Galloway’s run-walk-run method began in 1974 when he agreed to teach a running class through Florida State University, two years after competing in the 10,000 meters at the Olympics. He figured it might attract customers to Phidippides, his new store for runners.
“None had done any running for at least five years. So we started walking with a few one-minute jogs,” Galloway said on his website.
“I spent some time with each group, during the runs, to adjust the frequency of walk breaks so that no one was huffing and puffing – even at the end,” he said. “Walk breaks kept the groups together. Everyone passed the final exam: finishing either a 5K or a 10K with smiles on their faces.”
Galloway believed walking during a run reduced the risk of injury, conserved energy and kept confidence afloat.
This thread caught my attention as I was scrolling through the menu page. I was hoping someone would mention Jeff’s passing. My “runs” are always run/walks. I love this pic I ran across when I learned about his passing.
Love the singlets that say “Jeff Galloway made me take this walk break”
I mean, you could’ve done that too /p
As an ultrarunning friend of mine who has crewed Badwater three times, finished two, and has a bunch of 50s and 100s to her credit says: “Hundred Milers are all Gallowalking festivals”
Ya, it caught my attention too. I don’t deal well with death though. I don’t like to go to funerals and don’t like to talk about or dwell on the person’s passing. I just spend a lot of quite time by myself thinking about the experienced that I had with the person and what I will remember of our time together. So when I got a dozen feeds pop up with Jeff’s passing I read the first one, skipped over the next 5-6 then started to block them because they gave me a pit in my stomach.
I did the St. George Marathon in 2019 with three (3) of my siblings. Two of them were doing their first Marathon. My sister got a book written by Jeff when she started to train for the marathon that she said was very helpful. She mentioned that it had some simple test and one showed that she had an alignment issue. She was pulling to one side which she said is common in adult onset runner. There were drilling in the book that she followed that help her improved her balance and form. There was a half dozen similar thing in the book that help her as she trained for the race. One of them, of course, was the run-walk-run that she used to win a local 5K that she ran to build up to the Marathon. She used the run-walk-run at the Marathon too to go sub-4 but it was not the biggest take away from his book for her though. When she learned that Jeff Galloway was going to be the Key Note Speaker at the St. George Marathon Expo my sister was really excited and the whole family attended the session with her. There were not a lot of people at the session. Mabey 100 at the most but probably half that. My family all got a lot of one-on-one time with Jeff before and after the session. He was a fun speaker and a good salesman so after sitting through a full lecture on the Run-Walk-Run method I experimented with it in training.
I had a 10K course that I frequently ran in training and I ran it without walk breaks and with the prescribed walk break several time each. I had two without walk breaks and two with walk breaks done within two weeks that all had identical average HR’s in really identical weather. The two workout without walk breaks were both the same time and the two with walk breaks were both the same time. The ones without walk breaks were two sec/mi faster than the one with walk breaks. So…not a super scientific test but before that if I ever went out too fast and ran into trouble and needed to walk to catch my breath it would kill my race. Now I know when I over cook things I can go to a deliberate run-walk-run to reset my fatigue and I don’t loose hardly any time because I know the mechanics of run-walk-run and how to use it to save a race.
I was glad that I got to meet Jeff and learn from him. He is one more mentor that has returned to the dust. A lot people that have had a big impact on my running are not with us anymore.
Yep…it leaves a pit in the stomach.