Galloway Training Program Question

[EMHDad]

I am in the second week into Galloway's half marathon training program. I have my first half marathon at the end of July. I will then begin Galloway's marathon training schedule for the Dis marathon in January.

A few questions...

First, Galloway has only 2 conditioning runs a week and a long run. Other training schedules I see have 3 conditioning runs a week. Is there a reason to only have 2 conditioning runs or should I have 3 or does it matter?

A little background. I am 31. I am in pretty good health. I ran in high school. I was never a stellar athlete, but was adequate. I also worked out reguarly in college. Basically, got married 8 years ago, had kids starting 4 years ago, and became a couch potato. I trained 3 months last summer for a 5k, and eventually ran one in just under 27 minutes. Hopefully, that will give you a little idea of who I am.

Second, Galloway has me run a magic mile. Then I can calculate what my half-marathon/marathon pace should be. However, he says I should then had 2 minutes for my long run training pace. I just ran my first 'magic mile' and got a 9:11. This would put me at a half marathon pace of basically 12 minutes. Galloway has me running all my long run sessions at 14 minutes. Why is this? How do I train always at a 14 minute pace and then run the half marathon at 12 minute pace. I thank you for the help and the encouragement.

 

[verticalchaos]

I don't do Galloway's plan, but I do the Bingham/Hadfield run/walk plan in Marathoning for Mortals which is similar.

That plan is 2 days of run/walk during the week at set intervals, 2 days of XT during the week, and one long weekend run they do by mileage. I have opted to do my long runs by time.

I don't know what this "magic mile" thing is, but yes. Long runs should be done at slower than race pace. The idea is to build up endurance and "foot time". That's why I go for time rather than distance. That's also why long runs are often called LSRs - long slow runs. It's about training your body to use the glycogen stores. NOT about going race pace the whole time.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

I am in the second week into Galloway's half marathon training program. I have my first half marathon at the end of July. I will then begin Galloway's marathon training schedule for the Dis marathon in January.

A few questions...

First, Galloway has only 2 conditioning runs a week and a long run. Other training schedules I see have 3 conditioning runs a week. Is there a reason to only have 2 conditioning runs or should I have 3 or does it matter?

A little background. I am 31. I am in pretty good health. I ran in high school. I was never a stellar athlete, but was adequate. I also worked out reguarly in college. Basically, got married 8 years ago, had kids starting 4 years ago, and became a couch potato. I trained 3 months last summer for a 5k, and eventually ran one in just under 27 minutes. Hopefully, that will give you a little idea of who I am.

Second, Galloway has me run a magic mile. Then I can calculate what my half-marathon/marathon pace should be. However, he says I should then had 2 minutes for my long run training pace. I just ran my first 'magic mile' and got a 9:11. This would put me at a half marathon pace of basically 12 minutes. Galloway has me running all my long run sessions at 14 minutes. Why is this? How do I train always at a 14 minute pace and then run the half marathon at 12 minute pace. I thank you for the help and the encouragement.

I think this is actually a weakness of the Galloway method. If your magic mile (really, it's an "all out mile" after a warmup) is 9:11, your long runs should be paced between 12:21 to 13:21. Your easy runs should be a little faster, 12:21 to 12:51. Unless you're doing run/walk with a lot of walking, 14 minutes per mile is too slow for you.

 

[johde]

Hopefully I can answer a few of your question for you based on my experiences.

First of all, I'm going to assume since your looking at Galloway's plans your planning on doing is run/walk/run to complete the half marathon. If you're planning on running the entire thing, I would recommend looking at a different plan. John Bingham/Jenny Hadfields "Marathoning for Mortals" has an all running plan similar to Galloway's plans.

I can give you what I've learned from reading his books. I have "Galloway's book on running" 2nd edition (I also accidentally purchased the 1st edition, but it doesn't have run/walk). It's a good book, and can be bought cheap on amazon. I think I paid $6.00 or so shipped. It doesn't have the Magic Mile stuff. I got most of that information from his website and browsing inside his half marathon book on Amazon and Google Books.

First on running 3 days a weak. The biggest gain in fitness comes when you go from 2 to 3 days a week. After 3 days a week, the marginal benefit is less and the risk of injury goes up with each added day. I've done 3 days a week, but I'm considering adding a 4th. I would also note, the times listed on the schedule are minimum times for the midweek runs. If you are already running more, you should continue to do it as long as you can recover between runs. I'm up to a little over an hour on my midweek, non-speed-work days.

