Going Walkabout
Back when I was planning to run the London Marathon, I booked a place in the Hastings Half Marathon on 24th March which was meant to be part of my training.
Since getting injured and deciding not to do London, I’d forgotten about the Hastings Half. Then earlier this week I found my race number and wondered if I should give it a go.
A running friend has been raving about the Run Walk Strategy, and basically said a 15 mile run/walk was a piece of piss.
If it’s that easy… then sod it, I’ll give it a go at the Hastings Half. And while I’m at it, if it’s so easy, I may as well try and beat my P.B.
I’ve done 3 proper half marathons in my time.
- 2010 (March) – Hastings Half Marathon – 2:30:49 – my first ever half with my sister
- 2012 (April) – Reading Half Marathon – 2:05:32 – training for last year’s London Marathon
- 2012 (September) – Ealing Half Marathon – 2:13:48 – running with a load of work colleagues
So, the idea of Run Walk strategy is that you run for a short time (say 4 and a half minutes) and then walk for 30 seconds, rinse and repeat. Each time you walk you’re giving your legs a chance to recover so they don’t get fatigued so quickly.
Well, if Run Walk strategy is so easy, I may as well go for under 2 hours. And if I don’t manage it, I’ll just blame Justin for his misleading blog.
I hope you had an injury free Hastings and recover well during the coming week.
1:55:54 is well clear of 2 hours – well done! Presumably it was rather cold…
Did you manage to follow your run-walk plan?
I did a bit of run-walking in training for the Reading half, but didn’t feel able to use it for the event itself while in the mass of runners. Assuming you are in a group of runners of similar overall target pace, run-walking requires you to weave past people for a few minutes, transition into walking without someone crashing into you, then spend a minute watching many of the same people overtake you. Rinse and repeat. Reading felt too crowded to play this kind of game.
Hi Steven – thanks – was dead chuffed with the result.
Full report here: http://finding.schofs.com/?p=274
But in summary, I did run-walk for the whole race, with the exception of the first mile (when I was still warming up). I ran for 4.5 minutes and walked for 30 seconds, skipping the first walk. Also, as it was such a hilly course, if my walk happened on a downhill, I saved it for a flat or uphill.
Even though my target overall pace was about 9 mins/mile, I started in the 8-8:30 mins/mile camp as that would be my pace for the first mile. When I got to the first walk bit just over a mile in, I was fine to slow and walk as it was open road and people weren’t bunched up.
The only thing I did have to do was keep telling people it was OK that I was walking! Every time I entered the walk phase there were people that were saying “don’t stop now” and “keep going”… and I had to tell them that I wasn’t stopping – it was all going to plan!