Walk of No Shame

It’s just one of those rules. Coaches, runners, and pretty much everyone else involved in the sport have traditionally emphasized that walking isn’t an option there. But new research and training methods indicate that walking may not be a sign of weakness, but a tool for becoming an even stronger runner.

While walking can be frowned upon, incorporating it into your runs and races can prevent the onset of fatigue. Recent studies published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research show that passive-resting activities like walking can reduce heart rates in as few as 25 seconds. Even better, they can lead to better performance in ensuing legs of your run, allowing you to gain more ground than if you’d pounded along the whole time with no breaks.

Jeff Galloway, a former Olympian who now coaches runners, came up with the run-walk-run formula in 1974, when he saw an opportunity to help non-runners benefit from the sport. What began as a way to help newbies complete their first laps around a track morphed into a training program where 98 percent of its runners complete races at faster times and without injuries. Galloway credits walking with promoting the cognitive and physical control needed to make every run successful.

“Run-walk-run methods conserve energy and erase fatigue,” Galloway. “When you insert walk breaks, from the beginning of your run to its end, you never have to be out of commission.” The advice is supported by a study in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, which shows that walking helps runners conserve the energy they need to complete a successful workout.

To know when and for how long to take a break, you need to know what pace you’re shooting for in your workout or race. Galloway says that if your goal is an eight-minute mile, you’ll run for four-minute intervals and walk for thirty-second ones. A nine-minute mile would require running for four minutes and walking for one.