One of the narrative changes that I’m excited about coming down the pipeline is that walking mid-run still qualifies you as a runner.
In fact there is a whole run/walk method now. Woot.
Run/walk is a great way to start as a new runner. In fact, it is what I would recommend in most situations. But it’s not only for new runners. I’ve been running for years, so why did I randomly walk in the middle of my run today?
I hadn’t planned to walk, but I have been learning so much about the science behind keeping easy running easy and how much gains you can make from that. I first saw it all over IG, but I didn’t trust that. I then learned it in my certification program, still I wondered. I then read multiple books and articles about it. And I am now a believer. (cue my brain singing shrek).
I can write a whole other post about this idea, but the cliff note version is that
you want to keep your easy running easy and your hard running hard instead of finding yourself melting into the medium zone on your easy efforts.
My plan going out today was to do 2 miles easy, 5x 2 minutes at 5k pace with 90sec recovery, then 2 mi easy. Another way to say this is that I wanted an easy start and finish with some speed work in the middle. This means that just because today was my speed day, not all of my miles were speed miles. So I did the first 2 easy, did my speed work, and then holy cow my body was not recovering the way that I wanted it to on the last 2 miles. There are probably a million reasons for this including poor sleep, high humidity, heat, no hydration mid-run, being on vacation and not in my normal routine, etc.
So when I got to those last two miles and I couldn’t get my perceived effort or my HR back down, I decided to add in some walk breaks.
I walked until my breathing came back under control and my HR came down closer to where I wanted it. I then started jogging again. I finished my miles with run/walk intervals.
I have to say, I’m really proud of myself.
It’s one thing to learn the science and see the results of others doing this, but it’s a whole other thing to actually do it yourself. I grew up thinking running was running, running was not walking. Just like so many other things in life, I have worked to change this narrative for myself. I’ve done this with food beliefs, body size beliefs, parenting beliefs. It’s not easy to change a lifetime of beliefs, but running has done this for me. And the cool thing is that it translates to other areas of my life.
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