Run/Walk plan

I walk plenty when I run, especially long distances like the marathon, but I've never tried to do a structured run/walk ala Galloway.

I know I'm going to have to employ run/walk at 20in24 so I thought last night was as good a time as any to test the plan. Thinking of my run as a science experiment helped me get out there because I was really not at all motivated to run last night despite the fabulous weather.

I was at Valley Forge and faced with the hilly loop trail. I jumped right in and started running up the hideously long first hill. Amazingly, I finished my four minutes without keeling over! The minute of walking was a nice recovery and I was surprised how well the walking/running segments worked out with the hills at the park. It wasn't perfect and I found myself walking uphill a few times during the run portions and continuing to run on a downhill if it was part of a walk segment, but overall I tried to stick to the plan.

I hated listening to the beeps from the Garmin, and I'm not sure if I'll like that over a long, long period of time, but I think the system did help me with my overall speed. It seems strange but I found that was able to push harder on the run segments knowing that they weren't very long and I'm guessing that the walk segments were shorter and at a better pace than usual.

I'm hoping to do some long runs this weekend and will be testing out the intervals on a flat trail to see how it works out.

Experimenting is fun!