"Da plan, Boss! Da plan!"

No shortage of marathon training plans

Pardon the phonic distortion, Tattoo, but I couldn't resist tweaking your famous Fantasy Island line. Seriously, though, now that we have a fairly clear goal for our first marathon, we still need a plan, a training plan for the 2013 Louisiana Marathon.

Jeff Galloway speaks to Team Offutt runners at meet and
greet session after a run (U.S. Air Force Photo by Josh Plueger)

In the timelapserunner's last post, he dropped Jeff Galloway's name. Jeff Galloway is a bit of a legend in distance running circles, for his own running prowess - Jeff ran the 10K for the United States in the 1972 Munich Olympics, for his decades of contributions to American road racing and the coaching of amateur runners, and - somewhat controversially - for his espousal of the run/walk/run method of distance running. It is this last item that first drew the timelapserunner's attention. Jeff's idea - learned the hard way through personal experience - is to intersperse walk breaks between running segments to reduce the risk of injuring muscles and to save energy reserves for longer distances.

I suggested that this method has stirred some up some controversy over the years, not so much with other serious coaches of distance running, as with more elite runners and running purists who insist that this technique is both unnecessary and unbecoming to the sport. It isn't hard to find a forum post gone aflame out there when the subject of 'Gallowalking' - as some call it - comes up.

Walking during the NYC Marathon
(Courtesy derek7272 @ Flickr)

Still, Jeff has coached, or taught through his many books on the subject, literally thousands upon thousands of runners in this technique, claiming an overall 98% success rate (i.e., completing the marathon) for first-timers who faithfully employ both his training methods and race-day protocols. Most claim absence of injury during training and racing, an enjoyable race-day experience, quick recovery from race-day stress, and - in many cases - improved times for repeat marathoners who tried other training and racing methods before using run/walk/run.

All those claims greatly appeal to me. Given a few leg muscle and ligament tweaks I've experienced since coming back to the sport, I'm interested in a method that reduces the likelihood of injury. Having had a friend or two who have run the entire marathon distance and suffered a very long recovery period, a quicker recovery also sounds appealing. Finally, the 98% completion figure gives me confidence that I too will make it the entire 26 miles, 385 yards. As for the 'does walking part of the way really count' crowd, I'm sure that I won't find engraved on the back of the finisher's medal: *timelapserunner walked part of the Louisiana Marathon but we gave him this medal anyway.