Running Faster with Strategic Walk Breaks
Run faster with walk breaks? “No way, coach! That just can’t be! I have always been told that once you start walking, it’s all over.” Not so, I say, at least when that walking is strategic and planned. Let me expand on the concept, as it is an important one in your racing journey.
As a pro I swam like a fish, often having a nice lead out of the water. I became a pretty strong rider as well, typically, riding at the front of the race. My run? Well, I ran like a ‘donkey dipped in cement’ relative to the other elite competitors. Most of my races included a constant battle to not be passed, fighting the body's urge to promote poor running form. I bet I only passed seven athletes in the entire pro career. If you are challenged with the run portion, I share your pain! And, it doesn’t have to be that way.
We have an effective strategy at Purple Patch for navigating the run portion of your event. For the vast majority of amateur athletes who run or compete in triathlons, optimal performance on the run arrives when they have the courage to implement strategic walk breaks. Not panic or forced walking, but intelligent application of strong walking at certain intervals to enable best overall finish times in the run portion of any event. It is all about retaining good running form end to end in the race, through a quick recovery walks.
Let’s explore the why and how:
Break the Status Quo - There Is a Better Way
Marathon runners and triathletes are given simple advice by coaches and other athletes. “No matter what happens, just keep running. Never, ever walk.” This advice anchors around ‘toughing it out’ -- grimly hanging on with your suffering, and a refusal to give in. Unfortunately, this isn’t sensible advice. When good running form begins to decline, and fatigue steps in, this approach will see you fall deeper and deeper into poor running form. Your pace will slow, you will drag yourself around the course with high effort and low speed return. Muscle damage is amplified, pace and running form further declines, and you still only have one thing to rely on; how tough you are. Like a failing company, who’s strategies are not providing profits or yield, the mindset and chosen answer is to just keep doing what you are doing, just harder. It isn’t fun, or fast. It is stupid. It will slow you down overall, and, usually, by a lot.
If you have lived this experience, you know what I am talking about. It ‘ain’t’ fun. And, i’ts not just me pontificating -- over the course of longer running races, studies have shown that your time is going to be faster with planned walk breaks than if you had gone with the standard ‘tough it out’ approach.
The Walking Strategy
Always run with purpose, and yes, that includes walk breaks. Let’s implement a smart strategy into your running events. There are few elements for you to dial in your best approach:
Don’t wait to walk until you have to walk. Have the courage to begin walking before you feel you need it to stay ahead of fatigue. When fatigue sets in, and it will, proactively manage the stress with more frequent breaks. Your mission is to retain running form and good speed throughout your event. We can achieve this by integrating short walk breaks into your running from the early stages of the event. As soon as you begin to feel creeping stress or a drop in form, reset with a quick walk break. In this break, walk with purpose, mentally reset, stand up tall, and let the system settle. You then return back to running with good form. Of course, these walk breaks are good opportunities to fuel and hydrate, especially if timed to be executed at an aid station.
Be flexible in your timing. If the goal is to retain good running form, then reset as that form drops off. I do not recommend an overly rigid time schedule for walk breaks. For instance, a strict ratio of 6 min run and 1 min walk may sound good as a plan, but it doesn’t work well in practice on the course. Rather, go with a framework that affords yio some flexibility. Let’s imagine this scenario. I begin an event with a regular (but rough) schedule -- 8 minutes of running into 30-40 sec walking. Assuming I am feeling OK, I run the whole 8 minutes before walking. If I am feeling good at 8 minutes, I still take the walk break. If fatigue begins to creep in the middle of the event, I would bring in more frequent walk breaks, perhaps, transitioning to 5 minutes of running and 20-30 sec walks. Then, as the race nears the end, and more fatigue comes, I drop to 3 minutes of running and 15-30 sec walking. Your lens is retention of good form.
Marry your walking to the terrain. A final element to build in is navigating the terrain that your course brings. A timing framework is nice to have, but you also want to think about the terrain you are on when deploying walk breaks. Here are two simple rules:
Never walk going downhill
Walk breaks are ideally taken on uphill grades (or flats)
The reason for this is that the speed penalty for walking downhill, relative to running, is massive. Conversely, walking uphill carries a much smaller penalty compared to running. Pragmatism carries the day.
I encourage you to begin to implement walk breaks into your weekly training, and learn the best rhythm and application of this courageous and smart racing tactic. If it is good enough for the pros to help train holding good running form, then it is good enough for you.