Galloway says:
"Most runners will record significantly faster times when they take walk
breaks because they don't slow down at the end of a long run. Thousands of
time-goal-oriented veterans have improved by 10, 20, 30 minutes and more in
marathons by taking walk breaks early and often in their goal races. You can
easily spot these folks. They're the ones who are picking up speed during
the last two to six miles when everyone else is slowing down".
From http://www.jeffgalloway.com/training/walk_breaks.html
"Veteran marathoners should follow the ratios below:
Time goal of more than 6 hours: 1-2 minutes of walking every 1-2 minutes
running
Time goal of 5:50-6:00 hours and slower: 1 minute of walking every 4-5
minutes running
Time goal of 5:00-5:29: 1 minute of walking every 5-6 minutes of minutes
running
Time goal of 4:30-4:59: 1-2 minutes of walking every 6-7 minutes running
Time goal of 4:00-4:29: 1 minute walking every 7-8 minutes running
Time goal of 3:30-3:59: 1 minute walking every mile
Time goal of 3:22-3:29: 30 seconds walking every mile
Time goal of 3:16-3:21: 20 seconds walking every mile
Time goal of 3:08-3:15: 15 seconds of walking every mile
Time goal of 2:50-3:07: 10 seconds of walking every mile"
Since some of these are flexible, I'll focus on the 3:30 to 3:59 time frame:
8.015 per mile 3:30 pace
7.015 mins run / mile per galloway
0.073 dist walked in 1 min @ 4.4mph (plug in your own #)
0.927 remaining dist to run
7.570 pace to run dist remaining
For a goal of 3:30, running pace must be significantly higher using the
gallowalk, 7:34 vs 8:01. That's enough faster that it could pose problems
for some people. It would require strict training at that pace to pull it
off, and at what benefit?
9.137 per mile 3:59 pace
8.137 mins run / mile per galloway
0.067 dist walked in 1 min @ 4mph
0.933 remaining dist to run
8.719 pace to run dist remaining
For a just sub 4 hour marathon, it's 8:43 pace for gallowalking, 9:08 for
running. This seems more reasonable.
Faster than 3:30 Galloway suggests shorter and shorter walk breaks, not a
great deal longer than when drinking. I think 1 min of walking per mile for
3:30 is excessive and makes your running part too fast. I see the method
doing no harm for slower runners, maybe 3:45+, but for faster times even
Galloway heads towards no walking.
I don't see how his claims of 20 and 30 minute improvements for
"time-goal-oriented veterans" can be true. Probably those are just the usual
improvements people will commonly experience between marathons as they get
to be better runners.
Certainly, for slower runners and ultrarunners, walking will help keep the
overall pace where you want it. This is simply due to the fact that the
speed necessary to complete the distance is too fast to walk and too slow to
run.
-Tony