I am trying to figure out my way through a dilemma! I have launched myself into a 14 week HM programme , with the aim of running a HM using a run/walk strategy. This worked well for me last year when I trained for and completed a 14K run at an overall pace of 7;30 mins per K. I finished the run quite easily - and now think that if I can do the same over a distance of 21K, then I can say that I have made "improvement" . Distance first -- then worry about increasing pace- although 7:30 seems to be a nice comfortable pace for me over longer distances. I can get down to a smidge over 6:00 for a 5K ( average) - but at the end of that , I am just about throwing up - so that is not my aim for the end of a 21K run.
When I trained for the 14K run using a 2/1 run/walk ratio, I noticed that I seemed to slowly lose my ability to run 5K non-stop. It was a gradual thing - but I did slowly get the overall feeling that the two types of "running" were mutually incompatible. So now - I am adopting a personal policy -- from now on, I will run ALL distances up to 5K non-stop and all distances over 5K using run/walk. I have run 10K non-stop many times - both in a race and when training - but I do know that my "enjoyment" of running seems to diminish as I run non-stop over longer distances -- I do not like the "plodding" nature of it that I seem to fall into.
My dilemma is this -- and I think it will only be solved by experimentation -- what run/walk ratio will I use this time? I have noticed that Galloway is these days recommending the same ratios as per normal (ratios depending on pace) - but with shorter running periods. - So - as an example - for a pace of 7:30 per K ( 12 minute miles) he used to recommend 2/1minutes - but now recommends 60/30 seconds - same ratio but different run/walk times. In theory, one would expect this to slow you down a little - due to the increased number of starts and stops when transitioning between running and walking - but we know, that for slower runners, run/walk usually means faster paces than when running non-stop ( especially for longer distances)
I did it !!
What c25k has done for me
