Brad said a lot of the things that I would have said, here is one thing to think about…. the faster of a runner you are, the less important that walk breaks become. Although, to make them irrelevant you need to be very fast. And… the long you run the more relevant they are.

So if you are very fast and run only short runs (probably under 4 miles for most) than they don’t make sense.

But let’s say you run over a 10 min / mile for a 5k. I’d say using the run/walk is probably very relevant and as Brad suggests it may allow a person to run faster than they normally could and then recover during the walk.. ultimately cutting out time.

The ultimate answer is this… it depends.

If you find that you are able to run a comfortable consistent pace over the course of your desired distance, than I would say, you probably don’t need to add walk breaks. How ever, you might want to think about adding them one day just to see the effect it has on your time, and comfort level. What does it hurt to try it out?

It may be that your consistent pace is say, 12min/mile. And you may find that if you tried to run faster for a mile (say 10min or 9:30min) that a short walk break at each mile marker, gives you enough a recovery break that you could start up again and run that second mile at 10min or 9:30min… and then repeat for mile 3… this would theoretically take 3-4 minutes off of your 5K time. And, you may actually find that you are more confortable and enjoy your run more.

I would say that if you’re running at elite or even top-10 age group times for shorter distances (5K, 10K) then walk breaks probably don’t make sense. Basically around 7min/mile a walk break of 20 seconds means you actually have to run a pretty wicked fast pace of 6:40/mile to stay at your 7min/mile pace. It can be done… and it probably should/needs to be done for most of us running further than 10 miles… but for shorter distances like 5K you’re better off just running fast and not stopping till the end.

So… in summary I’d suggest:

1) Try walk breaks at any distance, see if you like them, if they make it easier for you to achieve your goal.

2) For long distances… walk breaks will make 90% of us faster not slower.

3) For short distances… at slower speeds… walk breaks might actually help you go faster and be more comfortable when its all over.

Good Luck!

Would you also advocate this approach for someone who is just focusing on shorter distances, like 3 to 5 miles, and who is not just beginning to run? I am sure that if I were to attempt a half marathon or marathon, I would need to incorporate walking from the get-go. But planning walk breaks in a 5K or 4 mi run/race doesn’t seem necessary to me, especially since the goal for me is usually to maintain a consistent effort throughout and finish feeling good. (And, BTW, I am not fast and I really don’t ‘race’ races… I view races as a treat for continuing to exercise. So, speed isn’t my primary concern.)

Lacey, I agree, this is something you have to practice.

One point I like to make is that the longer you plan on being “out there” the more important this strategy becomes. Elites don’t have to walk during a marathon b/c they are running less than 2.5 hours…. most of us are running a lot longer than that.

Lacey – One word. Practice. I know people who run all their runs, decide to use a run/walk method during a race and then say it doesn’t work. Use it every run, even if you are running for 20 minutes. It took a long time (a few months of walking every run) before it felt normal.

The fitter who are the longer you can stretch out the walk/run ratio. I personally recommend people not get over a 10:1 ratio unless they are easily (under aerobic threshold) running under a 9 min/mile pace. Another observation that I have developed that is not based on a scientific rule.

However, I may need to try incorporating walking when I get back to long runs. It was recommended to me that I try the method if I want to do a HM sooner than later, to avoid re-injuring my knee.

When you did a run/walk, did you walk 1 minute for every mile? I might be interested in trying something more like 3 mi/1 min when I am running that far again.

I love to hear people who are fans of run/walk. I am absolutely convinced that this is a far superior approach to “running”…

I know I finish faster when I take small walk breaks early and consistently in a run.

Glad to hear it worked for you!