The Run-Walk Method: What It Is and How to Do It Right

Running gets much easier when you stop trying to do it all in one go. The run-walk method breaks a session into short runs with short walks between them, timed so the break comes before the fatigue, and it lets most people cover more ground with less soreness afterward.

Below is how the method works, how to pick your intervals, how often to run, and a four-week plan for beginners.

What the run-walk method is

Running for a set time, walking for a set time, then repeating that pattern until the session is over.

A beginner might run for 30 seconds and walk for 30 seconds, while someone with more experience might run for four minutes and walk for the same half minute.

The method goes back to the 1970s, when Jeff Galloway, an American Olympian from the 1972 Munich Games, began coaching beginners at his running store in Atlanta. He wanted people to finish a 5K without getting hurt or overwhelmed, so he built the walk breaks into the plan from day one and called the approach Run-Walk-Run.

In Britain the same method picked up the nickname Jeffing, which started in an online running group and spread through running clubs from there.

Who it is for

Almost anyone can use it, though a few groups get more out of it than others:

• New runners. Thirty minutes of continuous running is a lot to ask of a body that has never done it. Split into one-minute runs with walking in between, that same half hour becomes manageable in the first week.
• Runners coming back after a break or an injury. Coming back is where people get hurt a second time, usually by doing too much before the body is ready. Walk breaks make it safer by cutting the total impact in a session and letting you add running in small, measured steps.
• People running to lose weight. The method allows longer sessions, and total time on the feet counts for more here than the intensity of any single workout.
• Runners over 40. Recovery slows with age, and reducing the pounding on each run means less accumulated fatigue across the week.
• Anyone carrying extra weight. Each stride sends several times body weight through the legs, so fewer running strides mean less load on knees and feet.
• Experienced runners on long runs. Plenty of marathoners and ultrarunners use walk breaks by choice, especially in the late miles and on hills.
• Anyone who stopped enjoying it. When every run has turned into a grind, regular breaks often bring the pleasure back.

Why walk breaks work

The value comes from taking the break early. When you walk before your legs are tired, your heart rate drops and the muscles doing the work get a short rest, all while you keep moving forward. Because of that, fatigue builds up much more slowly across the session.

That slower buildup has a knock-on effect on your form. Tired runners shuffle and land harder, which is when aches tend to start. A walk break interrupts that process before it begins, so the running you do stays reasonably efficient from the first interval to the last.

There is a mental side as well. Thirty minutes of running can feel impossible before you start, and ten repeats of a minute feels like something you can handle. Runners using the method often report finishing sessions with energy to spare, and they come back sooner as a result.

How to choose your run and walk intervals

Almost everyone picks a running interval that is too ambitious on the first day, finds the sessions hard by week two, and blames the method for it. Start easier than you think you need to. Use this table to find your ratio:

Galloway revised his own guidance in 2015 after tracking hundreds of thousands of runners, standardizing the walk break at about 30 seconds, since longer breaks let the legs cool down and made it harder to start running again late in a race. Older charts with one-minute walk breaks are still floating around, though the shorter break is where he ended up.

The walk break stays at 30 seconds. The running interval is the part that grows.

Whatever ratio you choose, set a timer and follow it. Going by feel puts the break in the wrong place, since the urge to walk only turns up once the tiredness has set in.

How fast to run and how fast to walk

Once your intervals are set, the effort inside them matters just as much. Run at a pace where you could still hold a conversation. If you are gasping between words, the running intervals are too fast, and the walk breaks will not be enough to fix that.

Walk briskly, at the pace you would use to catch a bus, with the arms swinging. A slow amble lets everything cool off and makes the next running interval harder than it should be. Keep in mind that this is still your recovery, so it should never leave you breathing hard.

How long a session should last

With the efforts settled, the next question is how much of it to do. Measure your sessions in minutes, at least at the start. A set time tells you exactly when to stop, even on a day when everything feels harder than usual.

