Most children, at some time, have been instructed in physical education class or on a sports team to never walk. A common coaching statement that is embedded in the reflex brain is ”walking is failure.“ There are reasons why coaches will instruct their students to keep running during short events. But it is not necessary to follow this advice for the rest of our lives.
It’s a fact that this childhood programming is very powerful. When we start to take a walk break, even 20 years after we finished our last cross-country race or PE class, stress builds up in the reflex brain, and anxiety hormones are produced—because you are taking an action that goes counter to the programming in the reflex brain. The reflex brain may also trigger your memory to remind you what your coach said (or at least a fuzzy remembrance).
But there’s hope. We can take charge over this and other hardwired subconscious patterns by following these steps. As you repeat this strategy on every run, you can reprogram the reflex brain to accept taking walking breaks as normal.
Use the magic mile to determine a realistic goal pace and a conservative long-run pace.
Set the run walk run ratio based upon the pace per mile of both the goal pace and the long-run pace, using the chapter, The Galloway Run Walk Run Method, as a guide.
Read the chapter, and learn all the key phrases. Memorize these or write them down so that you can talk back to the reflex brain’s negative messages:
Walk breaks make me strong to the end.
Walk breaks allow me to do what I want to the rest of the day.
Walk breaks speed my recovery.
Walk breaks help me run faster.
Walk breaks let me control fatigue.
Walk breaks break up the distance into doable segments.
Walk breaks give me control over my running enjoyment.
Get a run walk run timer or program your watch for segments. The $20 timer is available on my website, jeffgalloway.com. It will get you into a rhythmical pattern of run walk run. This is a great way to reprogram the reflex brain.
At the end of each run, make a conscious statement about how the Run Walk Run Method is superior to your old way: “I have a tool to enjoy running for life.”
You determine how much you run and how much you walk
One of the wonderful aspects of running is that there is no definition of a runner that you must live up to. There are also no rules that you must follow as you do your daily run. You are the captain of your running ship, and it is you who determines how far, how fast, how much you will run and walk. Walk breaks can keep the first-time runner from injury and burnout and can help veterans to improve time. While you will hear many opinions on this, running has always been a freestyle type of activity in which each individual is empowered to mix and match the many variables and come out with the running experience that he or she chooses.