Walk breaks make me faster, but WHY :(

Your slog-and-jog-all-the-way form is mechanically inefficient. Your running-with-breaks form is less so.

Your with-breaks form is likely to carry over when you gradually start running faster. Your no-breaks form will have little carryover.

Don't fight the walking breaks. Ideally, you should take them a little before you "have" to: The idea is to prevent fatigue/oxygen debt, rather than to pay it off.

With time, you may find that you're gradually able to go longer (with no greater effort) between breaks. But don't force that: It should happen naturally.

What your body is having you do is basically the beginner version of intervals. And intervals work. Don't fight it, if that's what your body needs. Eventually, the walking breaks you'll need will shorten and one day it'll click: You won't want to stop and walk at all.

But all runners do this in some form. Either during speed work (intervals) or subconsciously, slowing down for segments. albeit not so much we're walking.

Got covid Jan. Still have mild long covid symptoms.

Interval speed returned quickly.

Endurance has been sludge. Walking breaks during LR. :(

Slowed tempos by 30s-1min. What is going on.

Long covid clinic believes symptoms will last about a year.

Walk breaks are fine if you’re not in great shape. Once you’ve Ben running more consistently, just running slowly will be a break though, so no need to keep waking long term.

Thanks, makes sense, and I suppose sounds obvious but I needed to hear that at least.

I’ve now neatly placed aside the mental block of intermittent walks and found that yesterday, I was able to run 5 miles at an average pace of 9’23”/mile (counting the slower walk segments as well) and could’ve kept going longer, but I know that I’d be totally burnt out if I tried running continuously even just 5K at that average pace.

I’m now hoping that more training will reduce my HR and perceived effort so as to serve as a cue for less reliance on walk breaks.

lease wrote:

Your slog-and-jog-all-the-way form is mechanically inefficient. Your running-with-breaks form is less so.

Your with-breaks form is likely to carry over when you gradually start running faster. Your no-breaks form will have little carryover.

Don't fight the walking breaks. Ideally, you should take them a little before you "have" to: The idea is to prevent fatigue/oxygen debt, rather than to pay it off.

With time, you may find that you're gradually able to go longer (with no greater effort) between breaks. But don't force that: It should happen naturally.

I think this is probably accurate. I ran for over 10 years in cushioned shoes where I'd always feel the need to take walk breaks, especially when running solo. I switched to zero drop shoes about a month ago and the mechanics changes it requires mean I rarely feel the need to walk, even when running up hills.

1ub2run wrote:

Got covid Jan. Still have mild long covid symptoms.

Interval speed returned quickly.

Endurance has been sludge. Walking breaks during LR. :(

Slowed tempos by 30s-1min. What is going on.

Long covid clinic believes symptoms will last about a year.

Interesting. I think I may be experiencing the same or something similar. One day I can bust out tempo intervals at a 7min/mile on an 8 mile run. Another day I have to stop repeatedly from exhaustion on a 5 mile run when my HR is still below 130 at over a 9 min/mile pace.

Covid in late January with strong symptoms and lots of chest pain, but I was never hospitalized.

You just started running. Your body is still adjusting.

Run 3-5 times a week and you will see improvements over time.

Then you can run faster without walking breaks.

biodome wrote:

Walk breaks are fine if you’re not in great shape. Once you’ve Ben running more consistently, just running slowly will be a break though, so no need to keep waking long term.

In my early forties when I would run the occasional marathon between 3:00 and 3:07 I had a standard course that normally took 2:05 to 2:10. Occasionally I could get to 2:02 or 2:03. That got me interested in running it in under 2:00 but could never do it. After a while I developed that "loss of control of leg" issue that there's been a real big thread about here. After about an hour it would start but I found that if I'd walk for maybe 10-15 seconds the control would return and I could run normally for maybe another 10 minutes. That became what I did on my long runs and once I did I immediately began running that course in under two hours. I think I got as fast as 1:55 or 1:56.

Beginners tend to run slow. Over time, they train their bodies to be efficient at these slow paces.

Taking occasional short breaks allows you to train your body to run efficiently at a faster pace, run longer at a given pace, recover faster the next day, and avoid injuries.

This is called the Galloway Method. Most novice runners who are training for their 11-13 minute marathon pace would be faster if they used this run/walk method.

Of course, at some point, it becomes faster to run nonstop, but you're not there yet. I'd suggest that you make it a set routine so you can track your fitness. You might start at 5 minutes running and one minute of walking (5/1). Over time, you can increase the ratio to 7/1.

This will work down to... oh... a 3 1/2 hour marathon... assuming running two miles and walking 30 seconds at the water stops. Faster than that and you probably need to be running nonstop.

EVERYBODY is going into these lower VOLUME, higher INTENSITY workouts. And look what happens to these fields -- they continue to get faster and FASTER!

It's workouts like that, or it's workouts like 4x1000 or 4x1200 with 90 seconds in between so you get into that "my legs are BURNING, my heart is GOING" and you're at that threshold.

Same after a long layoff. So out of shape that am not even out of breath or tired when I stop and walk. My body feels like its overheated. It adapts to the exertion after a couple weeks.