Just curious about the number of people that use walk breaks during their Long runs whilst training for IM.
I’ve been a runner for years and a triathlete for the last 6. I never used to do walk breaks. But seem to have got into the habit of them now.
What works best. 2hr 30 min straight run, or 3 hr run with walk breaks.
Thanks
Never walk. I hate even stopping to tie my shoes - I feel like crap for about a minute afterward. The key for having a good run, IMO, is finding that perfect rhythm. Can’t do that if you stop.
Which way allows you to spend the most amount of time running miles with good form and at decent pace? If the last hour of a 2:30 run with no breaks is spent shuffling along with your elbows pulled up to your shoulders then I would say take the breaks. If the difference is only in comfort and your heartrate, form, pace, etc. remain steady no matter what then I would tell you not to take the breaks, after all a 2:30 run isn’t supposed to feel good!
if you can do the distance nonstop, go for it, but getting the distance in is more important. if you need a walk break here or there to make a 20 mile run for example, then it’s better to do that to get the 20 miles in. your body will get the same running base benefit as if you ran nonstop, which is more important for that distance than actual conditioning.
LSD replied on my board with an interesting piece of advice from Bobby McGee.
I’d train like I was planning on racing - so if you plan or anticipate walking the aids in an IM - I’d train that way. Running then walking then running… takes getting used to.
Some say walk breaks will speed up the end of your ran and MAY make you faster overall - not sure if thats true or not…maybe experiment a bit…
Dave
Check out http://www.runinjuryfree.com/ it Jeff Galloway’s site. He is a writer in Runner’s World and he believes in walk breaks, even in a Marathon, and has programs with walk breaks for a 3:00 marathon.
The logic is that if you take the breaks from the start you are able to keep a much higher pace in the running part, due to the short recovery of walking.
In my IM marathon I walked through the aid stations from about the 15K mark. However, there is a real danger of not starting to run again, which happens to many IM competitors, so as a rule I started running in the last table of the aid station.
David
Thats great stuff, G, especially for us average folks. I’ve employed this exact strategy for my last 2 IMs, and in both, ran faster than expected. I train exactly the way I intend to race. On any long run over 10 miles, I plot a course through my town where water-fountains are 1-1.25 miles apart. I treat it exactly as I would an aid station in the IM. I stop around 25 yards short of the fountain, keep a brisk walk, hydrate (take in fuel if necessary), walk another 25 or so yards, and take off again. I have found that if I train this way, and keep a brisk walk pace, it is not hard to get the run started again. The strategy has worked very well for me in races. I usually start walking the water stations after the first 5-6 miles, then I’m religious about it. Incidentally, I ended up racing the back part of a blistering hot 1/2 IM in this manner, and outran some of my close training buddies that run much faster than me, some of whom popped.
Train as you plan to race. if you intend to walk, rehearse it.
my theory is that if you need to walk to recover for a short bit of time then do it. i always ended up walking a little during a long run (15+ miles) because I needed the break physically or mentally.
in a marathon though, i avoided walking as much as possible because it hurts like holly hell to pick it up again…even the slowest jont felt better than walking.
I agree, I had walk breaks in my 1st mara and after 28k or so it hurt to restart. When I did an ultra I just kept plodding along, taking a break maybe every 30min or so. Late in the game I could mentally check-out and just keep going… if I had stopped for breaks every 10min or so, I would have lost that rhythm and it would have been far far harder to finish.
AP
Was that the Fat Ass 50 this year, ANdy?