Ask the Penguin: Going Sub 4 Hours
Dear Penguin
Was glad to run across your new column/digs. I was afraid you had retired to who knows what! I just ran my first marathon – the Fort Worth Cowtown – and it went ok. I finished in 4:27 – had to walk quite a bit during the last 6 miles.
So, my question is, how best to approach working toward a time of around 4:00 or a little less? I’m 52, began running a little less than 2 years ago, am in 4th year since colon cancer.
My “bucket list” included running a marathon and I’d still like to actually run one all the way.
Retire? No way. I’m actually doing more writing now than in YEARS.
This is going to sound counterintuitive, but for most people the way to get faster is to walk more, not less. It isn’t the walking itself that slows you down. It’s when and WHY you walk.
I am a big advocate of the run/walk strategy. In “Marathoning for Mortals” Coach Jenny has a great run/walk marathon training program. That said, the specifics of the intervals are not important. What matters is that you find the run/walk interval that works for you.
A good friend, and fellow coach, in his 40’s was desperate to break 3:30 in the marathon and after 10 or 15 tries was about to give up. I suggested he try the run/walk. He wasn’t convinced but did a “walk 30 seconds at every mile marker” and finished in 3:25. IT WORKS.
The key is to use the walk interval from the very start. You walk because you want to, not because you have to. And, you use the run/walk strategy in your training, of course.
By the way, the elite runners use a form of the run/walk. They will alter their stride in order to relax.
The only thing they measure is the time it takes to cover the distance. Don’t get hung-up on some unrealistic and untrue notion that to run a marathon you have to run every step.
All the best.
Waddle on, John
John “the Penguin” Bingham, Competitor Magazine columnist Author, The Courage to Start, No Need for Speed, Marathoning for Mortals and Running for Mortals.
Have a question for John? E-mail it to thepenguin@johnbingham.com.
This column first appeared on Competitor.com (2009–2014). The original site is gone; it is preserved here from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, in John’s original words.