Let's face it, runners don't walk.  This is more than just a funny play on words.  We runners typically consider walking to be wimpy, an activity reserved for beginners who haven't yet built the fitness levels required for "real running," right?  I used to feel that way too.  But now, while recovering from injury, I am being forced to look at walking in a whole new way...and what I am learning is pretty startling. An article I recently read by Martin Bernard for the RRCA has just about turned me into a convert.

In the last few years, a number of highly regarded running coaches like Jeff Galloway and Joe Henderson are now recommending walking for a number of very sane reasons:

Reason #1 - Walking helps you finish long races,especially if you haven't fully trained for the distance.

Walking breaks reduce the stress of continuous running, without a loss in aerobic benefit. In fact, many runners report that they can cover two and three times the maximum distances they could attempt without walking breaks. If you've entered a long race but just haven't been putting in the miles, consider taking walking breaks during the race. Or if you're thinking of moving up from 10Ks to half-marathons, half-marathons to full marathons, or marathons to ultra-marathons, short walking breaks may be just the boost you need to cross the finish line.

So long should your walking breaks be? Experts agree that a ratio of one minute of walking every 10 minutes of running, or six minutes of walking/hour is optimal.

Reason #2 - Walking helps you increase the distance of your long training runs while reducing wear and tear and the potential for injury.

The biggest problem with adding mileage is that it can lead to a nightmare-ish downward spiral of injury or overtraining. Walking can help avoid this problem both by extending the distance of the long run and by reducing the impact of extra mileage.

If you include a long easy run in your program to build up endurance, then walking can help. For marathoners, half-marathoners, and 10K runners, those long aerobic runs can really punish the body. Walking breaks can make the long runs a little less taxing on the body, so you can recover faster. Depending on your schedule, a quicker recovery might make it easier for you to handle some of the faster miles, making the rest of your training week more productive.

Make sure that you insert the walks early enough in the workout or race to reap the benefits later. If you don't take a break until your body starts screaming, you've waited too long. Ideally, you should feel good throughout the long runs and stop when the time is up not because you have to.

Reason #3 - Walking will help you improve fitness faster if you're just starting a running program, or if you are recoverng from injury.

If you're a beginner or returning from injury, walking can help you reach your goals faster. When you're out of shape, a training run can seem daunting, especially if you are used to covering the distance with ease. Running harder for shorter bursts is more effective for elevating your fitness level than slugging it out slowly without stopping.

In a study conducted at State University at Cortland, N.Y., on the benefits of walking and running for beginners,  a group of sedentary women between the ages of 20 and 40 participated in four 3-week stints of either continuous running or a combination of walking and running. They exercised for three days each week, ranging from 20 minutes a day during the first 3-week period to 45 minutes a day in the final three weeks. The greatest improvements were realized by the group that mixed walking and running.

The same technique can be used for returning from injury. If your legs can only put up with limited miles, then walking breaks will help you to cover the running miles much faster, which will speed your return to fitness.

Reason #4 - Walking helps you burn more fat during workouts.

As exercise intensity increases, blood flow to the working muscles goes up to ensure that the muscles get a steady supply of oxygen. The problem with this is that most of the free fatty acids (FFA) released from fat cells during exercise are not located in the muscles; they are released from fat stores. Because most of the blood is in the muscles, the FFAs have a difficult time getting circulated to be metabolized as fuel. During a walking break, however, the heart rate drops and the blood is diverted away from the muscles and back into the central core of the body. This increases the concentration of FFAs in the blood, so that when exercise resumes, the blood flows back into the working muscles where the FFAs can be used as fuel.

Walking breaks can also lengthen the time you spend exercising, which in turn burns more calories during the workout. If you are trying to lose weight, this may be a way to add volume to your workouts without adding stress to your body.
  

Reason #5 - Walking is a great warm up and cool down activity.

Walking seems to be a natural activity for warming up and cooling down, since it uses a lot of the same muscles as running. Joe Henderson recommends walking as a good way to ease into a run or slowly wind down from a hard workout. However, some trainers see walking only as a form of recovery for non-workout days. 

Most agree that before a difficult workout, jogging may still be the best way to warm-up to get your heart rate up relatively quickly and blood flowing to the working muscles. For those workouts, try walking before jogging to bring the heart rate up to jogging speed, then jog to bring the heart rate up to workout speed.

The same applies to the cool-down. Walking during a cool-down is a form of active recovery, which helps clear the lactic acid out of the muscles faster than if you come to a dead stop. Jogging may be more effective after a hard workout, but usually walking is a more comfortable way to cool down especially in the heat. Experiment with what works best for you.

So, maybe it's time we stop walk-bashing and use this much-maligned activity as an active trainingtool.  I know that through my own recovery proces I have a whole new level of respect for the walk-break!  It just might save my career!

 

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Tags: walking, cross training, injury recovery, walking breaks, walking intervals, recovery, cool down, distance running

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