Marathon walk a mile

ntlbell

So apart from the last mile, so from 0 - 25.2 miles if you were to walk one of the miles in the marathon, which one do you think you would be the most beneficial ?

seamus

The first one, IMO. Give your body a chance to warm up, and no chance of muscles seizing up or excessive use of glycogen stores.

Dermo09

As the 1st one is extremely slow anyway due to congestion, I would say the 15 - 16 the mile...ure over half way, you take a rest, and then you only have 10 to go....the amount of recovery you get after walking a little bit is excellent....

hot to trot

check out Jeff galloways website about walking in marathons. IF you are an 8m miler then you walk for about 30 seconds regularly but not after 18 miles. Slower runners about 1 minute in 6 or 7. I have usually done one minute at each mile marker up to about 18 miles. It becomes a series of intervals which you run faster than if you were running it all continuously. You reset your muscles back to a previous state, so ideally take your break before you feel you need it.
Its a bit of a waste to walk a full mile. You gain most of the recovery in the first minute so you would be better to take 10/15 breaks of one minute than squander a whole mile walking.

I was so doubtful and dubious but tried it last year and it does work. IF you weren't happy about walk breaks just throw one or two short ones in. Good luck and enjoy your race.

RacoonQueen

No way I'd be disciplined enough to start running again if I was to stop to walk. Once you start walking it can be very hard to motivate yourself to run again. The walk is so comfy and inviting, like you're lying on a big cushy bed compared to the agony you must be in if you need to walk.

ger664

If you are going to take walk breaks in a marathon do it thorough the water/aid stations. You'll get the benefit of the recovery as well as making sure you get enough hydration.

Peckham

RacoonQueen wrote: »

No way I'd be disciplined enough to start running again if I was to stop to walk. Once you start walking it can be very hard to motivate yourself to run again. The walk is so comfy and inviting, like you're lying on a big cushy bed compared to the agony you must be in if you need to walk.

I don't know, the agony of seeing other runners streaming past me in Boston as I walked was enough to get me running again. Admittedly I wasn't able to sustain run pace for very long when I did!

hot to trot

RacoonQueen wrote: »

No way I'd be disciplined enough to start running again if I was to stop to walk. Once you start walking it can be very hard to motivate yourself to run again. The walk is so comfy and inviting, like you're lying on a big cushy bed compared to the agony you must be in if you need to walk.

That's the point of the run/walk/run. The walk is too short to get out of the rythm of running and you do it when you dont feel any agony. If you leave it until then to walk , you have missed the boat and wont benefit .

RacoonQueen

hot to trot wrote: »

That's the point of the run/walk/run. The walk is too short to get out of the rythm of running and you do it when you dont feel any agony. If you leave it until then to walk , you have missed the boat and wont benefit .

But you shouldn't need to walk. Illness/injury/cramping of some sort are the only reason you should need to walk. Otherwise you've either not trained enough or you went out too fast.

hot to trot

The walk breaks arent cos you need to . Its one of the ways of *increasing your marathon time/*returning post injury / *starting long runs for first time /*building up mileage in training quickly - without risk of breakdown. Its so that you have bundles of energy left at the end... well maybe not bundles but you dont take them after 18 miles. you run continuously and as fast as you ran the first 17 intervals. You are stronger for longer.
If you have cramping , you have definitely gone out too fast.LOL

metamagical

ger664 wrote: »

If you are going to take walk breaks in a marathon do it thorough the water/aid stations. You'll get the benefit of the recovery as well as making sure you get enough hydration.

And by adding to the congestion at water/aid stations, you'll also make sure other runners get the benefit of walking, whether they want to or not!

robinph

metamagical wrote: »

And by adding to the congestion at water/aid stations, you'll also make sure other runners get the benefit of walking, whether they want to or not!

Well you run through the water station, pick up your bottle, then walk after the last table. If you stop to a walk in the middle of the water stations then you deserve to get run over.

I will definitely be doing the walk after each water station in my next marathon. I left it too long on Sunday before doing so and then any benefit to be gained had already passed.

My best three times are:
2:58 - ran all the way in Dublin'10 and apart from the joy of getting the sub 3 was in bits afterwards, was a fluke
3:05 - 15 second walk every 3 miles, was an undulating course, felt relatively good at the end and was never any thoughts later on in the course about having to stop and walk as I was only ever a couple of miles from a scheduled small "break", easy to start running again each time
3:08 - tried to run all the way, couldn't once I got to around 17, in bits at the end, next to impossible to drag the feet back into running. Was something else went wrong that day, but would have survived a lot better and faster if I'd broken it into a bunch of intervals.

That is scientific enough research for me.