Revision as of 13:50, 27 November 2015

Marathon – You Can Do It!.

The Jeff Galloway training program is based around taking Walking Breaks to increase the distance that can be covered, and to run the Long Runs slowly. These plans are a good candidate for a 4:30-5:30 marathon runner and probably the best option for 5:30+ hour marathon runners. In addition they may be appropriate for people whose injury history makes running the marathon distance continuously problematic. The use of the Galloway approach for faster marathons is a little more controversial. (Note that Jeff Galloway has two books with Marathon plans – Marathon – You Can Do It! and the earlier Galloway's Book on Running. He also has more details on Walking Breaks in his book The Run-Walk-Run Method.

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1 The Walking Break Controversy

A common concern is that Walking Breaks are not suitable for faster marathoner. I'd like to consider Walking Breaks for training and racing as two slightly separate issues.

1.1 Walking Breaks for Marathon Training

I believe that Walking Breaks can play a useful part in any marathon training program. Even if you don't use the overall Galloway plan, it is possible to extend some of your Long Runs by adding Walking Breaks. For instance, Jack Daniels Running Formula has a mixture of Long Runs that incorporate speedwork and those that are at a steady pace. The steady pace runs could easily be swapped out for longer runs with Waking Breaks. So even if you don't take Walking Breaks in your race, I'd recommend considering doing some of your Long Runs this way. 

1.2 Marathon Racing with Walking Breaks

The use of Walking Breaks during a marathon makes sense to me for runners taking more than 4:30 to finish, and I believe they are the best option for those taking 5:30 or longer to finish. For faster runners things are less clear. Galloway reports over 100 runners improving their times to below 3:00 using his approach, and there is a report of Galloway coaching Jeff did coach one athlete that achieved a 2:28 finish time by using 15 second Walking Breaks for the first 20 miles. Their prior PR was 2:33, which is a 5 minute reduction. This indicates that the Galloway approach can be viable, but it that does not mean it's optimal. My main concerns with using Walking Breaks in a faster marathon is the stress on the body in transitioning from running to walking and back again. As your pace becomes faster, so the transition becomes more stressful.

2 Galloway Run Walk Paces

These paces are calculated from the details given in Galloway's book The Run-Walk-Run Method. I've created two sets of tables, one for walking at 20:00 min/mile which is a fairly easy walk and another set for walking at 15:00 which is quite brisk. There are paces for specific marathon finish times. The first columns are the times you'd need to run/walk in the race itself. The next columns are the times for run/walk to hit the target training pace of race pace plus 2 minutes per mile. I've included a third set of columns that use +20% rather than a fixed 2 minutes/mile.

