For some runners, walking is seen as a thing to avoid at all costs. When the goal is to run, then to walk is to have failed, right?
Wrong. Walking is not the antithesis of running but part of the same spectrum of bipedal movement. Moreover, it’s possible to combine the two into a glorious hybrid. Welcome to the world of “Jeffing”.
What does Jeffing mean?
Despite its mysterious name – more on which later – Jeffing describes the thoroughly unmysterious practice of running a bit, then walking a bit. Simples. You can Jeff during a training session. You can Jeff during a race. And if either of those is going really badly, you can do some effing and jeffing, too, though that’s a different article entirely.
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Any ultramarathoners reading this may note that Jeffing is far from a cutting-edge activity. Few are the 100-mile runners who haven’t Jeffed in their time. In fact, all but the podium botherers in such events will spend a great deal of time walking the steep stuff and running only the flats and downhill.
Updated: 29 September 2025 UTMB – something that every competitor does, even winner of the male race Tom Evans – start small. Try running intervals of one or two minutes, followed by slightly longer walking intervals. Inititally, this might look like 5 x 1min runs and 2min walks. As you improve in fitness and confidence, you can extend overall duration of your sessions can get longer (for example 10 x 1min runs and 2min walks), or you can start to shift the run/walk ratio more towards the running part.
In many ways, Jeffing is the more pedestrian version of another mysteriously named training approach: fartlek. Swedish for “speed play”, fartlek is a term for a continuous, unstructured session consisting of mixed-pace intervals. For example, you might do three minutes of easy running, followed by 2 minutes of hard running. Some people get creative: run hard to the first tree, easy to the next tree. Repeat. Runners looking to Jeff in such a manner can of course do so, too.
Why you should be running stairs more often?
We regret to inform you that Jeffing has nothing to do with swearing. Instead it refers to the godfather of the run walk-method, US Olympian and author Jeff Galloway.
Health & Injuries
As with running, the key to sensible Jeffing is to build up slowly. Initially, this will mean spending more time walking than running.
If you’re What does Jeffing mean, following a Health & Injuries is a great way to start your Jeffing journey and incorporate plenty of structured run-walking into your training routine.
But one of the myths surround Jeffing is that it’s only for new runner. It’s not. Experienced runners can skillfully employ a walk-run strategy to set PBs across a range of distances.
Race time predictor and training pace calculator ways for beginners to stay motivated Health & Injuries marathon finish line in roughly the same time as continuous running. For the study, both male and female non-elite participants covered the marathon distance of 26.2 miles, either run-walking or just running. The run-walkers’ times ranged from 4:14-4:34, while the runners’ times ranged from 4:07-4:34 – meaning the difference is marginal. What's more, of the runners studied, those who used the run-walk method during the marathon reported less muscle pain In fact, a study published in the.
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If you plan to Jeff at an upcoming race, it’s worth studying the course profile and details in advance. Doing so will allow you to align your walk breaks with water stations and hilly sections, for example.
'Looking at the landscape when planning your run-walk is important,' says run-walk ultramarathoner Marc Burget, who won the 2016 Daytona 100 in a time of 14 hours and 14 minutes – a course record at the time. 'The idea that you should move from walking to running is the wrong framework. Instead, putting walks in my race plans allows me to go the whole 100 miles without becoming tired.'
This is seconded by Chris Twiggs, National Program Director at Galloway Training. 'Walking hills is smart because we want to do what we can to conserve our energy so that when we expend our energy we get the most bang for our buck.'
And while Before Jeffing your way round the ways for beginners to stay motivated leg strength, in a race it could decrease your pace (and your finish time) because it takes so much effort. As Twiggs says, if you don't plan ahead, you might find yourself running up a hill – wasting effort – and then having to walk the descent to recover. By planning ahead, you could flip that run-walk scenario to maximise your energy and increase your speed.
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The early stages of running are some of the most exciting – but they can also be frustrating if your progress is continually scuppered by injury. Jeffing represents great way for newer runners Best wireless headphones.
By giving your muscles a better chance to recover, the run-walk technique also helps you cover longer distances continuously than you would through running alone. For those looking to run back-to-runs on the weekend, Jeffing also presents a smart way of doing so.
'By shifting back and forth between walking and running muscles, you distribute the workload among a variety of muscles, increasing your overall performance capacity,' explains Galloway. 'For veteran marathoners, this is often the difference between achieving a time goal or not.'
Summer running gear sale post-run recovery because there is less muscular damage to repair. 'The early walk breaks erase fatigue, and the later walk breaks will reduce or eliminate overuse muscle breakdown,' says Galloway.
So, while it's true that runners typically move faster than walkers, it's also true that taking well-timed walk breaks during long races and training runs can help you to fight fatigue, perform at your best and reach your running goals.
