How to Master the Run/Walk Method: Improve Your Pace and Recovery

To pick up your pace, hit new distance milestones, or snag your next race PR, you may not need to train faster or longer. Instead, the smartest training strategy for hitting your next running goal could be harnessing the power of walking. Runners of all abilities have used the run/walk method to improve their training, recovery, and race-day performance for decades.

Working brief and intentional walk breaks into your runs is a proven plan for sustainable training, and is great for all runners—from newcomers just getting started to veterans with years of racing and miles logged on their watches. In the Runner’s World guide, How to Master the Run/Walk Method: Improve Your Pace and Recovery, we’ll teach you the ins and outs of the run/walk training strategy, along with the health and fitness benefits that can come from incorporating walk intervals into your runs. In How to Master the Run/Walk Method: Improve Your Pace and Recovery, we’ll teach you: The run/walk method is as straightforward and simple as it sounds.

Instead of running nonstop, you’ll incorporate short, planned walk intervals into your run, alternating between running and walking throughout your session. The training strategy was pioneered by the late Jeff Galloway in the 1970s. Galloway, a member of the 1972 U.S.

Olympic team in the 10,000 meters, began coaching a group of beginner runners to finish a 5K and 10K and realized that adding walk breaks into their training runs helped them finish their miles feeling strong and confident. He had his athletes follow the “huff and puff” rule, meaning that whenever they began to strain their breathing on a run, they would take a brief walk break. By the end of the athletes’ 10-week training block, they all not only made it to their respective finish lines, but did so injury-free—and had fun along the way.

Hence, the run/walk method was officially born. They can best fatigue and avoid injuries by incorporating precisely planned walk intervals.” Walk intervals can vary in length, but most advanced run/walkers almost always incorporate 30-second walk durations into their runs. It’s the magic number that gives your heart and legs a chance to recover from your running portions, and return to your run pace feeling strong.

There’s proof in the research when it comes to the effectiveness of the run/walk method for stronger, pain-free running. One study of recreational runners completing a marathon found that those who followed the run/walk method reported significantly less muscle pain and fatigue after finishing their race. Of those run/walkers, less than 5 percent of them reported extreme exhaustion after the marathon, compared to more than 40 percent of those who ran continuously.