LISA JACKSON INTERVIEWS THE FORMER OLYMPIAN WHO”S MADE IT HIS MISSION TO GET THE WORLD UP AND RUNNING… BY TAKING FREQUENT WALK BREAKS!

Q&A

Back in 1998, I loathed all forms of exercise. But having recently turned 30, knew I had to start getting fit or risk turning into a bona fide sofa sloth. After 10 months of training, I completed my first marathon – running half of it until an injury forced me to limp the rest.

I ran every step of my second marathon five months later, slashing 1hr 19mins off my time. But I walked like a rodeo cowboy for three weeks afterwards, due to the pounding my knees and hips had suffered.

I was injured yet again when I attempted my third marathon. However, I read in the race brochure that runners who were worried about not finishing should take short walk breaks right from the word go. Intrigued, I adopted this approach, running for 15 minutes and walking for five. To my astonishment, I knocked almost 10 minutes off my time and, best of all, was walking normally within just three days.

RUNNING MADE EASY

So excited was I by this amazingly stress-free way to run marathons that I decided to write a book about it, called Running Made Easy, that would go on to sell more than 100,000 copies and remain on Amazon”s list of bestselling running books for over a decade.

While researching this book I came across Jeff Galloway, a former Olympian whom, I was surprised to learn, had somehow stumbled across “my” secret too – long before I had. He”d helped millions of wannabe runners in America reach their running goals using his Run Walk Run Method (fondly known as “Jeffing” by his legions of fans). Keen to tap into his expertise, I emailed him, asking if he”d share his recommendations for the ratio of walking to running needed to achieve marathon finishing times ranging from a super-speedy 2hr 50mins to ones over six hours. Jeff immediately responded and so began a remote relationship that has lasted almost two decades. Whenever I need an expert to quote, Jeff happily obliges; when I”ve lost my running mojo his wise words have reignited my running spark.