Galloway's Disneyland Half "Time" Training Plan

[Tabetha]

I am in the process of using Galloway's training guide for the upcoming Disneyland Half, but I have a question about the speed work.

It has us running increasing numbers of 800m every other weekend at :15/mile faster than our projected race pace.

If we're run/walk/running it, do we run/walk/run those 800m, or are we meant to run them flat out at :15/mile faster than our running pace for the run intervals?

It's a goofball question, I know, but I can't seem to find an answer for it anywhere.

 

[johde]

It's not that goofball of a question. I've read or heard a variety of methods for doing 800m repeats with Galloway. The one thing that is constant is the goal time is from the start of the 800m to the end of the 800m.

Jeff's "Book on Running" suggests that you run the 800m straight.

In "Half Marathon: you can do it" is says At the end of the first lap, walk for 20-30 seconds—but don’t stop your stopwatch. The time for each 800 should be from the start until the end of the second lap. (from 2:30-3:00 goal)

Finally, one of the people on a Galloway forum I follow recommends doing your goal run/walk ratio with a walk break that's half as long. For example, if I'm planning on doing 2/1 in the race I should do 2/:30 for the intervals.

My last time through, I did a combination of the first and third one. I ran the first and last repeat straight. The ones in the middle I did run/walk with the walk break being half as long.

Finally, note it's not :15 per mile quicker, it's :15 per 800m quicker or :30 per mile quicker.

 

[cewait]

I agree that the preference is probably run the entire 800 m. If I were coaching, that would be my direction. Even at a 16 minute pace, it's only 8 minutes.

It may be hard, but honestly, that is what the work is supposed to feel like. However, I would yield to the run walk through the interval if and only if the walk did not occur in the last 200 m or so. If you break into a walk there it is just as likely to be driven through a mental need to quit rather than the clock.

 

[johde]

Having done intervals both with and without walk breaks, both can be hard for different reasons. In training, I was training around a 1:20/:40 run walk ratio although because of the heat, I started at 1:00/1:00 then switched to 1:10/:50 half way through.

For reference, in speedwork, I was shooting for about a 5:30-5:45 800m repeat. My MM suggests an 11:30 pace in a half Marathon under perfect conditions, I think a 12:00 pace is possible in good condition. My PR under warm and humid condition, 65 degrees near 100% humidity is about a 13:00 mile.

In my last speed work secession, the first 800m I did in 5:37 (11:14 pace) running straight through. My second 800m, I did run 1:20/walk :20 in 5:36 (11:12 pace). But to do that in the second one, I needed to run a 10:36 pace to overcome the time lost in the walk breaks.

For me, doing the speed work without walk breaks was to extend my running further at a quick pace. Doing the speed work with walk breaks is about going faster how I'm planning on doing the race.

Both have been important to me for different reasons. Working on being able to do 800m repeats without walk breaks led to further breakthroughs to where I can now run 3-3.5 miles without walk breaks. 800m repeats with walk breaks are more about running faster when I run. In my final long run before before my may have I did 13.5 miles at about a 13:35 pace running :45 at 10:50 pace and walking :45 at a 17:33 pace. Notice that my running pace on the long run is faster than my pace on the 800m straight run. Of course in one case I'm doing it for :45 where in the other I'm doing it for 5:13 at a time.

 

[Tabetha]

Thank you both for your insight - it's very helpful!

So if I'm to understand this correctly, we don't need to use our 'run' pace as the goal, we use the combined 'run/walk/run' pace? So if my overall run/walk/run pace is 12:30, then my per mile pace should be 12:00, and my half mile pace should be 5:45? (as opposed to taking the 'run' speed of my run/walk/run cycle and ramping it up by :15 sec per 800m?

Thanks so much!

 

[johde]

Your right in your thinking Tabetha. You base your intervals on your overall pace including walk breaks. If you've ran a 5K or other short race recently, you could use McMillan running Calculator to set your paces for speed work. Given the large number of intervals you build up to and Galloways pension for conservatism, the "Cruise Interval" section of McMillan matches up nicely with Galloways speed work intervals for the 800m. I didn't pose sooner because we lost our power for 4 days in that storm that went throught the midwest and east coast Friday.

 

[Tabetha]

Sweet! That makes the speedwork seem much more feasible.
Thanks for confirming, regardless of how long it took! I hope the storm didn't do too much damage for you. Was it Debbie's left-overs?
I work on a cruise ship, and we had to do a bit of a reroute traveling up the east coast to get away from her...
Now I just have to finish letting my lungs sort themselves out, and it's back to training. I've missed 3 weeks, and I'm getting really nervous.