I continued my training to increase my mileage, lose weight, and get faster, and slowly began running longer distances without walking as I trained for my first half marathon. I found as I increased mileage beyond 10 miles, I would get tired and needed to walk a bit during the last 5K of the race. As I had already run 5K and 10K races with no walking, running a half marathon without walking was my next goal.
However, I randomly kept encountering information about Jeff Galloway and his Run Walk Run program, wherein runners incorporate planned walk breaks into a run from the very beginning. To be honest, at the time, this felt like cheating or giving up to me. I felt like until I could run 13.1 miles without a walk break, I was not a "real" half marathon "runner."
In the week leading up to my second half marathon, I got a terrible cold, but was determined NOT to back out of the race. So, I decided to try the Galloway plan. I figured out how to set my watch to intervals, and completed the entire race by running 2 minutes and 30 seconds and walking for 1 minute. This race is still my half marathon PR.
Tom King Half Marathon, March - 2013
I was still not convinced and tried several more times to run an entire half marathon. But after receiving Jeff Galloway's book "You Can Run a Marathon!" for Christmas and reading more about the plan, I decided to embrace it, and ran my second fastest half shortly thereafter.
Biggest Loser Half Marathon, December - 2013
When deciding to sign up for my first marathon, I researched many training plans. I knew that 26.2 is a serious distance that requires a serious training plan. I am admittedly very slow (that half PR I mentioned before is 2:49:31) and to be honest, with my work schedule and the time it takes me to complete a longer run, the only doable plan was Jeff Galloway's.
I did/do worry that it is not enough. It includes two weekday runs of 30 minutes, and a long run on the weekend. I have tweaked it a bit, adding 2-3 days of walking as cross-training, and keeping my long run on the weekend at least 8 miles (on cutback weeks between really long runs, it goes down as low as 4 miles).
So far, I feel as though it is working. I am two months from the race and have completed three long runs over 13 miles (15, 17 and 20 miles) and have two more to go (23 and 26 miles). I have been able to complete those three long runs without quitting or injury, and my recovery time has been quick, in my opinion. (For those of you interested in details, my chosen intervals are Run 1:30 - Walk 0:30. My long run pace is averaging 13:30 - 14:00 minutes/mile. My most recent Magic Mile time is 10:12.)
The reason I'm posting all this now is that I feel as though Jeff Galloway and the Run Walk Run plan are common knowledge in the running community, for whatever reason, I have not found many people that have shared their experiences with training and racing this way. There are quick mentions of it here and there, but I was really looking for details of how people felt it worked for them - reassurance, if you will.
So, for what it's worth, I will be sharing my thoughts on my training and components of the Run Walk Run plan over the next few months. Perhaps it may help someone who is considering using this method.
As I mentioned in my last post, I'm finally embracing the fact that I am a runner. While I really admire those runners who are able to run 10+ miles without walking a step, right now, that is not me, and I am okay with that. I know some people out there would disagree with me (and that's okay) but I think that you can still be a runner and not be elite, or fast, or run the entire distance. I know some gifted athletes out there can compete to win (or place) at a race, but those of us at the back of the pack, doing what works for us, finishing the race is an accomplishment, and we are still athletes.
