It's time to talk about run/walk!

Run/walking was initially something we decided to offer as an option on one of our half marathon training courses.
We'd had a few runners who wanted to take their running to the next level but were nervous about having to keep running for such a long time.
We did some research and looked at the Jeff Galloway method amongst others to get some ideas, (google "Jeffing" to see lots of interesting articles)

The main idea with run/walk is that you pace yourself and you walk before you get tired!
What a revelation, how many of us have simply run out of running energy, had to start walking, felt we'd failed and then had a real job to start running again? (Me)

With the run/walk method that all turns on it's head, walking is GOOD, it helps you to get a bit of recovery so that you can run comfortably again, and I find that my running pace using this method is often quicker than my continuous running pace.

I admit had to get over the fact that for so many years I'd looked at "having to walk" as failure, I'd heard so many people saying things like "I didn't run it all so it doesn't count" and to start with that was a bit of an adjustment.
However, there are so many benefits to run/walking, that I really have been converted.
I have less post-run fatigue and less running aches and pains, many of our run/walkers report the same thing too, I still get a great sense of achievement and definitely still get a runners high afterwards!

After the success of the run/walk half marathon training, we had a meeting and thought it might be a good idea to offer run/walk as an option with our 5k groups....so in September 2022 we started a trial on a Monday night to see if it would work.

We expected a fairly slow take up but we were stunned, we filled the group immediately and it is so popular that we now have a 5k run/walk group on a Wednesday evening and a "hybrid" continuous and run/walk 5k combo group on a Friday morning.
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We run as a group and have a timing structure in place, we generally run for 5 minutes and walk for 90 seconds, repeating this throughout the whole 5k. Sometimes we walk more often, but we don't extend the running time. 
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We still use a loop back/muster system to keep everyone together, as there will always be variations of pace within any group.
We have recently added a run/walk option to our 5-10k training courses too, and that has been very popular. 

​We wondered if adding run/walk to our timetable was the right thing to do, judging by the feedback....
"run/walk has given me back the joy of running" 
"I've got my mojo back!"
"I'd never have dreamt of trying 10k before I started run/walk"
​IT DEFINITELY WAS!

If you are interested in finding out more about any of our groups, please get in touch :)
 

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