- Now, if you're coming back from injury
it can be all too tempting to jump straight back in
and return to full running.
Frustration is understandable,
but actually following a well thought out
and structured plan will, in the long run,
see you coming back to full fitness far quicker.
So allow me to introduce to you the run-walk method.
Today, I'm going to be running you through
and guiding you through the run-walk method,
and also a week-by-week plan that you can follow
to get you back to full running.
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Why walk?
Well, the run-walk method can help
get you running again quicker.
It might sound like an oxymoron but it is tried, tested,
and prescribed by coaches and physios alike.
If you've been out from running for a while due to injury,
and by a while I mean three months or more,
then you're pretty much going to be starting from scratch.
But if you want an idea of where to start from
in relation to how long you've had off,
well we've actually got a recent video on that,
on how to return to running from injury.
And whilst you're over there,
why not subscribe to the channel
so you can see more videos from us too.
Now, the reason we don't jump straight in with running
is because your body won't be ready for the stresses
as your bones, joints, ligaments,
basically all your soft tissue,
needs time to adapt and get stronger.
This needs to happen before you can start
increasing your mileage.
So the reason we include walking
is because it's slightly less dynamic
and involves less impact per foot strike
when compared to running.
If you're new to this method,
I can understand that you might find this
a little frustrating,
that you're not able to go straight in on full running
but actually by doing this you can start
to control your effort,
you still get the same endorphins,
and also you might find that you're able
to go further or longer than you ordinarily would
at this stage in your rehab.
And also, let's not forget,
you're changing things up mentally
and also mixing things up physically
by going from this run to walk.
Also, if you are new to running
or you're coming back after a rather long layoff
due to injury, then actually all this
can be slightly less intimidating
and as a result you're a little bit more motivated
knowing that each target is that bit more manageable.
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Obviously you can go by feel with the amount
and ratio of run to walk,
but do be wary that by doing too much too soon
you could end up continually
taking two steps forward and one back,
or worse, one forward and two back.
The idea is to gradually and consistently increase,
so following a proven plan is the surest way
to reach your target.
Before we delve into the example program
you still need to gauge your effort
of the running and the walking.
The walking needs to be brisk, ideally,
still using your arms as you would in running,
and try to keep the cadence within 20 RPM
of your normal running cadence.
It's a different type of walk
to a walk recovery that you might do
between hard efforts on the track
or an amble into town.
The run when starting back
also needs to be kept really easy, to a jog ideally.
Once you're back to being able to run
for continuous periods of time,
then you can start looking at increasing your pace.
And I probably don't need to say this,
but if you experience any pain
then it's important that you skip a run-walk day.
And if that pain continues to hurt
then it's probably time to seek advice
from a health professional
instead of continuing and potentially causing
any further, or even lasting, damage.
Right then, it's probably time to run through the plan,
and for the first eight weeks
we're actually just going to increase the length of these
by adding one more rep each time.
And actually the ratios here
are all in minutes of run to walk.
So for the first three weeks
do a maximum of three run-walk sessions per week
of approximately 30 minutes in duration.
Start with the first week alternating
one minute run, three minutes walk.
Week two, that's one minute run, two minutes walk.
Week three, two minutes run, two minutes walk.
Moving into weeks four to eight you can start to include
a fourth run per week if you like.
Now building from around 35 to 45 minutes in total duration.
Still no intensity.
So week four has four minutes run, one minute walk.
Week five, six minutes run, one minute walk.
Week six, seven minutes run, one minute walk.
Week seven, eight minute run, one minute walk.
Week eight, nine minute run, one minute walk.
By this point you're racking up some good duration
but don't get carried away just yet.
You should start edging up the total duration
of three of the run-walks to around 50 to 60 minutes,
and start including a single, shorter
30 to 40 minute continuous run per week.
So, for the run-walks, week nine,
seven minutes run, 45 seconds walk.
Week 10, eight minutes run, 45 seconds walk.
Week 11, nine minutes run, 45 seconds walk.
Now, by week 12, you can start running continuously
but knock it down to three shorter
and steady runs of 30 minutes.
And from here we can actually start to increase
the number of runs that we're doing per week,
and even start to include a little bit more intensity,
or some faster running,
into one structured workout per week.
But do be really careful here
because we've built things up so gradually
to get to this point,
so don't start increasing the number of runs
or including too much intensity too soon.
Patience now will pay off in the long run,
and feel free to use this plan as a bit of a template.
But whatever you do, make sure you keep it
to a nice, steady progression
and you'll find that you're back to your old running self
in just a few months' time.
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And if you'd like to see a couple more videos,
"What is VO2 max?",
you can see that by clicking just up here,
and if you'd like to see "How to get back into running"
you can see that by clicking just down here.