I Tried 'Jeffing' And My Running Pace Skyrocketed

I am that stereotypical runner – everyone in my life is sick of hearing about how strength training has transformed my workouts and my reasons for getting back into the sport in the first place. 

Bad news for them. I have another running obsession. 

“Jeffing,” named after Olympian and author Jeff Galloway, is a kind of lower-key fartlek (another 10/10 name). If both of those terms sound like gobbledegook, they refer to a period of slower walking (or running) before bursts of higher-energy sprints or jogging.

Jeffing, also known as the “run walk run” or Galloway method, is ideal for beginners – a version of it is often used by Couch To 5K apps. 

But Galloway himself said that non-stop runners who adapt to the method correctly run “an average of 7 minutes faster in a 13.1-mile race” and over 13 minutes faster in a marathon. 

Personally, it’s transformed my 10K time.

How does “Jeffing” work?

You can pick a ratio of walking to running that works for you. That might be 1:1 at the start (so one minute running to one minute walking). 

As you progress, you might like to try 1:4 (30 seconds of walking for two minutes of running). 

Women’s Running reported that Galloway doesn’t recommend more than a 30-second walk break if you’re trying to up your pace; you can stack these up if you save them, though.

For instance, if you choose a 1:4 pace, you can run for four minutes and walk for a minute instead of going for two minutes on and 30 seconds off. 

You can use distance as a marker, too, or a combination of distance and time. I like having a 30-second walk at the end of each kilometre.

Some people calculate their ratio by looking at their heart rate, walking until their beats per minute lower back down to a certain number.

In general, Women’s Running pointed out, the more improvement you want to see in your pace, the shorter the walking sessions should be.

What are the benefits of “Jeffing”?

A 2016 paper found that runners who did a combination of running and walking in marathons had similar finish times to races run non-stop, but faced less muscle strain.

Galloway said he invented the method to combat muscle fatigue, lower injury rate (especially over long distances), and keep beginners motivated. 

“By shifting back and forth between walking and running muscles, you distribute the workload among a variety of muscles, increasing your overall performance capacity,” he said. 

“For veteran marathoners, this is often the difference between achieving a time goal or not.” 

I’ve been more motivated to complete my runs and, to my shock, have since shaved six minutes off my 10K time (though part of it might be that I’m more excited to get running knowing I’ll have breaks, leading to more practice).

The method has improved my muscle recovery time, too.  

The interval training style is yet another example of how going slower seems to have more benefits for runners than you might expect (good news for me personally).