Walking between running

Quoted message said:

when beginning running (did i say that right?) and ones endurance isnt
quite there yet, is it necessary to run all laps consecutively or does
it benefit at all to walk a few when one gets tired, then pick up with
a ran lap (this is on a 1/4 mile track)? i'm trying to build up to 4
miles a day and i'm currently only able to do 3 consecutive miles
before my legs begin to hurt. i can however walk a lap after that 3
miles and my heart rate has dropped significantly and my legs are fine
to run another lap or two. doing this i could most likely run 4 or
even 5 miles but is that really helping my endurance?

Yeah, taking walk breaks is fine, more important to just get the distance in.

But it's also a good idea to go really slowly, so you don't get as tired. If
you're going any faster than 2:30 each lap, slow it down a bit.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/

Quoted message said:

when beginning running (did i say that right?) and ones endurance isnt
quite there yet, is it necessary to run all laps consecutively or does
it benefit at all to walk a few when one gets tired, then pick up with
a ran lap (this is on a 1/4 mile track)? i'm trying to build up to 4
miles a day and i'm currently only able to do 3 consecutive miles
before my legs begin to hurt. i can however walk a lap after that 3
miles and my heart rate has dropped significantly and my legs are fine
to run another lap or two. doing this i could most likely run 4 or
even 5 miles but is that really helping my endurance?

Yes, it's ok to intersperse walking between running. The longer workout
will help build your endurance and adapt your body to running. Over
time, your walk breaks will shorten or be less frequent.

As already mentioned, be sure to run at easy effort - conversational -
be able to talk in complete sentences. If you can, you might want to
consider running places besides a track, as the repetitiveness of it and
the turns could cause a muscle tiredness that you might not experience
on trails or roads. But if a track is what works for you, then by all
means keep at it.

Dot

--
"Success is different things to different people"
-Bernd Heinrich in Racing the Antelope

Quoted message said:

when beginning running (did i say that right?) and ones endurance isnt
quite there yet, is it necessary to run all laps consecutively or does
it benefit at all to walk a few when one gets tired, then pick up with
a ran lap (this is on a 1/4 mile track)? i'm trying to build up to 4
miles a day and i'm currently only able to do 3 consecutive miles
before my legs begin to hurt. i can however walk a lap after that 3
miles and my heart rate has dropped significantly and my legs are fine
to run another lap or two. doing this i could most likely run 4 or
even 5 miles but is that really helping my endurance?

Your legs are "supposed" to hurt! That's why it's called "endurance" -
you have to be able to endure the pain!

Endurance isn't how far you can jog.

Endurance is making it all the way through Mission Impossible III
without slitting your own wrists.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Quoted message said:

when beginning running (did i say that right?) and ones endurance isnt
quite there yet, is it necessary to run all laps consecutively or does
it benefit at all to walk a few when one gets tired, then pick up with
a ran lap (this is on a 1/4 mile track)? i'm trying to build up to 4
miles a day and i'm currently only able to do 3 consecutive miles
before my legs begin to hurt. i can however walk a lap after that 3
miles and my heart rate has dropped significantly and my legs are fine
to run another lap or two. doing this i could most likely run 4 or
even 5 miles but is that really helping my endurance?

When I start beginning runners, which I take as starting from
30 minutes walking, I require (well, vigorously suggest -- in
working with adults you don't 'require'😉 that they mix walking
and running on their way from a 30 minute walk to a 30 minute run.
First day, I walk-run with them to place where they need to start
on the 13 stages between 0 (30 minute walk) and 14 (30 minute run).
Many start above 1, but few above 8.

As long as your pulse is up, you're working on your endurance
(aerobic capacity). Walking counts here.

If you'll need to do some walking, it's better to do it before
you have to. That is, you seem to feel that you could do 4 miles
if you walked some. Your legs hurt (which, by the way, is a suggestion
that the problem isn't the heart/lungs) around 3. So walk that lap
after mile 2, when you're still feeling relatively strong and before
you're forced in to it. Then finish off the 4 after the break. Or,
more my preference as I dislike long walk periods, walk a quarter lap
after each mile.

Your legs hurting isn't a matter of your aerobic capacity, that
is muscles and tendons, or ligaments and bones. Aerobic capacity
shoots up early, reaching a first plateau at about 8-12 weeks. But
the muscles will still be adapting for 3-6 months. Skeletal adaptation
is 6-12 months. So ... while you have aerobic capability for the
3 miles ok, your muscles are telling you that 3 miles is plenty -- for
now.

If you're also doing those 3 miles every day, you're probably going
too often (how old are you? what other exercise are you getting?
how long have you been doing this daily 3 miles?). Your body needs
time to recover and rebuild from the stress. That rebuilding is
when the training actually occurs. Shorting yourself the recovery
time is an effective route to injury and then no running.

Lots more details and considerations, of course, which is why it's
a good idea to find a running club and/or coach.

