Run-walk-run

33 days until the London Marathon. I ran for 6:48 this week.

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The goal of this week's long run was to A) get in 20 miles or more, and B) spare my legs as much as possible for the half marathon race I'm doing next week.

How to do this?

5 mins running, 30 seconds walking. And repeat.

The purist may scoff. However, I wanted to administer that 20-mile+ stimulus to my legs, and to experience being on my feet for 3+ hours. But I wanted to recover quickly. I've tried the run-walk-run strategy on long runs in previous training cycles, and found that the strategy allows you to extend your miles, and to do so without the debilitating exhaustion that often accompanies big miles (at least for me). Also, surprisingly, it does not slow my pace dramatically .

I ran with my birthday present on - a Garmin from my wife. It provides distance and mile splits, and also heart rate. I don't know if this is a factor in keeping the fatigue at bay, but my heart rate dipped every five minutes. My suspicion, however, is that run-walk-run primarily lets your legs recover a touch, and thereby extends the distance you can travel without exhaustion.

And today, the day after my 21 miler, I feel good.

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This was my week:

Mon: swim 1350m
Tues: run 7 miles
Weds: run 9 miles (with 5 x 1000m fast)
Thurs: weights ~ 20 mins.
Fri: run 11 miles
Sat: rest
Sun: 21 miles