One minute walk breaks ? (Read 1760 times)

So I'm trying to do this half on 5/31. My longest before this past weekend had been 8 miles. The plan was to do 9 this past weekend, and 9 again. Then 2 , 10's. Then 11, and hopefully 12. ( running out of time ) Well, I totally bonked. It was about mile 6, and I just started to feel bad. I manged to finish it, but the last 1/2 mile was walking ( or should I say staggering - like a drunk ) It may have been since I did 8 the Saturday before, and that Tuesday I did 7. I had two things working against me. Lead legs, and fatigue, which later turned to nausea and dizziness. So, I completely sucked. I went to the book store and read in a Jeff Galloway book ( not sure which one ) that he recommends a one minute walk break at the start of each mile. Do people really do this? I never walk during a run, other than every once in a blue moon, if I have a bad stitch or something else. But I'm usually just doing 5 or 6 miles. I also went out and bought some energy gu, and a hydration pack so I can bring gatorade with me. I'm ready to drop out, but these walk breaks may be the answer? I'm going to try the 9 again this weekend, and just go easy this week, nothing more than 4 miles at a time. What do you think?

We all have bad days. My run yesterday drained me completely, I think it was the hotter weather, and not enough fluids during the run. The fatigue can cause dizziness as well. I can't comment on scheduled walk breaks as I don't practice that, I'd just walk all the aid stations, and that'll be enough breaks for me. If you did a 9 this weekend, you can definitely finish the half marathon in decent time. I am sure if you can get a couple more 10-11 milers by May 17, you will do just fine. The week before the race, run no more than 4-5 miles/day very easy, take Friday off, and run a easy 2 miler on Saturday, and you will be ready for the race on Sunday.

Ahh ... the old Gallowalking controversy .... Hard to argue against a Olympic Marathoner ... But. Actually think is a great philosophy if done properley, especially in new runners (look at me talk like I am experienced). But main concept behind galloway is walk before you have to. I think many take it the wrong way and run their "run intervals" too fast and make the walk break a necessity. Last few races I see these runners moving faster than they should (can tell by the heaving breath signs ... 10% into a race) and maybe by the 3rd cycle you see them getting deeper and deeper. I would say these folks are taking the approach the wrong way. Personally I take short walk breaks only to fully drink water/gatorade without drowning myself ... usually 15 - 30 seconds. I Saturdays half mile I took a little longer (probably 45 - 60 secs) at water station around mile 9 - 10 and in my mind at time just drinking slowly but in reality taking too long of break and probably cost me the 30 seconds I missed my 1:55:00 stretch goal. When it came to last water station with 1.5 miles to go decided to truck on through for three reasons: 1. that water/PA was not going to do me any good in the race; 2. the half dozen folks in a group about 30 - 60 seconds ahead all stopped and looked gased so figured better to make that time up now instead of trying to out kick them (past up and stayed ahead of 5 of the 6); 3. I knew if I stopped/slowed I would not want to restart again!! But like others said ... whatever works for you and gets you through. I definetly take a 1 min walk/water break in training usually every 2 - 2.5 miles. So more like a 13 - 1 ratio for me during training??

Hard to argue against a Olympic Marathoner

Olympic marathoner? No. Olympic 10,000m? Yes. Still... hard to argue against a runner of his pedigree.

Yeah, but he didn't walk during any of his Olympic runs.

I would have like to have seen him take a walk break during a 10k.

Jeff Galloway's one minute walk breaks work and especially for a new or under trained runner. I absolutely recommend you use some variation of a run/walk/run program at first -- I certainly do. If you look at my running log, you will see a number of runs that I affectionately refer to as 'Mileage Builder' runs and they all are 10 miles or more and I use the Run/walk/run method for them (thus the name Mileage Builder instead of Easy Run or Long run - since I'm trying to build my mileage). I was trying to build my mileage up quite a few months ago and basically asked this same question and after thinking about it, I decided to program walk breaks and its made a HUGE difference for me. Sometimes I run 4 and walk 1 --- and sometimes I move it up as far as 8R and 1 W == but for any run 10 miles or longer I use some variation of Jeff Galloway's Run/Walk/Run. Also, note that I ran a 1/2 marathon in March and although, I didn't formally program my walk breaks, I now believe it was a major mistake and I should have done so. I think if I had programmed walk breaks in the beginning of my Half Marathon, I probably would have had more strength to finish my HALF. For my next HALF or longer race, I will absolutely program walk breaks. OH YEAH -- Baddawg qualified for Boston this past October using the Run/Walk/Run method....lot of other runners use it... I recommend you do it -- it will make all the difference for you for your coming HALF and will help you finish. The ideas is that you conserve some energy and give your legs some rest in the early part of a long run/race so that you have more energy to complete the race later. Its more then theory -- it works.. I plan to phase it out at some time in the future, but I cant say when (it will be when I can go 14 or 15 without walking and feel reasonable decent after I'm done)...

Wow, lots of great advice. Thanks everyone! One of the things I'm worried about is if I stop, I won't be able to start again. I guess I won't know, until I try it. Maybe I should think of it as a "tool" to build my mileage. I am anxious to try again. The other thing I didn't do was eat. But I never do, but I've NEVER gone that far. Maybe I should eat something like a energy bar before. Thanks, You guys always save me!

Who's arguing with an Olympic marathoner? And which Olympic marathoner are we talking about?

Please excuse me for my mistake! The point was with a PR is 2:16 he had a time that was olympic/world class and probably much faster than anyone on these boards.