The run/walk method has been around since the 1970s, and it has surged in popularity as more athletes learn that regular walk intervals may help you run longer—and faster.
Olympic marathoner and running coach Jeff Galloway developed run/walk for all types of athletes, including those who run sub-3 hour marathons to runners just getting into the sport. One consistent rules across the ratios? In almost every case, the walk interval is 30 seconds. This holds true whether the run intervals are four minutes or 10 seconds long.
Chris Twiggs, chief training officer of the Galloway Training Programs, currently coaches between 220 to 250 athletes through the Galloway Method, including ultrarunners, people training for their first 5Ks, Boston qualifier hopefuls, and those aiming to finish a marathon in under seven hours. “Every single one of them,” he says, trains with 30-second walks. “It’s just a question of how much running do we throw in.”
Noticing this common thread made us curious: What is it about that 30-second break that makes it appropriate for all types of runners? We asked Twiggs to explain the details to Runner’s World.
Why You Need a 30-Second Interval
When Galloway started recommending the run/walk method back in the 70s, he started with run a mile, walk a minute, regardless of pace. Over time, though, as he and his team of coaches collected more data on how runners performed with the method, they started tweaking the recommendation, personalizing the run ratios based on pace while still suggesting the one-minute walk.
Keep in mind: The 30-second walks are for halfs and marathons, runners started slowing during their later walk breaks, which dragged down their overall pace. For example, a runner might start out with a 15-minute-per-mile run/walk pace, but as the race wore on, they’d drop to a 16-minute-per-mile pace because of the slower pace during walk breaks. To compensate for the slow down, they’d push themselves to run faster during the run intervals, but that would backfire by making them more fatigued They found that when training for longer distances, such as slower Half Marathon Training.
“By eight miles in a half marathon, or certainly by 20 miles in a marathon, I’m now walking significantly slower during my walk break than I was, and I’m having to run significantly faster than I was to make up for that,” Twiggs explains. “And it just becomes this downward spiral.”
That’s why, about a decade ago, the one-minute walk break morphed into 30 seconds, Twiggs says. “In 30 seconds, you’re getting the recovery benefits that you need from the walk, but you’re not slowing down [your overall pace] significantly,” he explains.
There is a catch, though, and, of course, as with any “rule,” there are some exceptions:
With the shortened walks, Galloway also shortened the suggested run intervals. For example, the early recommendation advised someone targeting a 9-minute per mile pace to run for 4 minutes and walk for one minute. Today, that pace suggestion is to run two minutes/walk 30 seconds. Note that this is “the same exact amount of running and walking per mile,” Twiggs explains. “It’s just that by getting that break more frequently, we’re not slowing down as much during the walk if we’re able to consistently hold the pace that we want to hold, so we feel stronger throughout the run.”
Not every run/walker follows the 30-second walk rule. In fact, it can go toward both ends of the pace spectrum. One is people who primarily walk and incorporate small bursts of running to shake things up or to increase their average pace slightly, Twiggs explains. These folks, for example, may walk two minutes and run 30 seconds, flipping the traditional run/walk to a walk/run. The Galloway Method recommends this sometimes for runners coming back from injury as well people who want gentle cross-training as a break from their more intense run workouts, Twiggs says.
On the other side are very experienced runners gunning for super fast finish times—really anyone wanting to sustain a sub-7 minute/mile pace, which equates to sub-3 hours What if you feel extra tired toward the end of the.
The Benefits of 30-Second Intervals
There’s a notable perk to shorter running intervals. “It allows you to run at a more natural pace for you,” Twiggs says. As he explains, to complete a half or full marathon, you have to adopt a slower pace than what you’d average on a shorter run, such as a five-mile jaunt around your neighborhood. However, there are only two ways to slow down your average pace. The first is to deliberately hold back while you run, which can compromise your biomechanics Should You Split Up Your Long Run vertical oscillation up and down, Twiggs says. “Often, what we find is, when people are forcing themselves to run slower, they end up bouncing,” he says. This can cause more pounding on the joints, leading to an uncomfortable stride, he explains.
The other way to slow your pace is to inject regular walks into your runs. “Now, I can run the same pace for a half marathon that I’m comfortable running for five miles, but by putting in the walk breaks more frequently, it brings the average pace down to something that’s sustainable for the entire half marathon, or something that’s sustainable for the entire marathon,” Twiggs says.
Still, for the vast majority of athletes? Those 30-second breaks are where it’s at.
Rarely, But Sometimes, You Need to Walk Longer
There are a few instances in which Twiggs recommends taking more than a 30-second walk. One is if you start a workout or race too fast without a proper warmup. All About the Run/Walk Method heart rate and push you into the anaerobic zone. “You want to recover from that as soon as possible,” Twiggs says. To help lower your heart rate, you can either add in an extra walk or lengthen an existing walk. Once you get back into the aerobic zone, he suggests resuming the 30-second walks.
How to Build Ankle Stiffness for Injury-Free Speed race? It's better to take more frequent short walks than fewer long walks, Twiggs says. That’s because once you start extending the walks to a minute or so, it can be challenging to start running again. If you feel like you need a longer walk, you likely just need to shorten your run segment, Twiggs explains. For example, instead of doing cycles of 3-minute run/30-second walk, you could shift to 2:30 run/30-second walk.
Nutrition - Weight Loss tempo and long runs only. When it comes to speedwork intervals—for example, quarter-mile, half-mile, or mile repeats—you’ll need longer walks after each repeat to give your body time to properly recover from the high-intensity efforts. “We may put as much as five minutes of walking in between those harder effort miles,” Twiggs says.
Jenny is a Boulder, Colorado-based health and fitness journalist. She’s been freelancing for Runner’s World since 2015 and especially loves to write human interest profiles, in-depth service pieces and stories that explore the intersection of exercise and mental health. Her work has also been published by SELF, Men’s Journal, and Condé Nast Traveler, among other outlets. When she’s not running or writing, Jenny enjoys coaching youth swimming, rereading Harry Potter, and buying too many houseplants.
