Chapter 3:
Almost every day a new runner reports to me that an experienced runner said something like this: “If you take walk breaks, you’re not a runner.”
When someone says this to me my comeback is the following:
“I’ve been on the U.S. Olympic team and have run for more than 50 years, and I didn’t know that there was a running rule book that excludes walking. Could you show me this rule book?”
There is no list of rules. The most wonderful aspect about running, compared to other sports, is that each of us determines where, when, how far, and how fast to run. We are the captains of our running ships and have complete control over how we do it each day.
But in almost every aspect of our lives there are a few people who believe that their way of doing things is the only way. They have no right to tell anyone how he or she should run, but they were around when I took my first running steps in 1958, telling me that I wasn’t running correctly unless I did it their way. When I made training changes that allowed me to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team, some of them told me I wasn’t running enough while others said I was running too much. Unlike most runners who are supportive and want to help other runners, this tiny percentage of narcissists often picks on beginners because they are impressionable. Unfortunately I meet a number of former beginners who stopped running because of such negative coaching.
If we ran as the first marathoners ran, we should all be taking walk breaks. Marathon competition began in 1896, in the first edition of the modern Olympic Games. A few years ago, while wandering through a museum in Athens, Greece, I noticed a newspaper column on display with a picture of the winner of this first marathon race. Our Greek guide, Maria, translated the account of a reporter who followed the runners from start to finish. The quote that I will always remember is: “Every one of the athletes walked significantly in this race.”
I will never try to drag anyone kicking and screaming into Run Walk Run®. Each runner can choose to run or walk as much or as little as they wish. The benefits are numerous, but some runners believe that running means no walking at all in a race or workout. There are only a handful of runners who do this on all of their runs. A runner has the right to insist that non-stop running is the only way to run for himself or herself—but no right to impose this on anyone else.
You don’t even have to answer the usually negative remarks made by these runners. You have a proven method that can get you to finish any run with strength, and never be out of commission for friends and family.
You are the captain of your running—and walking—ship.
How to reprogram the subconscious reflex brain to use Run Walk Run®.
Most children have been instructed while in physical education class or on a sports team to never walk. A common coaching statement that is embedded in the subconscious reflex brain is that walking is failure. There are reasons why coaches will instruct their students to keep running during short events, but it is neither necessary nor productive to follow this advice for the rest of our lives.
It‘s a fact that this childhood programming is very powerful and hardwired as a subconscious reflex behavior pattern. 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. This subconscious 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 reprogram the reflex brain to accept the taking of walk breaks as normal by using a cognitive strategy. This shifts control away from the subconscious and into the executive center that does the retraining. Here‘s how.
Use the Magic Mile to determine a realistic goal pace and a conservative long run pace.
Set your Run Walk Run® ratio based upon the pace per mile of both the goal pace and the long run pace using the Galloway Run Walk Run® chapter in this book.
Load yourself up with all the positive Run Walk Run® mantras and 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 at www.JeffGalloway.com and gets you into a rhythmic pattern of RWR. 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, and how much you will run, walk, etc. 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. Walk breaks can keep the first-time runner away from injury and burnout, and can help veterans to improve time.