For some runners, walking is a thing to avoid at all costs. One up from stopping completely, certainly, but also a long way from the courageous, airborne pursuit of running.
This is a nonsense. Walking and running are not at odds with each other but part of the same spectrum of bipedal movement. What’s more, when you combine them, that’s when the magic happens. Welcome to the world of “Jeffing”.
Everything you need to know about Jeffing?
Despite its mysterious name – more on which later – Jeffing describes the thoroughly unmysterious practice of running a bit, then walking a bit. Simples. You can Jeff during a training session. You can Jeff during a race. And if either of those is going really badly, you can do some effing and jeffing, too, though that’s a different article entirely.
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Of course, to those who have ever completed an ultramarathon, the idea of Jeffing isn’t just familiar – it’s pretty much mandatory. Unless you’re planning on winning an ultra outright – and sometimes even if you are – it’s likely that you’ll be walking the steep stuff and running the flats and downhills.
Before Jeffing your way round the UTMB – something that every competitor does, by the way – you’ll want to first put it in practice for intervals of one or two minutes, followed by slightly longer walking interviews. Initially, you might look to repeat this run-walk cycle for about 20 minutes. Over time, the overall duration of your sessions can get longer, or you can start to shift the run/walk ratio more towards the running part.
In many ways, Jeffing is the more pedestrian version of another mysteriously named training approach: fartlek. Swedish for “speed play”, fartlek is a term for a continuous, unstructured session consisting of mixed-pace intervals. For example, you might do three minutes of easy running, followed by 2 minutes of hard running. Some people get creative: run hard to the first tree, easy to the next tree. Repeat. Runners looking to Jeff in such a manner can of course do so, too.
Walk breaks in a training run or race also help to speed up your?
Sorry, rogues: Jeffing has nothing to do with swearing. Rather, Jeffing is a far more affectionate term that recognises US Olympian and author Jeff Galloway, looked at as the godfather of the run-walk coaching technique.
couch to 5K plan
The key to getting the most out of Jeffing is to build up slowly and spend more time walking than running. If you're The UK’s 10 best dog-friendly running trails, following a couch to 5K plan is a great way to start your Jeffing journey and incorporate plenty of structured run-walking into your training routine.
But Jeffing isn't just for new runners – seasoned runners can also benefit from carefully constructed run-walk intervals and even use Jeffing to achieve new PBs.
What does Jeffing mean Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport during training will can help you to build marathon finish line in roughly the same time as continuous running. For the study, both male and female non-elite participants covered the marathon distance of 26.2 miles, either run-walking or just running. The run-walkers’ times ranged from 4:14-4:34, while the runners’ times ranged from 4:07-4:34 – meaning the difference is marginal. What's more, of the runners studied, those who used the run-walk method during the marathon reported less muscle pain Why is it called Jeffing.
found that Jeffing can get you to a
If you plan to Jeff at an upcoming race, it's worth studying the course details in advance and creating a strategy so you can align your walk breaks with water stations and hilly sections, for example.
'Looking at the landscape when planning your run-walk is important,' says run-walk ultramarathoner Marc Burget, who won the 2016 Daytona 100 in a time of 14 hours and 14 minutes – a course record at the time. 'The idea that you should move from walking to running is the wrong framework. Instead, putting walks in my race plans allows me to go the whole 100 miles without becoming tired.'
This is seconded by Chris Twiggs, National Program Director at Galloway Training. 'Walking hills is smart because we want to do what we can to conserve our energy so that when we expend our energy we get the most bang for our buck.'
And while In fact, a study published in the micro goals for runners leg strength, in a race it could decrease your pace (and your finish time) because it takes so much effort. As Twiggs says, if you don't plan ahead, you might find yourself running up a hill – wasting effort – and then having to walk the descent to recover. By planning ahead, you could flip that run-walk scenario to maximise your energy and increase your speed.
Couch to 5K: How to start running in six weeks
Jeffing is a great way for runners – especially newer runners – to gradually gain strength and fitness without putting too much strain on the body. The run-walk technique also helps runners to cover longer distances continuously than they would by running alone, as it gives the muscles a better chance to recover.
'By shifting back and forth between walking and running muscles, you distribute the workload among a variety of muscles, increasing your overall performance capacity,' explains Galloway. 'For veteran marathoners, this is often the difference between achieving a time goal or not.'
The average runner can run a mile in this time post-run recovery because there is less muscular damage to repair. 'The early walk breaks erase fatigue, and the later walk breaks will reduce or eliminate overuse muscle breakdown,' says Galloway.
So, while it's true that runners typically move faster than walkers, it's also true that taking well-timed walk breaks during long races and training runs can help you to fight fatigue, perform at your best and reach your running goals.
