An experiment in Gallowalking

This past Saturday, I "Gallowalked" my long run.  For those who aren't familiar with Jeff Galloway's run/walk method of training, you can find detailed information on his website.  Essentially, however, Galloway's run/walk method is about taking walk breaks early and often during a training session (with an emphasis on the 'early' part).  The method is popular with beginning runners and the early weeks of the C25K program are based on Galloway's principles.  The method is also used by veteran runners like Amby Burfoot to help stave off injuries and aid in recovery so that the running mojo remains intact for the next day's workout.  If it's good enough for a super-runner like Amby to give a whirl, well than it's good enough for me to try too!

Aside from run/walking through both of my half-ironman runs (granted these were unstructured, unplanned, 'I'm-going-to-die-if-I-don't-walk' runs) I haven't used a structured run/walk method since I graduated the C25K plan in early 2008.  I've been curious about using it for my longer runs, especially now that it's ridiculously hot out and I feel that I need all of the recovery help that I can get.

WHY GALLOWALK NOW?

Like many other athletes (except for my husband, for whatever reason), I've dealt with my share of recurring training problems:

1.  I don't do well in the heat.  I've written about this multiple times before.  My heat intolerance is exacerbated by long efforts.

2.  I appear to be one of those 'slow-to-recover' people.  This could be because I am prone to dehydration and heat issues or it could just be an unfortunate genetic gift.  I train using McMillan & Daniels VDOT pace ranges, so I don't think it's the product of going 'too hard.'

3.  I am injury prone.  I've had a double calf strain (twice), a bout of piriformis syndrome, a pretty severe case of ITBS, and a few issues with my ankles.  All of these things on very low mileage-- approx. 20 miles per week give or take.

4.  Over the past 5 or 6 months, I've had recurring lower back tightness when I run.  Nothing has changed other than the fact that I have been running outdoors 100% of the time (all concrete or asphalt-- no running trails around here), whereas in previous years I would intersperse treadmill workouts amongst my outdoor workouts.

While B2B HIM is the next big thing on the list, I would be fibbing if I said that I don't think a lot about my marathon in February.  It's a big deal to me.  I want to get there healthy & uninjured and I want to finish.  I also do not want to go into marathon training in November on a 20-miles per week base; so my goal is to achieve and maintain a 30-miles per week running base before then.  This way I enter marathon training with a little more pavement under my feet and can build from there.  This is no easy feat to do as an injury prone, slow to recover athlete.  In addition, there is that little problem of also having to squeeze in miles & miles of biking and endless yards of swimming.

Being that this past weekend was pretty much my last hoorah before beginning B2B General Prep, I figured that if I wanted to give Gallowalking a try, it was going to be now or never.

THE LONG RUN:  GALLOWAY STYLE

I was inspired to Gallowalk Saturday's long run after reading a Slowtwitch post on Friday.  I don't even remember what I was searching for, but I came across a reply from a coach who said that he has all of his athletes run/walk (10:1 ratio) their long runs regardless of their expected finish times.  I pondered this for a while and thought about how I would "feel" about walking during a training session.  I then searched the net for specific articles related to run/walk and decided that I was going to use a 5:1 run/walk ratio for my long run.  What could it possibly hurt?  I figured that in a way, it was a lot like interval training.

I decided to try my Gallowalking experiment under the cover of my neighborhood in order to avoid the possibility that one of my athlete friends might see me "walking" during a planned long run.  I had to mentally prepare myself to walk after only 5 minutes of running-- and that, my friends, was very difficult to do.  Right before the first 5 minutes were up, I tried to bargain with myself.  I told myself that I could run 8 minutes the next go-round and then maybe on the third go-round I would do 10:1 instead.

Those thoughts completely left my mind after I finished up that first 1 minute walk.  I decided to be patient, stick with the plan and continue with 5:1 ratio.  Galloway insists that walking early and walking often is absolute key to the success of a run/walk training plan.  I marched on.

Fast forward to mile 9.  The heat index was 93F, the humidity was near 80%, I was dripping wet... it was hot.  All of this, yet I was still going.  Over the previous miles I watched my average pace rise and fall with each run/walk cycle, eventually settling on a range of 3-4 seconds as the mileage increased.  I was becoming dehydrated, no surprise there, but I felt really good.   I had maintained a very consistent average pace per mile throughout the entire run.  Evidently Gallowalking might be more than an injury preventer for me, it also might be a built in pace-bunny!

RESULTS

Once I finished the run, I couldn't wait to compare the data to my previous long run.

June 12th:   10 miles, 93F heat index, done in my neighborhood, steady-state running, easy RPE (meaning I can sing out loud)
June 26th:  10.4 miles, 93F heat index, done in my neighborhood, 5:1 run/walk, easy RPE

June 12th:  pace fell off severely during miles 9 & 10
June 26th:  pace remained steady throughout

June 12th vs June 26th:   Here's the big one!  A 24 sec. difference in overall average pace/mile between the two runs, with the Gallowalking effort being faster!  Um, that's pretty significant!  Usually I'm on the slower end of my prescribed pace range during a long run; on Saturday, I was near the faster end.

I was dehydrated after both runs-- it's nearly impossible in So. FL summer to stay hydrated, but my legs felt much better after Gallowalking than they did after the steady-state run.  Actually, once I was home & stretched, it was hard to believe that I had just completed 10+ miles in oppressive heat.  Other than needing fluids, I really felt pretty good.

WILL I CONTINUE TO GALLOWALK?

Here's the deal.  I suffer from a aliment called "super boredom."  I don't like doing the same thing over and over again for long periods of time-- and this goes for training.  I've done it the traditional way for 2 years and I've decided to use the back half of 2010 to try out some different things.  My husband and I are using a plan from Endurance Nation to train for B2B HIM.  Team EN is unorthodox in their training methodology, but I like that and I'm ready for the change.

There isn't a program out there that Scott & I could use verbatim.  His schedule is crazy and we have to adapt our program to it.  So while the EN program will be our guide, it is not going to be the be-all, end-all plan.  EN places a lot of emphasis on high quality workouts-- lots of intervals.  In my mind, Gallowalking = intervals, so I don't see why I can't incorporate run/walk into our current training plan.  If it helps me prevent injury, allows me to safely increase my run mileage AND acts as a built-in pace bunny... I'm all for it.

So yes, I have plans to Gallowalk my way right up to my marathon.  I don't get paid for this, so I have the luxury of experimenting.  If it backfires, I get to try something different next year.  If it works, well then... :-)