Coaching a runner to abandon run/walk intervals

If you can't figure this out should you really be coaching?

What are her goals? Does she want to become a racer? Is she just a mom wanting to drop some lbs?

If she's the latter I wouldn't really worry too much about it.

A good coach is never afraid to ask questions. But to answer yours...Yes, this person is serious about running fast.

Here is the go-to workout I use with older adults to build endurance. It's called the Billats 30/30. You can google it online, but I use a modified version as described below.

Run two sets of 8x 30 seconds at current mile race pace followed by 30 seconds at half that speed. Note the distance covered and take a 5 minute break between sets.

After a month, increase to 10 reps of 30/30. Track progress by determining how far the athlete runs at the end of the 10 reps. For runners slower than 7min/mile on the fast part, the slow part would be 14 min/mile, or no more than a brisk walk.

For better runners, the Billats workout would be continuous repeats of 30 seconds at mile race pace and 30 seconds jogging, continuing without a break until the runner is no longer able to maintain pace, or 17-27 reps. This is not appropriate for the OP's athlete, but it is great to build VO2Max and running economy.

coachjj wrote:

What's the best way to approach this? The runner I'm coaching is used to running 3:1 run/walk intervals, even for races. My thought was to devote an entire phase of training to building up her capacity to run continuously but up to what point?

This person has never gotten past 3:1 run/walk intervals and has even done races (plural) using that format? And she is now paying a coach? And that coach doesn't know how to get her away from doing 3:1 intervals to running continuously?

You need to contact KP Kelly - that guy has all the knowledge anyone will ever need so your runner can build up to any distance, including 100 marathons in 100 days. You can contact him here:

A) Don't worry about it. Let her run walk until she decides she is ready for continuous. The glass is 3/4 full not 3/4 empty.

B) Focus on making the 3:1 a better workout. Varying paces would help.

C) Tell her you think she can run a 2:59 1000 if she is willing to work.

I would also remind her she already does many things continuously. She sits in class for an hour, sleeps for about eight hours every night and stays awake for 16 hours each day.

So find out her baseline fitness. How far she can run without a walk break? What pace can she run and still be conversational?

Establish goals, does she want to run a marathon, does she want to BQ, break a certain time barrier? Is he more of a 1/2 mar. person? Does she want to compete in a certain event?

Find out out her goals, look at where her current level of fitness is, work backward from that goal race.

Start with: "Galloway is a sell out Moran" and then go from there.

How long are the units? A ratio of run 9 miles and then walk 3 miles would be pretty good.

coachjj wrote:

What's the best way to approach this? The runner I'm coaching is used to running 3:1 run/walk intervals, even for races. My thought was to devote an entire phase of training to building up her capacity to run continuously but up to what point?

Athlete is 29 yo and wants to qualify for Boston someday. Current PR in the half...1:58

3:1 what? 3 minutes to 1 minute? 3 miles to 1 mile? 3k to 1k? Anyway, just figure out her average pace between running and walking and gather to slow down the run parts to that pace, dump the walk bits and continue from there. Or tell her to download a C25k app and give her back her money. Coach me hoop.

coachjj wrote:

Athlete is 29 yo and wants to qualify for Boston someday. Current PR in the half...1:58

Why not just extending the 3:1 to 4:1, 5:1...?

She can already go sub 2 hours in a half? Tell her to suck it up, she has no need whatsoever to run/walk a race, other than perhaps psychological

A successful half PR is a case study in understanding your own HMP, and to run on that threshold the entire time. If you find yourself run/walking it, obviously your run pace was too hot.

Key training moments leading up to the half race are tempos and 4-6 milers at goal HMP

Where's my $10 for being your coach, OP?

Tell her to stop walking.

/endthread

As a coach, you are not just providing physical training. You also need to become a master psychologist.

Get inside your athlete's head. The run/walk cycles likely are associated with some level of fear, or running in this particular way serves as a level of escapism from other fears and stresses in life. The problem is, it may be difficult or impossible to get her to admit this.

So the question is, does she really want to get faster? An easy way to tell is whether she actually is coachable. Obviously she does not heed your admonition to abandon run/walk intervals, but does she push back on other types of training and come up with excuses as to why she can't do workouts? If so, I would venture to guess that she doesn't actually want to get faster. Instead, she wants to validate her fears by shifting her failure from herself to you.

In other words, she is paying you money to throw you under the bus in order to boost her own fragile ego.

She isn't paying me any money. I'm just trying to coach her as a friend. I agree that a lot of it is psychological but having run alongside of her several times, it's also evident that she begins to struggle physically after about 3 minutes of easy running. Her breathing is labored and she feels the need to stop. I was thinking of just gradually having her run for 5 minutes, then 10 minutes...etc...until she builds a tolerance.

First she works up to 4-1 , then 5-1 …..

have her run 3 hours followed by 1 hour walk

If she's struggling after 3 minutes of running to walk, and can run a half under 2 hrs, what pace are these three minute intervals on? 5k RP

coachjj wrote:

She isn't paying me any money. I'm just trying to coach her as a friend. I agree that a lot of it is psychological but having run alongside of her several times, it's also evident that she begins to struggle physically after about 3 minutes of easy running. Her breathing is labored and she feels the need to stop. I was thinking of just gradually having her run for 5 minutes, then 10 minutes...etc...until she builds a tolerance.

This is the obvious answer, it shouldn't have been something you needed to ask, and multiple people have already given you this exact answer and you have seemed to not notice.