For racers: how is the training working out?

[Ice Cream]

[not a racer]
You are all so amazingly awesome.
[/not a racer]

Frankly, I said this was my last marathon that I race.  From now on, I am going to run/walk; (yes, I am going to gallowalk.)  I think marathons are very hard on the body as you age.

[merigayle]

I have a friend who was never able to BQ, then she did the Galloway method and BQed. It was kinda crazy, but inspiring. Gallowalking does not always mean slow. There are some speed race walkers that do ultras that place quite high.

[Ice Cream]

I have a friend who was never able to BQ, then she did the Galloway method and BQed. It was kinda crazy, but inspiring. Gallowalking does not always mean slow. There are some speed race walkers that do ultras that place quite high.

1
I gallowalked two marathons. The first one, because I had become injured after having signed up for the race.  I decided to run 22 min. and walk 8 min. each time.  After 3 hours, I felt great and gave up the walking.  I was so surprised to finish in 4:12.  Second time I did it, I had not trained at all and had only run 13.1 max.  I finished in 4:52. I learned this from my ultra running days, walking breaks are very forgiving and pleasant.  I do know that I am a fast walker.

[BobM59]

I've never used the gallowalk method, but don't really understand the argument against it.  Any port in a storm!

[ZiggyStardust]

I had never walked in a race until Baystate this year, when my pace buddy elected to do some walk breaks. I think if you're disciplined about it (e.g., the example of "run 22 min, walk 8 min" maybe it'd feel OK. For me, the unpredictability of when my buddy wanted to walk, and for how long, made it feel harder on me than just chugging along. I'm already thinking of VCM in the spring, so maybe I'll play around with disciplined gallowalking just for the helluvit.

Most important, though: great race, BobM!  Being so speedy, I guess you missed out on the lady who was going "hiiiii-yaaa" with every breath (or step?) and punctuating it with an "ooooooohhhhh!" every so often?

[merigayle]

If you do not practice run/walking, i think it can be really hard for your muscles and body to do it during a race. I like the 8/2 or 4/1. Generally for ultras I power walk the uphills and run the straights and flat.

[Ice Cream]

I had never walked in a race until Baystate this year, when my pace buddy elected to do some walk breaks. I think if you're disciplined about it (e.g., the example of "run 22 min, walk 8 min" maybe it'd feel OK. For me, the unpredictability of when my buddy wanted to walk, and for how long, made it feel harder on me than just chugging along. I'm already thinking of VCM in the spring, so maybe I'll play around with disciplined gallowalking just for the helluvit.

Most important, though: great race, BobM!  Being so speedy, I guess you missed out on the lady who was going "hiiiii-yaaa" with every breath (or step?) and punctuating it with an "ooooooohhhhh!" every so often?

Random walking as you describe would be a no no for me.  It has to be timed and predictable for me.  I found that it had the advantage of splitting the "race" into manageable entities when I know I was not adequately trained to run the entire distance.

[siamesedream]

I've decided to keep my long run at 9 miles and work on nailing the pace, I will arrive at my long run day feeling rested and totally destroy that distance. The long run will be the backbone for the rest of the week and my improved aerobic profile will spill over into my easy runs.

I'm already running the 9 fairly well, I'll work on speeding up the pace by a small amount each week.