A first session of around 25 minutes in total works well, including a five-minute walk at each end to warm up and cool down. From there, most people build toward 30 to 40 minutes over a couple of months.

Longer sessions of an hour or more suit this method just as well, though there is no rush to get there.

How often to run each week

As for frequency, three sessions a week suits most people starting out, with a day off between each one. Muscles adapt within a day or two, and tendons and bones take longer, so those rest days are when the adaptation happens.

If you want to be active on the other days, walking, cycling, swimming all work well alongside this.

What tends to cause trouble is stacking run-walk sessions back to back in the first months, especially if you are returning from injury or carrying extra weight.

How to build up your running intervals

Once that routine feels comfortable, you can start asking for more. Progress in small steps: 15 seconds added to the running interval, or five minutes added to the session, is enough for one week.

Change one thing at a time, and give each change at least a week. If you extend your running intervals and add ten minutes to the session in the same week, you will not know which change your legs are responding to.

You are ready to move up when you finish a session feeling like you could have kept going and any soreness the next day is mild. Until both are true, stay where you are.

Do you ever have to stop walking?

No, and this is worth saying, because a lot of people treat the walk breaks as a beginner stage they have to grow out of. Plenty of runners keep them permanently, including experienced marathoners who take a short walk break every mile all the way to the finish.

If continuous running is your goal, the method gets you there, and many beginners who stay consistent are running 30 minutes without stopping within a few months. If it is not your goal, nothing is wrong with walking. What matters is that you are training regularly.

Related: How Long Does It Take to Walk a Half or Full Marathon?

4-week run-walk plan for beginners

Putting all of that together, here is a month you can follow step by step, three sessions a week with a day off between each one.

Every session opens with a five-minute walk to warm up and closes with another five minutes to cool down, and both are counted in the totals.

If 30 seconds of running is too much in week 1, start at 15 seconds with the same 30-second walk and spend two weeks there.

Repeat any week that felt hard before moving to the next one, since a week repeated costs far less than a month lost to a sore knee.

Mistakes that make run-walk fail

Even with a good plan, a few habits undermine the method. These are the common ones:

• Running the intervals too fast.
  Treating each running segment as a sprint turns the session into interval training, which is a different workout with a different purpose, and it wears you out long before the end.
• Waiting until you are tired to walk.
  Once your legs are heavy, the break has come too late to do its job. Take it on schedule, even when you feel fine.
• Strolling during the walk.
  The walk break is part of the session, so keep covering ground through it.
• Dropping the walk breaks too early.
  Two good sessions is not a reason to abandon the method, and most of what it offers shows up over months.
• Changing the intervals every run.
  Without a consistent ratio you have nothing to measure progress against, so hold one long enough to see whether it works.
• Doing too much on a good day.
  Feeling strong at the halfway point is not a signal to double the session. Save that energy for the next one.

Frequently asked questions

Does run-walk make you slower?

Not necessarily. Over shorter distances a continuous run is usually faster for a trained runner, though over a half marathon or marathon many people finish quicker with walk breaks, because they hold their pace through the late miles.

Is it still real running?

Yes. You cover the same ground and build the same aerobic fitness as everyone else. The pattern of your effort is the only difference.

Does it burn fewer calories?

Per minute, walking uses less energy than running, so an hour of run-walk burns less than an hour of continuous running. In practice, though, people using this method tend to go out more often and stay out longer, and that usually adds up to more across a week.

Can you use it in a race?

Yes, and it is common at every distance from 5K upward. Move to the side of the course before you start walking, and give a quick glance behind you so nobody runs into your back.

Does it lower your risk of injury?

It reduces the amount of continuous pounding your legs absorb, which is one of the factors behind common running injuries. Nothing removes injury risk entirely, though this approach is gentler on the body than running the same distance without breaks.

Do you need an app or a watch?

Any timer works. Watch interval alerts and free run-walk apps are convenient, and a phone stopwatch does the job when you are starting out.