2.1 Marathon Paces (walking at 20:00 min/mile)

2.2 Marathon Paces (walking at 15:00 min/mile)

2.3 Run/Walk Paces (walking at 20:00 min/mile)

2.4 Run/Walk Paces (walking at 15:00 min/mile)

3 Characteristics of the Galloway Plan

• Key Characteristics
  • Galloway uses Walking Breaks both in training and in racing.
  • The plan includes longer Long Runs than most plans, including 26-30 miles in training.
  • Initial Ramp (mileage increase/week from start to 16): Moderate at around 0.5 to 0.6.
  • Core Ramp (mileage increase/week from 16 to max): Moderate at around 0.5 to 0.6.
• Pros
  • The run/walk approach is ideal for slower runners.
  • Faster runners can use Walking Breaks to build endurance.
• Cons
  • Calculating the correct paces is not easy, and I had to write some code to generate the table you see above.
  • The standard plan uses a fixed time offset from race pace of 2 minutes/mile to get training pace. I believe that a percentage offset (20%) would be better.
  • The stress of slowing up to walk and accelerating to running will require practice.
  • No speedwork in the current book (Marathon – You Can Do It!), but there is speedwork in his earlier book (Galloway's Book On Running).
• Modifications
  • It may be possible to combine this plan's longer run approach with the speed work from Jack Daniels or FIRST.
  • Using the occasional longer Long Run from Galloway within another plan could be effective.
• Overtraining risk
  • The Overtraining risk should be quite low for this plan in spite of the remarkably long length Long Runs.
• Good For::
  • Beginner: 5. This is probably the best plan for beginners unless you are unusually fast. The plan has a gradual buildup from quite a low mileage and it uses Walking Breaks to allow for marathon length Long Runs.
  • Novice: 4. This is a good candidate for novice marathon runners who are looking for a plan that has a great chance of getting them through the race successfully, and are prepared to accept that they probably won't improve overall fitness due to the lack of speed work. (You could easily add speedwork from another plan.)
  • Ringger: 2. While a ringer could consider this plan, you probably want more speedwork. Combining the Long Runs from this plan with speedwork from another could be good.
  • Maintenance: 3. This plan could suit someone looking to maintain their performance remarkably well, though the time commitment of the Long Runs may be an issue.
  • Improver: 3. There are sufficient anecdotes of runners improving their time with Galloway to consider this approach. This plan is likely to build up your endurance and confidence, though I think you'd benefit from adding in some speedwork.
  • Enthusiast: 3. Most enthusiasts are likely to be unwilling to try Walking Breaks, but I think they should consider them.
  • Elite: 1. I don't believe that the run/walk approach is likely to be successful for elite runner, though there are some examples of sub-2:30 finishes with walking breaks in the race.
  • Limited Training Time: 0. The run/walk approach does take more training time.
  • Traditionalist: 2. While the overall structure may be quite traditional, the Walking Breaks approach is rather radical.
  • Triathlete/Multisport: 4. There are plenty of days for cross training in this plan, and the reduced impact from run/walk may impact the other sports far less than other plans.
  • Prior Overtraining: 4. The change to a run/walk approach might provide the recovery you need from prior Overtraining, while allowing an increase in endurance.
  • Sub 3:00: 2. Think carefully about the Walking Breaks as an approach, but there's evidence that this could work for you. I can see using the Walking Breaks in training but reducing or removing them from the race as a viable approach.
  • 3:00-4:30: 4. This plan can work well for mid-pack runners/
  • 4:30-5:30: 5. I believe this is the best plan for slower runners. The range of paces covered means that it is difficult to run slower than marathon pace without becoming too slow to be efficient.
  • 5:30+: 5. I believe that the run/walk approach is the only viable approach for runners finishing in 5:30 or more.
  • Speedwork. There is no speed work in this plan.

Notes on the columns

• # Runs 16+. I consider that the 16 mile mark defines the beginning of "the long run". While this is somewhat arbitrary on my part, I believe that counting the number of long runs that are 16 miles or more is a useful metric. The first run the diesel 16 miles or more is highlighted in green in the weekly section.
• # Runs 20+. There is some limited evidence that suggests that runs over 20 miles provide important adaptations for marathon running, and help prevent "hitting the wall". This column gives account of the number of runs that of 20 miles or more.
• Total Miles Over 16. Another way of evaluating a training plan is to look at the number of miles run in excess of 16 miles. For example an 18 mile long run would count as 2 miles in excess of the 16 mile Mark. This metric reveals some dramatic differences between some of the advanced plans.
• Starting Mileage. This column shows the mileage of the first long run, and may be useful in selecting a plan based on your current fitness.
• Weeks To 16. This is the number of weeks from the start of the plan to the first 16 mile long run. This section of the training plan I've called the "initial ramp up" that brings a runner from their initial level of fitness to what I consider the threshold of performing long runs.
• Weeks 16 To Max. This is the number of weeks from the first run of 16 miles or more to the longest run in the plan. If the longest run is repeated more than once, I use the first instance, which is highlighted in red in the weekly section.
• 16 To Race. The number of weeks from the first run of 16 miles or more to the race itself.
• Max To Race. The number of weeks from the longest long run to the race itself.
• Ramps. One key aspect of any marathon training plan is how quickly it increases the mileage. It seems likely that one of the biggest factors behind excessive fatigue and injury from the long run is at this rate of mileage increase. Therefore I have attempted to quantify this rate of increase as a "ramp", which is approximately the number of miles per week the long run is increased by. (For those interested in the details I use the least squares approach to calculate an approximate slope between the two points on the training plan. This approach has some obvious limitations when the training plans have cut back weeks.)
  • Initial Ramp (First To 16). This is the ramp from the first run to the first 16 mile or longer run.
  • Core Ramp (16 To Max).This is the ramp from the first 16 mile or longer run to the longest run.
  • Overall Ramp (first to max). The ramp from the first run to the longest run.