ'ed using 4:1 intervals.

My $.02 regarding pace is that the people who can benefit most from run/walk intervals are not necessarily the slower people, but people who run positive splits. One thing that I noticed immediately when I  started doing run/walk during my long runs is that I maintained a much more consistent pace throughout the run. I fully admit to being one of those people who run out of gas in the later miles and can rack up some big positive splits. Run/walk helped with that a lot, which made my overall pace faster.

 

I personally know two women in a group that I run with who BQ'ed using 4:1 intervals.

 

Whether the time is a BQ is basically irrelevant. There's a huge difference between being an open male and needing a 3:05 to BQ and being a 50 year old female and needing a 4:00 to BQ. Galloway might work fine for that 4:00 BQ but be a tough way to get that 3:05.

I have never, ever seen anyone moving at the paces I run doing a run/walk at any distance short of an ultra with the exception that I have seen some fast folks walk through aid stations.

I have never, ever seen anyone moving at the paces I run doing a run/walk at any distance short of an ultra with the exception that I have seen some fast folks walk through aid stations.

Cool story. Nobody ever claimed it's the ticket to reaching your maximum speed potential. Not every program has to be geared toward running 70+ MPW and trying to win your AG.

I know the thought of running a race and not being in agonizing pain during and after makes you die a little inside, but some of us mere mortals have to balance results with training constraints and injury prevention.

 

I guess it depends on how one defines success.

Yup,

I've never failed at Completion...

Age has really helped in the endurance category...