After you finish a race, it’s important to truly rest and recover. You put in the hard work, celebrate it with some R&R!
But when you have a big break between races, it can feel like you’re going to lose all of the progress you made during your training season. That’s where a good maintenance plan comes in, helping you to balance rest and running so you can stay in shape while avoiding injury. But if you’re someone who uses the run/walk method to race or are a non-stop runner just looking to dial back your efforts, then a run/walk maintenance plan (and specifically one of the four-week plans below) can support your recovery while helping you maintain your aerobic base for that next half or full marathon.
“Too much downtime can make restarting feel like climbing Everest, while pushing too hard too soon risks injury or burnout. That’s where a strategic run/walk program shines,” says Erica Coviello, RRCA level 2-certified run coach, ACE-certified personal trainer, and owner of Run Fit Stoked, who created these four-week run/walk maintenance plans for beginner, intermediate, and advanced runners.
Benefits of Following the Run/Walk Method in the Off-Season
The standard maintenance training plans on Runner’s World do a solid job of keeping you fit for those in-between periods. But following a four-week run/walk plan also gives enough time after a big race for your body (and mind) to recover, allows you to ease back into running, and gets you prepped for your next training cycle.
1. Time to Focus on Recovery
“As runners, we tend to take a few days of rest and think ‘well that was good enough’ and will get right back to training,” says Al Hernandez, RRCA level 1- and 2-certified run coach and founder of Mile Marker Coaching. “Walking [with running] is a great way to prevent you from overdoing it and will prevent injuries.”
In the days and weeks after a long race, following a run/walk plan aids in active recovery, flushing out metabolic waste and promoting muscle repair, Coviello says. It’s also effective at managing heart rate, which is important to prevent overtraining and maintain your aerobic base.
2. Opportunity to Get in Tune With Your Body
Incorporating walking is advantageous because it can help you concentrate on how your body is really feeling, “As runners we tend to discount some of our soreness and aches and pains, especially postrace,” Hernandez says.
Walking allows you to take the time to check in with your body and see if the niggles you’re feeling are just postrace or postworkout soreness, or if it’s an injury you need to take care of or a muscle imbalance you need to strengthen.
“There’s something to be said for intentional, purposeful walks,” Hernandez says.
If you’re postrace, the days (up to a week) after the race should be a leisurely walk to get the blood flowing, and can offer a great opportunity for sightseeing if you’ve traveled to a race.
Once you start adding in more intense, purposeful walks and raise your heart rate, you can again check in and see how that makes you feel. You can really listen to your body to see what intensity feels good and what feels too taxing, then adjust your walking speed accordingly to help your muscles and joints recover in a gentle manner.
3. Reduce Injury Risk
A big fear of walking in your offseason is that you’ll lose fitness, and while there is some truth to that (you won’t feel the same as during peak training), you’ll gain durability, helping to reduce your injury risk. Way too many people don’t recover enough between marathons or often ramp up training too quickly, and that’s when the injuries start to happen, Hernandez says.
During these maintenance phases when you’re focusing less on long runs, Hernandez prescribes using that time for secondary activities, like yoga or pilates, that are regenerative and support range of motion (ROM). Research published by the International Journal of Yoga shows that regular yoga can help athletes improve joint mobility and ROM.
4. Improve Endurance
During a month where you’re following a run/walk plan, you’ll still be working on improving your endurance. When you walk at a brisk pace, you’re working on strengthening your heart and making it more efficient, which can lower your resting heart rate, and may even change your zone 2 heart-rate training pace.
For example, instead of your zone 2 being a 10-minute mile, with run/walk, you’ve become more efficient so now zone 2 is 9:50, Hernandez explains. “Speedwork, like tempo runs, builds zone 3, 4, and 5 but it doesn’t do a whole lot for the lower zones,” he says. “And runners tend to ignore lower heart rate zones but they shouldn’t, especially early in your training season.”
By raising the floor, your ceiling also raises, meaning you’ll feel strong enough to maintain a faster pace for longer, especially for longer distances like the half marathon and marathon. “All my athletes do a lot of time in base training and they complain the slow pace feels like they’re barely moving, but trust me that later on it will help your foundation for when we start doing the hard stuff,” Hernandez says.
5. Come Back Stronger
Overall, taking ample recovery after a big race helps get you ready for your next training cycle. The controlled effort of a run/walk plan minimizes fatigue, maintains efficient running form, and lowers injury risk, setting you up for future success.
“Taking more recovery time helps to avoid injury so you can push a little longer and/or harder in workouts,” Coviello says.
Additionally, the decrease in mental and physical strain in a run/walk program leaves room in your schedule for other things like mobility and strength training, Coviello says. Focusing on these modalities will allow you to come back to your next training cycle a more well-rounded athlete.
Determining Your Run/Walk Ratio
Remember: the goal here is maintenance, so don’t start the four weeks with speed as your priority. Instead, focus on keeping your run/walks at a comfortable, conversational speed unless otherwise noted in your plan. Coviello offers some tips to help you determine your splits.
- Beginner: Keep it all easy. Focus on working in heart rate zone 2, running at a conversational pace. Walk your recovery at an easy pace for equal time (think 2-minute easy jog, 2-minute walk on repeat.) As your training ramps up, incorporate a more brisk walking pace.
- Intermediate: Again, keep the pace easy. You can work in hill repeats, or occasional harder, tempo-paced efforts. Your recovery walks from these efforts should be at an easy pace for equal or less time (think 3-minute easy jog, 2-minute walk or 1-minute harder effort, 1-minute walk).
- Advanced: Add in efforts at intervals for 30 seconds up to 5 minutes (think mile pace for 30 to 60 seconds, brisk walk or slow jog for twice as long for recovery or find a 10K tempo pace for longer intervals of 2 to 5 minutes, with a brisk walk or slow jog for equal time for recovery).
The run/walk ratios outlined in Coviello’s plans are just suggestions. You can use what works for you and feels good for your pace—especially if you’ve tried a specific ratio in a race before and want to stick with that. More advanced runners may also choose to turn run/walk intervals into full easy runs on one or two days per week. (Just remember to keep effort easy!)
Run/Walk Maintenance Training Plans for Every Level
These four-week run/walk plans provide a structured approach to maintaining your fitness, ensuring you’re ready to tackle your next running goal with renewed energy and enthusiasm.
Designed to keep your aerobic engine humming while allowing for recovery and flexibility, use these plans when you’re not actively training for a race. You can repeat each plan as many times as you’d like until you’re ready to start a new race-specific training cycle.
Adapt the plan to your personal needs and fitness goals, listen to your body, and be sure to have at least one full day of rest every week.
Remember to always start with a five to 10 minute warmup of dynamic drills and walking to activate muscles and gradually elevate your heart rate, and end with some static stretches and other recovery techniques (i.e. foam rolling) as needed.
Beginner 4-Week Run/Walk Maintenance Plan
You’ll start with three days of running, one to two days of cross-training, and/or one to three days of rest.
Intermediate 4-Week Run/Walk Maintenance Plan
You’ll run for four days with two to three days of rest or cross-training.
Advanced 4-Week Run/Walk Maintenance Plan
You’ll run for five days with two days used as rest or cross-training.
Jordan Smith is a writer and editor with over 5 years of experience reporting on health and fitness news and trends. She is a published author, studying for her personal trainer certification, and over the past year became an unintentional Coronavirus expert. She has previously worked at Health, Inc., and 605 Magazine and was the editor-in-chief of her collegiate newspaper. Her love of all things outdoors came from growing up in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
