I think there is a right way and a wrong way to run/walk. The couple you described sounds like they were doing it wrong. If running and going to start walking, you are supposed to raise your hand to notify people around you that a sudden change of pace is coming.

I've known a few run/walkers and their reasons were HR restrictions, not pacing issues.

Why do you keep running behind her then?

Run walk is a track workout ... The race is where you maintain pace. But then again 2:20 half... Was anyone even running?

I didn't choose to run behind her. I was doing my best to run the tangents. Her and her dude would run ahead of me. In places paths were only about 8 feet wide. Hard to stay away from them all the time.

I'll be trying it out at the next 70.3 I do in the spring. I guess the difference is I'll be walking the aid stations.

Well, I never received that memo and have no intention of ever raising my hand (too much energy). However, if I'm going to start walking I just make sure that no one is right behind me when I slow down; basic common courtesy.

Man that made me laugh.

So..........who beat who?''

I race with R-W-R and had a PR of 1:27 with it and plan to use it in an attempt at my 3 hour marathon (will be my 8th marathon but first R-W-R). It helps my core temp in check and a good reminder for hydration and nutrition.

Especially when they're drunk. And you're not. 3d loop cozumel comes to mind. I hated those f&#(ing people by the third lap!

I'm intrigued. Say more.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

I run/walked a marathon to a 7 min PR this past weekend. That was off no marathon specific training. Just low HR and high volume training for an upcoming 50 miler.

For about the first 6-7 miles there was one guy that I would slowly reel in during my run portions. As soon as I would get into his peripheral vision he would sprint ahead. I finally got past him and dropped him for good. By the end of the race I had put about 7 miles on him and he looked like hell. There's a 3.5 mile (each way) out and back that starts around mile 17. I was finishing it (mile 24) when he was just starting it.

Thanks to going out a touch fast at a half this weekend, I did some R/W to a pr of 1:32. I walked about 10-15 seconds each mile to help keep my heart rate in check in the later miles. Yes, I should have paced myself better, but it got me home on a crappy day (it was cold and very windy). The strava flybys were funny as I was being chased by a fast friend--but he didn't quite catch me, although his paces were perfectly even.

edit: I was actually doing the math in my head at each walk. If I walked for 15 seconds, I was only losing about 7 or 8 seconds each time...

tl/dr: all that matters is who crosses the line first..no matter how ugly it is getting there.

That does require more of an explanation. I run/walk 2 miles then walk 30-45 secs. This gives my body a chance to recover, cool down, a quick gummy or two, some water, then on my way. It also helps that water stations tend to be those distances so I pull over to walk behind the people handing it out to avoid traffic and throw a couple waters over my head to cool off that way too.

I train that way and take it to the race. I'm even considering trying it out for a 10K coming up since I'm using that race as a training run for my spring marathon. I know I'll get weird looks (I'd give them too) but they can give me those looks as I pass a lot of them at the finish line.

That's all fine and sounds great, but I suspect 30-45 seconds makes an infinitessimal difference in your core temp.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

At a HIM, there was a guy doing RWR at specific time intervals that resulted in him walking just before the aid stations and then starting to run once he got to the station. After the third time seeing him do this, I asked him why he didn't push back his walk for one cycle to get them synced up with the aid stations to avoid dumping Gatorade down his front every time. That jerk beat me by 30 seconds, and he never thanked me.

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Oui, mais pas de femme toute de suite (yes, but I am not ready for a woman straight away) -Stephen Roche's reply when asked whether he was okay after collapsing at the finish in the La Plagne stage of the 1987 Tour

Placebo or real, I've had a PR with each R-W-R distance race. Try it out if even for some training runs and keep an open mind. I was anti-RWR because any time I had stopped in races before, it meant I was fading. I finally have it a shot (and took a good 4 runs before it felt mentally okay to walk) and haven't looked back.

Careful, your arrogance is leaking out. Is it natural arrogance, or synthetic arrogance?

Are your PRs off similar training load to the times when you weren't doing RWR or have you increased volume/intensity? When you ran races without planning to walk did you ever feel you nailed the best time you were capable of or did you suffer from pacing issues?

Find this really interesting, if I'm honest my natural assumption is that your PRs are down to either better training/recovery and hence improved fitness (in which case you could set even better PRs by just running), and/or that you really sucked at pacing race distances previously and always blew up. I'm open to being wrong though, and if you're happy and setting PRs that's the main thing!

Whoa.

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http://www.jt10000.com/

 

I have an open mind; my quibble was that you claimed it "lowered your core temp." I was interested thinking you'd collected some data about this. I would expect data collected for 30-45 second walk bouts to have a negligible effect on core temp, but your statement suggested the contrary, so I was interested. As it happens, you don't have the data. If RWR works for you, that's great.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Actually a quick googles comes up with heart rate being a decent correlation with core temp\heat stress and anyone whose ever used a HR monitor knows 30-45 seconds is usually enough to start getting some recovery. So it may not be totally BS. I suspect more psychological than physiological but I also know that there are ‘pure’ runners that swear by run/walk. Whatever works for you

The same to less volume. Always felt like I had given everything I had and had been using a coach who had run the Olympic qualifiers for the marathon so she had the resume. With 7 marathons and too many halves to count, I think I had a good pacing strategy. My previous PR was north of 1:33 so it was a big difference.

Now whether the decreased volume helped my body recover better and that was it or there were other factors, I'm not going to pretend that couldn't have played into it. Of course as runners any athletes, any time we find something that works, we stick with it.