More Details - Long Run Pacing and Timing

Galloway's 2013 Walt Disney World® Marathon
Walk / Run Interval Recommendations

We have a few more details to work out before we're ready to jump into Week 1 of our Louisiana Marathon training program. We need to know at what pace to run our Saturday long runs, and what intervals to use for the running and walking portions of those long runs.

Let's cover overall pace first. Galloway's general guidance is to adopt an average pace for the long runs that is two minutes slower than expected race pace, but he cautions further in one of his books that older runners should increase that guidance to three minutes to reduce the risk of injury to which older runners are more susceptible.



Jeff also reminds us that running in hot weather requires runners to slow down even more due to the added stress imposed by the heat. For every 5°F above 60°F, runners should slow their overall pace by an additional 30 seconds per mile. So, it seems that older runners on hot days are going to be slogging along at a very slow trot. For example, if the average temperature during the Saturday run is expected to be 80°F, then this 'senior citizen' runner will be adding some five minutes to his expected race pace to arrive at a figure of 15:11 per mile! On average, that's a brisk walk for the timelapserunner. Still, that's what the program calls for, and - at this point - that's what we plan to do.

GYMBOSS Interval Timer / Counter

We should remember that the figure of 15:11 per mile is the overall pace - some of the time we'll be jogging at a more brisk pace, the remainder we'll be walking. Consulting the interval recommendations table from Galloway, we'd be running for about 30 seconds, then walking for about 45 seconds. But how will we know when to switch from one to the other? That's where an interval timer like the Gymboss interval timer comes in handy. This little jewel can be preset for two-interval training with the precise number of minutes or seconds for each of the two intervals before heading out for the Saturday morning run. During the run, it will display the remaining time in each of the intervals and beep reminders to cue us when to switch from one mode to the other.

If we make the assumption (or gather data from personal experience, as I have) that we'll be walking at a pace of roughly 16 minutes per mile, then one can quickly calculate at what pace to run. For the example started above, that pace comes out to about 14 minutes per mile.

Just a few more details to attend to. In the next post.