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Ask Jeff Archives
Do you start doing walk breaks at the beginning of the marathon? Q: I have been training for my marathon for 4 months. I recently heard about your walk breaks. I ran 6 minutes and walked 1 minute during the half marathon at Kiawah, Dec. 9. This is my first marathon. I am a female and 52 years old. Time is not important to me, I just want to finish, if at all possible, under 5 hours. My question...Do you start doing walk breaks at the beginning of the marathon? Do you wait and start after four miles? Do you start after thirteen miles. Also is the guide..run four minutes...run six or eight and walk one minute? Do you run one mile and walk one minute? After reading the testimonies from other runners I am confused. I would like to tell you that I am recovering from stress fractures on both legs I had this past summer. I want to take the most conservative approach to running this marathon and enjoying the experience. This has been a life time dream. Please advise. A: Walk breaks are adjusted to the individual, based upon conditioning and time goal. That's why there are so many different testimonial differences. I'd recommend that you start by running 4 min and walking one minute. If everything is going well at 21 miles you could bump it up to 5-1. If it is hot, and this is your first marathon, I'd recommend that you shoot for a time of 5:30 from the start. If you feel good at 18 miles or so, you can speed up.  I find it difficult to coordinate walk breaks with the mile water tables Q: I recently bought a copy of your Marathon 2000 book, and have really enjoyed reading it and applying it to my marathon training. I ran my 1st marathon this past April, and like many others, really struggled the last 6-7 miles. I had a limited time to train, sustained an injury as the miles went up, etc., etc. Anyway, I was determined to do a better job this time and hopefully "enjoy" the experience. That's when I picked up your book. I believe in your philosophy and I look forward to running my upcoming marathon incorporating your ideas. The problem I'm having though is transferring what is practiced to the race itself. More specifically, I find it difficult to coordinate the walk breaks with the mile water tables. If initially the breaks are every 6 or 8 minutes, for example, but you are running 9 or 10 minute miles, then this throws things off. I am hoping to finish somewhere around 4 hours. It would seem easiest to take walk breaks only at each mile water stop, but if the initial miles are run in 9:30, or 10, or 10:30 splits, I would believe you might say this is to long an interval between walks. Do I initially walk every 5 minutes until I am ready to bump up the pace to 8:30 or 9 minutes? Also, the long runs are run at 2 minutes slower than race pace. Am I to assume that on race day, I should be, without practicing it in the long runs, be able to run a faster pace than I've trained for, with increasing negative splits, and eventually even be able to stop the walk breaks toward the end? It seems risky and mentally "unnerving" to run the marathon in a way you have not practiced before. A: Your questions are often asked. Most of the answers are in the Marathon book so refer back to it as reference. In order to run faster in the marathon, you must do some mile repeats at about 8:30-40, on non long run weekends. You'll see these listed in the training schedule, and explained in the speed chapters. You can also do some tempo runs, at 9 min pace, on one of your shorter runs each week. This is "dress rehearsal" for the marathon. I recommend walking a minute per mile during the marathon. If the water stops don't coincide with the mile markers, then either walk at the water stops, or take a short, additional walk break at the water stops. I'd recommend starting pace for a 4 hour marathon to be no slower than 9:30. By 3-5 miles, you should be at goal pace, if the weather is not too hot and humid.
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