Almost every day one or more runners contact me because life got in the way of their training. Due to work, vacation, sickness, injury, or even all of the above, he or she missed several weeks of training or did not do the all-important long runs during a to-finish training program.
My message is one of hope. Thousands have reported their marathon or half-marathon success after following my advice to take more frequent walk breaks. By walking a lot more and running a lot less, the running body parts can re-adapt to the running motion without getting overwhelmed.
Principles:
Whether walking or running, it is the distance covered during the long run that determines the current endurance limit.
Even walking with no running will bestow all of the endurance, based upon the length of the walk.
When one has been away from running for an extended period (3 weeks or more), walking only should be used at first to rebuild the endurance. Gradually increase the duration of the walk to 30 minutes over the course of 2-3 weeks.
When it’s time to start running again, gradually insert short jogging segments into the 30-minute walks every other day. Start with 5 seconds of jogging every minute. Then go to 10 seconds, then 15—over 2-3 weeks. Use one minute as the unit and subtract from the walking segment as you increase running. Find a ratio of running to walking that feels good to you—you don’t have to shoot for running non-stop.
Allow the legs, feet, etc. to adapt. It’s better to be conservative during the comeback.
If one mostly walks during the long weekend workouts to catch up with a race schedule, the same liberal walk strategy should be used in the race itself for at least the first half.
This assumes that there are no injuries and that you have been doing daily walking during the time off from running.
The example is a person who was on track for a half marathon but missed 4 weeks of regular running, including the 7-mile and the 8.5-mile long runs. This person had run a fastest MM of 9 minutes, and was running the long runs at 13:30 min/mi, using R30sec/W30sec. Runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays were 30 minutes long, using R60sec/W30sec, R90sec/W30sec, R60sec/W20sec and R3min/W1min.
Week # | Long Workout | Tues/Thurs Workouts |
1 | 3-5 mi walk | 15-30 min each with 10 min of RWR |
2 | 4-7 mi walk | 20-30 min each with 15 min of RWR |
3 | 5-9 mi walk | 25-30 min each with 20 min of RWR |
4 | 6-11mi walk (2 mi RWR) | 30 min each with 25 min of RWR |
5 | 3 miles RWR | 30 min each with 25 min of RWR |
6 | 7-13 mi walk (4 mi RWR) | 30 min each with 25 min of RWR |
7 | 3-4 miles RWR | 30 min each with 25 min of RWR |
8 | 8-15 mi walk (6 mi RWR) | 30 min each with 25 min of RWR |
Example:
Week # | Long Workout | Tues/Thurs Workouts |
1 | 3-5 mi walk | 15 min: 5 min walk then 10 min of R10sec/W50sec |
2 | 4-7 mi walk | 20 min: W5min, then 15 min of R15sec/W45sec |
3 | 5-9 mi walk | 25 min: W5min, then 20 min of R20sec/W40sec |
4 | 6-11mi--last 4 mi 15/45) | 30 min: W5min, then 25 min of R35sec/W35sec |
5 | 3 miles 20/40 | 30 min: W5min, then 25 min of R30sec/W30sec |
6 | 7-13mi—last 6mi 15/45 | 30 min: W5min, then 25 min of R40sec/W20sec |
7 | 3-4 miles (40/20) | 30 min: W5min, then 25 min of R45sec/W15sec |
8 | 8-15 mi—last 8mi 15/45 | 30 min: W5min, then 25 min of R60sec/W20sec |