As far as training pace, only your long runs are to be done at 14:00 mile. Your shorter runs can be done faster. In addition to that, he also suggests adjusting your walk/run ratio. Doing run 2/walk 1 or run 2.5/ walk 1 midweek and run 1/walk 1 or 30/30 on the long run. So some of your slowing down will be from going slower and some will be from walking more. The biggest mistake people make, I know because I made it too, is doing the long runs too fast. You won't get the recovery you need before the next workout. I don't know exactly what plan your doing, he has a bunch on them, but I've taken some of the shorter long run later in the program and done them quicker, at a pace approaching race pace. That being said, the fastest I've ever run a given distance is in a race. The goal is to work on speed part of the time in some of the shorter runs; work on endurance in the long runs; then put them together on race day.

Another thing I just noticed was your 5K time from last summer. That would suggest that your magic mile time should improve greatly over the next several weeks. McMillan has a similar running calculator to Galloway but you can put in times other than a mile and get a greater variety of information. McMillan predicts you could run a 7:48 magic mile last summer.

Good luck

 

[verticalchaos]

Hopefully I can answer a few of your question for you based on my experiences.

First of all, I'm going to assume since your looking at Galloway's plans your planning on doing is run/walk/run to complete the half marathon. If you're planning on running the entire thing, I would recommend looking at a different plan. John Bingham/Jenny Hadfields "Marathoning for Mortals" has an all running plan similar to Galloway's plans.

Marathoning for Mortals also has a run/walk plan. They just don't feel the need to assume their readers are stupid and put the second run on there. They assume you know you're going to be running again. I think that's what bugs me so much with Galloway's plan. I feel like by him calling it run/walk/run he is talking down to us. That's probably just me though.

 

[Saylan]

Marathoning for Mortals also has a run/walk plan. They just don't feel the need to assume their readers are stupid and put the second run on there. They assume you know you're going to be running again. I think that's what bugs me so much with Galloway's plan. I feel like by him calling it run/walk/run he is talking down to us. That's probably just me though.

I didn't get the impression he was implying I'm stupid or talking down to me when I was training with his program. An additional word doesn't make that much of a difference to me, though.

I started out on his program and tweaked it more to what I was already comfortable doing, like Johnde said, so I think EMHDad, you'd be fine to do the same. Don't feel like everything is set in stone.

No one plan is better than another if it means you have to change your style or do things that aren't comfortable (within reason) for you. Galloway worked best for me, Marathoning for Mortals works for Verticalchaos, and I know Hal Higdon's plans worked better for a friend of mine. Each plan has their own strengths and weaknesses but they're all good overall.

 

[johde]

Marathoning for Mortals also has a run/walk plan. They just don't feel the need to assume their readers are stupid and put the second run on there. They assume you know you're going to be running again. I think that's what bugs me so much with Galloway's plan. I feel like by him calling it run/walk/run he is talking down to us. That's probably just me though.

I probably should have mentioned that as well. I started out using Marathoning For Mortals walk plan for my first one, moved to the walk/run plan for the second one. I wasn't ready for his run/walk for my current training cycle so I went on my own with a hybrid between Galloway ad MFM. My main point was the Galloway's current plans are not good for people skipping the walk breaks. The midweeks mile seem way to short to support the long runs with out the walk breaks.

 

[verticalchaos]

Oh right. Galloway is definitely not for someone who's intending to run the whole time. At this point I'm planning on using MFM's run/walk a marathon for sure. What I'm debating is maybe trying to move up to the run a half plan for the DL Half. Though with the heat that will likely be there, maybe not. LOL.

 

[Villains_Rock]

I have been following Galloways plan for my half in May. I do 3 miles on Tuesday and Thursday (although it's a couple mins less than 30) and I follow his run/walk method for my long runs that are every other week. I add about 2 min pace on for my long runs. For example: I run about a 8:40 at my fastest so I am shooting for a 10:55 for my overall pace for my next long run. I agree a pace of 14 would be just too slow for you! And how would you know how your body will feel come race day of you don't train at the desired speed?? Anyhow...I use a calculator I found to figure out what my pace should be when I run based on my distance, ratio and walk speed. I have actually felt better this training season than last fall and have had less aches and pains. I'm also getting faster!!! Here's the site of the run/walk calculator. I hope this helps!

www.coachdino.org/runwalk.htm

 

[johde]

I haven't decided what plan I'm going to use for DL. I'm to the point I could start Marathoning For Mortals Run/Walk plan. The trouble is I have too many things I want to do to fit neatly into a prefab plan. After my April 3rd half marathon, I'm going to finish working on running 3 miles without walk breaks, slowly. I know I won't be able to do DL all running but I want to run every so often without walk breaks to keep that skill up. Also, Since I incorporated speedwork into my routine every other week, I've seen improvments and want to do that as well. I may take 1 day a week and alternate between speedwork and running straight through for at least a portion of the miles.

To the OP: Sorry for hijacking the thread somewhat.

 

[Minnie Lor]

Excellent info. I'm trying to do the Galloway method by following the info on his website and listening to a few podcasts. I've been listening to old episodes of The Extra Mile Podcast Experiment. He really gets into all the why's and how's with Jeff Galloway.

