Can You Walk Your Way to Faster Race Times?

Drop the phrase "walk breaks" into conversation with a group of runners, and no two people are likely to have the same opinion.

JUNE 2010

By Lauren Jawno, reproduced with permission from iRun Magazine

While walk breaks are the foundation of most beginner-centred training plans, preparing the body to tolerate a steadily increasing amount of running time, many runners abandon them once they can run steadily over their desired distances. Some question the benefit of taking walk breaks if, at the time, they don’t seem to need them - especially if doing so seems to break their running rhythm for no apparent reason.

Dr. Scott Howitt, a Boston marathoner and chiropractor, only incorporates walk breaks when coming back from an injury, or during situations, such as frequent red lights or poor footing, where slowing down is preferable over coming to a complete stop. Clara Northcott, another Boston veteran, points to the psychological difficulty of trying to start running again once you’ve slowed to a walk. “It is much easier just to keep going,” Northcott argues.

However, according to some experts, walk breaks aren’t just for beginners, but rather can have clear advantages for all levels of runners. Here’s how.

Jeff Galloway, a former American Olympian, suggests most runners will record significantly faster times when they take walk breaks because they don’t slow down in those crucial last few miles. But how does this work?

Galloway points out that, “by shifting back and forth between walking and running muscles you distribute the workload among a variety of muscles, increasing your overall performance capacity. For veteran marathoners, this is often the difference between achieving a time goal or not.”

Walk breaks can improve overall recovery time as there is less damage to repair. Earlier walk breaks minimize fatigue, and the later walk breaks will reduce overuse and muscle breakdown, allowing you to feel better faster while still maximizing endurance-building.
 

• For advanced runners, this means they can get in more training sessions per week and/or more intense sessions such as speed work because of faster recovery time.
• Walk breaks may also help your mental game, especially during challenging racing conditions. Instead of thinking about how many gruelling kilometres you have left to cover, you’re thinking instead in time or distance-based segments between walk breaks, thereby breaking the race up into manageable parts.
• According to Galloway, walk breaks in both training and racing prevent you from starting out too fast. “This reduction of the intensity of muscle use from the beginning conserves your energy, fluids and muscle capacity,” Galloway explains. “On each walk break, the running muscles make internal adaptations, which give you the option to finish under control, increase the pace or go even further.”
• Walk breaks also give you a built-in opportunity to rehydrate and refuel. While we’ve all probably watched with envy as elite marathoners swoop through aid stations and inhale their race nutrition with nary a break in gazelle-like stride, the fact is, many of us are prone to spilling our Cytomax or choking on our Clif Shots when we try to eat and drink on the run.

Taking in our nutrition and hydration during a walk break isn’t just easier on our digestion and hand-eye-mouth coordination—it also ensures that we remember to eat and drink at the appropriate intervals, the break marking our cue to consume.