--
Robert Grumbine http://www.radix.net/~bobg/ Science faqs and amateur activities notes and links.
Sagredo (Galileo Galilei) "You present these recondite matters with too much
evidence and ease; this great facility makes them less appreciated than they
would be had they been presented in a more abstruse manner." Two New Sciences

wow robert, thanks for the detailed reply. to answer a few questions,
i'm 29 and aboug 156lbs, 5'9 ( i know you didnt ask that but i see
people mention it on here alot). for about 3 years i ran 2 miles a day
(this was over 2 years ago) so i assume i'm starting out all over
again. for 2 years i did pretty much nothing. sometime in late march
i started running again. i dont think i' ve been running regularly for
more than a month. i know i've not been doing 3 miles for more than 2
weeks and yes i pretty much go every day. sometimes i cant make the
full 3 miles but i dont do any other kind of excercise. i'd like to
get some kind of run or walk in every day but i suppose if its hurting
me to run eveyr day i shouldnt be doing it..

Quoted message said:

wow robert, thanks for the detailed reply. to answer a few questions,
i'm 29 and aboug 156lbs, 5'9 ( i know you didnt ask that but i see
people mention it on here alot). for about 3 years i ran 2 miles a day
(this was over 2 years ago) so i assume i'm starting out all over
again. for 2 years i did pretty much nothing. sometime in late march
i started running again. i dont think i' ve been running regularly for
more than a month. i know i've not been doing 3 miles for more than 2
weeks and yes i pretty much go every day. sometimes i cant make the
full 3 miles but i dont do any other kind of excercise. i'd like to
get some kind of run or walk in every day but i suppose if its hurting
me to run eveyr day i shouldnt be doing it..

I remember my start in running actually was a Summer Prep program for
Football. I couldn't run a 1/4 miles much less a mile.

We started running 50 yard, walking 50 yards, till we ran a 1/4 walked a
quarter. What joy when I finally ran my first mile. I played a semester
of football, had fun, but never stopped running.

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

when beginning running (did i say that right?) and ones endurance isnt
quite there yet, is it necessary to run all laps consecutively or does
it benefit at all to walk a few when one gets tired, then pick up with
a ran lap (this is on a 1/4 mile track)? i'm trying to build up to 4
miles a day and i'm currently only able to do 3 consecutive miles
before my legs begin to hurt. i can however walk a lap after that 3
miles and my heart rate has dropped significantly and my legs are fine
to run another lap or two. doing this i could most likely run 4 or
even 5 miles but is that really helping my endurance?

Though others have given you good answers, I'll chip in my experience. I
started using walk breaks when getting back into shape in the Spring 2 years
ago. Some ultra-runners use regular walk breaks as a way to increase their
long run time in training, and Jeff Galloway is well known for incorporating
walk breaks into his marathon training programs. see:

http://www.jeffgalloway.com/training/walk_breaks.html

I still use walk breaks sometimes on an easy day when not fully recovered
from a long run. I'll commonly do 2 mins running and then 30 seconds
walking, or 2:15/:15, etc. This means 4 short walk breaks in a 10 minute
block. Variations on this are easy once you get used to it, and it will let
you run further, and/or run on tired legs without muscle damage. When done
more frequently and short, they allow the muscles to refresh while still
getting an aerobic workout. You could also run 4 mins and walk 1, but I
prefer the shorter ones if my legs are still trashed from a race or long
run.

-Tony

In article <[email hidden]>,

Quoted message said:

wow robert, thanks for the detailed reply. to answer a few questions,
i'm 29 and aboug 156lbs, 5'9 ( i know you didnt ask that but i see
people mention it on here alot). for about 3 years i ran 2 miles a day
(this was over 2 years ago) so i assume i'm starting out all over
again. for 2 years i did pretty much nothing. sometime in late march
i started running again. i dont think i' ve been running regularly for
more than a month. i know i've not been doing 3 miles for more than 2
weeks and yes i pretty much go every day. sometimes i cant make the
full 3 miles but i dont do any other kind of excercise. i'd like to
get some kind of run or walk in every day but i suppose if its hurting
me to run eveyr day i shouldnt be doing it..

Since you're a young guy, and aren't carrying a lot of weight, you
can probably expect shorter rather than longer recovery from your
workouts. Still, your description of how you're feeling sounds like
you're not getting enough recovery with 24 hours between runs.
36-48 is the usual recommendation between hard runs, and for now
those 3 miles are hard runs.

Two ideas. One is to increase your recovery time to the 36 hours.
But many people get out most regularly -- and this is the key to
training -- if they go at the same time of day all the time. So
the other is to walk a half hour on your recovery day.

Irrespective of those, a key thing I'll remind (I think it's a
reminder) you of is that you should be running at a conversational
effort level. You should be able to say 'yes I'm still conversational'
on one breath, easily. If you can't, time to walk, and when you
restart running, back off the pace.

--
Robert Grumbine http://www.radix.net/~bobg/ Science faqs and amateur activities notes and links.
Sagredo (Galileo Galilei) "You present these recondite matters with too much
evidence and ease; this great facility makes them less appreciated than they
would be had they been presented in a more abstruse manner." Two New Sciences