Use Walking During an Ultra.


Thanks to Shawn McDonald for this advice on ultra training! Check out his link listed on the links page.

The walk-run mix.

There are many ways to mix walking into your long runs and ultra distance races. This has numerous benefits: more even pacing, faster recovery after, gives time for fluid and food intake, gives the running muscles a break, and lets you look more at the scenery !

Some of the schemes by which one can do this are:

  • Run for a set time, then walk for a set time, and repeat until end of run or race (ie. run 10 mins. then walk 2 mins.); a ratio of 4 or 5 to one for run to walk time often works well
  • Walk any uphill steeper than a certain grade.
  • For more gradual hills walk a minute, run a minute, etc. or some other ratio based on how you feel (effort-wise). Run for a set distance, then walk for a set distance, and repeat; works best for flat terrain (such as a long road run or track ultra). Here one might run 4 laps on the track, then walk one. The length of run and walk can be changed as you fatigue, going to more frequent transitions between the two.

When walking, use your arms in a swinging motion, and push off with each stride; think about propelling yourself forward, not upwards or side to side. Use the walk time to drink some fluids, eat a bit, adjust clothing, figure out if you feel any blisters coming on, etc.

If you work on your power walking in training, you will get faster with less effort. Figure out the scheme that works best for you. Some people prefer long walking breaks, others short ones, some like timed schedules, others go by the terrain.

Good luck with your training and racing !

Check out this great Ultra web site of Bob Boeder! He is the author of: Hardrock Fever and Beyond the Marathon? The web site is Hardrock and is certainly worth a trip to visit!

The copyright of the article Use Walking During an Ultra. in Distance Running is owned by John Seeley. Permission to republish Use Walking During an Ultra. in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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