A Run Strategy?

Here's a slowtwitch.com post I want to review during race planning: Re: Walk first min of every mile in IM marathon? Here's the post in full in case it disappears down the Internet rabbit hole:

We've been recommending a run/walk strategy for our athletes and at our "Four Keys" pre-race talk for years. It works and these are our thoughts:

Run through the aid station to the last water, gel, coke, sportsdrink guy/gal, whatever your needs are for that aid station. Get it and walk for 30 steps:

• Last means you're not tempted to walk allllll the way through the whole aid station. They can be big. You're now, hopefully, walking among people who are running = a reminder to start running vs keep walking like everyone else.
  
• 30 steps is a hard, non-negotiable number that removes you from the decision to start running again. 30 steps takes about 15-18". Maybe later in the race you start running after 30" vs 30 steps. Whatever, pick a non-negotiable something that removes your will from the decision to start running again.
  

Walking for 15-30" at the aid stations then becomes:

• A tool for slowing you down early on the run. Stand a half to a mile out from T2. From the looks of it, about half the field thinks they can run a sub 3:15 marathon, has hundreds drill it at sub 7:30 pace...until they end up walking 10 miles at 17' pace. Walking the aid stations slows you down, separates you from these people who are running too fast, and focuses you on your race, a 140 mile TT, not a race to the fastest mile 8 of the run split.
  
• A reward for continuing to run between the aid stations. As the run develops:
  
  • At first you won't need to walk the aid stations, at all. You don't think about it until you're in the aid station.
    
  • After about mile 8 or 10, you'll start looking for the next aid station (ie permission to walk and take a short break) about 7-8' after you've left your last aid station.
    
  • Then you start looking for it at 6' out 
  • Then 4' out
    
  • Then 2' out
    
  • Then 30" out :-)
    
  • Giving yourself permission to walk the aid stations, beginning with Mile 1, becomes a reward for continuing to run between the aid stations. The mental conversation becomes "Body, STFU. Keep running, don't slow down, and I will reward you for that effort over the next mile by letting you walk 30" at the next aid station. That's the deal and we only have to play this game for another 6-8 miles. Suck it up."
    

Walking then becomes a tactic, to keep you running and not slowing down between the aid stations, vs a failure. Next time you go for a long run with friends, do this 1 mile on, 30" off (walking, not standing) thing. See just how little space they actually gain on you, how quickly you can get back up to pace, and long you can maintain this total pace vs them slowing down. That slowing effect is much greater and much more likely on the IM marathon.

I have a Garmin 310 and I walk 30" every mile on nearly all of my training runs. I have one display screen that gives me current pace, cummulative distance, time, blah, blah and another that gives me current pace, lap distance and average pace of the lap. I hit the lap button at the end of the mile and see myself walking for 30" at about 17-18' pace. When I start running, my avg pace for the lap is...17'. But it quickly spools down until by about .6-7 miles into the interval I'm back at the average pace I would be at anyway, had I not taken a 30" break. Each time I do and see this I gain confidence in what the numbers tell me. I'm able to reset my focus on form and pace cues that I hold for 1 mile and then reset at the start of the next interval.

--
Rich Strauss
Endurance Nation Triathlon Coaching
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