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Sent from the Bat Phone

I didn’t start out as early as last Sunday, as the weather was a bit more mild today. But I did try something new, which was quite astonishing for me.

During a run with the Tamalpa Runners on Wednesday, a friend told me about Jeff Galloways’ run/walk strategy.  I looked it up and learned that if I tried running for 4 minutes and walking 35 seconds for the bulk of the run, that I could have more fuel for a fast finish.  I was a bit skeptical, but I gave it a try.

It was hard to accept the walk breaks, especially in the beginning, but I was able to motor up the hill leading to the Golden Gate Bridge and had energy enough to switch to run/sprints instead of run/walks on the stretch of the bridge.  I even got to pace a super fit ultra runner who is training to run across the US for a couple of miles (yeah, I confess, I was huffing and puffing after we parted!).

Amazingly, during this 20 mile run with walk intervals, I finished faster than last Sunday’s run where I never took any walk breaks.  And I feel fresher too (although my butt cheek is a bit tired).

My next long run is 15 miles on Sunday, Oct. 17th, then 22 on Sunday, Oct.24th.  Then I taper down before the NY Marathon on Sunday, Nov. 7th!