Whether you want to boost your health, run your first race, or set a new PR, the run/walk method makes those goals accessible for everyone of all fitness backgrounds and levels. But finding run/walk success goes well beyond determining your Magic Mile paces, tracking your intervals, and finishing your goal race. By following some key training principles, you can make your run/walk regimen a fundamental part of your everyday routine.
Runner’s World’s How to Master the Run/Walk Method program walks you through the essential guidance you need to stick with your training, stay healthy, and enjoy each step of your run/walk journey. In Runner’s World’s How to Master the Run/Walk Method: Training Principles for Consistent Success, we’ll teach you: As you continue with your run/walk routine and watch your training progress, keep the following training principles in mind for long-term run/walk success: Practice makes perfect, right? Training on a regular basis—even when you’re not working toward a goal race—will help you reach your fitness aims and maintain your run/walk progress.
Now, that doesn’t mean you need to be in race training mode year round. Use one of Runner’s World’s maintenance plans to structure your off-season workouts and sustain your motivation. You can also use our four-week run/walk maintenance plan, which keeps your body prepped before heading into your next training cycle.
All of our run/walk training plans have a weekly rest day for a reason. The time you spend off your feet is when progress happens, allowing your body to soak up all of the hard work you’ve put in. Build in recovery time after your hard workouts and long runs, and also set aside a few minutes each day for recovery methods like stretching or foam rolling.
And don’t forget to catch those z’s! Sleep is one of—if not the—most important recovery tools you can use to your advantage for muscle and tissue repair, improved immune function, and injury prevention, among other benefits. While it’s important to stay consistent with your running mileage, it’s also important to strength train.
We recommend adding strength training into your routine one to three times a week to support stronger muscles, protect your joints, add force behind your stride, and become more resilient. Aim for more strength workouts earlier in your training block. As your mileage and workout intensity increases throughout your plan, you can reduce your strength workout frequency.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
