Week 8, Day 4

Distance: 14 miles

Total for the week: 24 miles

Overall total so far: 166 miles

Notes: Tracey and I tried even more frequent walk breaks this time, and it actually shaved another ten seconds per mile off our average pace. We walked for one minute every mile. Far more important than the increase in pace was the fact that we felt good and finished pretty strong. I think I'm becoming a believer.

Attention Town of Pittsford: They invented this awesome thing called sidewalks. You can put them next to your roads in order to help pedestrians (including runners) keep from, well, dying. You might want to Google it.

Week 7, Days 2, 3, and 4

Another quick and dirty set of recaps. Been really busy moving the church to our new building.

Day 2 (Wednesday)

Distance: 6 miles

Total for the week: 10 miles

Overall total so far: 122 miles

Notes: A nice long loop after dark. Six felt pretty good.

Day 3 (Thursday)

Distance: 4 miles

Total for the week: 14 miles

Overall total so far: 126 miles

Notes: I was exhausted during this run after painting outside in the sun all day long. But I ran it anyway. Not a bad pace, either.

Day 3 (Saturday)

Distance: 12 miles

Total for the week: 26 miles

Overall total so far: 138 miles

Notes: After last week's eleven mile debacle, we were determined to make this run good. Tracey plotted a nice round loop, we made sure to start out in a better mood, and we decided to try the "walk break" idea. Every two miles, we walked for one minute. It kept us feeling pretty fresh, and our pace was actually faster than we've been averaging on long runs. Interesting—we'll probably try a few different ways of using walk breaks over the next few weeks.

Week 2, Day 2

Distance: 4 miles

Total for the week: 7 miles

Overall total so far: 22 miles

Notes: Ouch. I played my first game of Ultimate last night, so my legs were shot. And on top of that, my entire family got sick within three hours of each other last night. So I ran this sick and on dead legs. It hurt pretty bad, but I did it. As Tracey said, having already done her four miles today, "It's amazing how much more you can do than you think you can." How true. That's one thing I remember from my previous attempt at this: when you think you are totally spent, you can usually go just a few steps more. And then a few steps more than that.

I figured today's medium run would be a decent opportunity to try out the "walk breaks." So I ran three minutes and walked one minute for the entire distance. Also, the three minute running portions were very slow. It definitely helped me stay strong until the end. Once again I reminded myself that finishing is the only goal, and that nothing else matters. And I finished today's run in spite of my circumstances, just like I will finish the one on September 16.

Walk breaks?

An experienced marathoner at Tracey's office suggested she take a look at a technique developed by Jeff Galloway. She looked into it and found Galloway's website, which includes a reproduction of an October 2000 Runner's World article about taking walk breaks during long training runs and the actual race. Here's his rationale:

It may sound counterintuitive to stop and walk in the middle of a race, but I've spoken to scores of runners who set PRs in the marathon by doing just that. Walk breaks work by reducing the intensity of your run. This conserves resources during the first half of a race, so you'll be able to speed up at the end. You'll allow your muscles to recover while continuing to make progress.

That actually makes sense to me. He goes on to suggest that there is a psychological benefit to the walk breaks as well, since taking regularly scheduled breaks gives you something to look forward throughout the race. And I've never been under the illusion that I'd run nonstop during the marathon; it just never occurred to me to use walking intentionally and strategically. I think we're going to try this on our Saturday runs and see how it goes.

Anyone ever tried this technique? Post a comment.