Then today I did my "long" day while listening to "Motion Traxx" Run Walk Intervals with Jeff Galloway. I'm somewhat new to running and the 1:1 ratio wiped me out more than the 2:1 ratio that I've been using. Could be just today though.

I have MFM book but will probably buy Jeff's book just wasn't sure which one though. Thanks for all the great insight even though I'm not the OP.

 

[HockeyKat]

I train with an official Galloway group of about 500 people, with pace group leaders, water stops, etc. It is sponsored by Galloway and he shows up every year for the kickoff.

I am not sure where you found your info, but according to his calculator (found here: http://www.jeffgalloway.com/resources/gallracepredict.html), your half marathon training pace should be 12:56, not 14.

However, our pace group leaders generally say that your magic mile pace is your short run goal (tempo runs), and your long run pace should be add 2 minutes or so to the magic mile pace. Therefore, that would put you in the 11-12 min range. Between the calculator and their advice, that would put you somewhere around 12-13 as roomthreeseventeen suggested.

I also agree that you will get faster as time goes on, and you should be checking your magic mile every few weeks (during the tempo run) and adjusting the long run pace accordingly.

When I was heavy into training (just ramping up again right now), every 2-3 weeks I used one of the 3-mile short runs and did a warm up easy mile, 1 mile full out, and a cool down easy mile, just to make sure I was not training slow.


FWIW, although I am a *lot* slower than you... I did a magic mile of 12 min and trained for 10 weeks at 14 min (plus time added for extreme heat, welcome to the South). By the time I was finished with training (~10 weeks), my magic mile was 10:30 and I finished my half 4 minutes slower than predicted, in 2:49 with rather extreme weather conditions (Chicago in August - temps in the low 80s and high humidity, plus an injury at mile 8).

 

[johde]

Kat - your Magic Mile times sound like mine. Jan 28th I ran a 12:04 Magic Mile (First attempt at a magic mile), Feb 7th I ran an 11:38MM, March 5th Ran a 10:34 mm. My average pace has been around 14:00. I'm shooting for a 2:50-2:55. I maxed out at 10 miles. Weather kept me from getting a longer long run in this winter.

 

[Minnie Lor]

Frankly, I'm not sure that I could run a mile without a walk break. I did 6 miles at a 1:1 today and it about did me in.

 

[johde]

Lorie - There are recommended run/walk intervals for the magic mile depending on how fast you are. For mine, I ran a lap walked 20 sec and repeated to complete the 4 laps.

 

[EMHDad]

I appreciate all the info. I will be doing a run/walk program for both the half and full. I cannot run the whole thing. I do not know why, but the galloway calculator link given is different than the information given by galloway through the RunDisney site. I am following the galloway half training program given through that site. However, I added a conditioning run. I am completing 3 30 minute conditioning runs and then my long run. However, Thelong run is yet to be anything. Last week was 2 miles. Sat. is 3 miles. However, I will get there.

 

[HockeyKat]

Kat - your Magic Mile times sound like mine. Jan 28th I ran a 12:04 Magic Mile (First attempt at a magic mile), Feb 7th I ran an 11:38MM, March 5th Ran a 10:34 mm. My average pace has been around 14:00. I'm shooting for a 2:50-2:55. I maxed out at 10 miles. Weather kept me from getting a longer long run in this winter.

I capped out at 14 miles, but my long pace was more in the 15:00-15:30 range since I was training outside in NC in the summer. One of the long runs, I got in my car at 6:30AM and it was already 82 degrees with 85% humidity!

I think 2:50 is more than doable for you. When is your race?

Frankly, I'm not sure that I could run a mile without a walk break. I did 6 miles at a 1:1 today and it about did me in.

I definitely can't do a full mile without a walk break. The best I have ever done is 5:1s where only 1 of the 1 min walk breaks fell within the mile!

It does get better with time. Just be sure to increase your distance gradually or you run the risk of injury.

I have accepted that Galloway is the best method for me, and I don't really care if others think I am not a real runner because I take walk breaks! I am always sure to look behind me in a race before stopping to walk.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

Jeff needs to sell shirts that say REAL RUNNERS DO RUN/WALK/RUN.

 

[HockeyKat]

Jeff needs to sell shirts that say REAL RUNNERS DO RUN/WALK/RUN.

 

[verticalchaos]

Jeff needs to sell shirts that say REAL RUNNERS DO RUN/WALK/RUN.

As long as it's grammatically correct!

I love One More Mile's stuff as a rule, but honestly. There are things I would NEVER wear from them because they're grammatically incorrect. "Where's the finish" should end with a QUESTION MARK and not an exclamation point. That's the primary example. Grr. Just one of my little pet peeves.