Run and Walk strategy for UltraMarathon training.

Yesterday we started using a new walk run model on Sunday's run. We were going to do 20 & 3's. Where we would run for 20 minutes and walk for 3. We missed the first one and changed it to 25 & 3's. We weren't consistent on the walking pace, some times we would walk and other times we would stop, gel, readjust clothing, enjoy some horses, Bathroom breaks, etc. So we figured that we would be well under our mileage goal. But we kept to the 25 minutes between our walk breaks. The walks seemed to stretch on and on, but it would pay off in the end. Besides, this is about time on our feet, not total distance.

The course for yesterday was that we were going to do a 20k loop, come back to the car to refuel and bathroom, then head out for a 32k loop. We had a 20min break in between loops after doing the first loop in 2 hours. We started to do the second loop and decided that we didn't want to run through Col. Danforth park because it was too snowy/icy. So we patched together a route back to our car by estimating how far we thought it would be. The route took us up past the zoo and back home along familiar roads and hills. Since we didn't have a Garmin, we would be doing this one by feel and according to time on our feet. As it turned out, the route back was almost the same distance as the originally planned route and we came in at a 6:15/km avg for our run, minus the 20min stopover.

So in the end, we ended up running a little quicker between walk breaks but we really rested and became more efficient with our fueling breaks. The next challenge is to incorporate more walks into the hill portions of the run and possibly stretch out the walk breaks to about 5 minutes a piece.