Starting out
Run 2, walk 1 · 26 min
Building
Run 8, walk 1 · 35 min
Already running
Intervals, no walking · 36 min
Walk-run first
Walk-run is the first kind of training Good Company coaches. Strength and other kinds follow over time.
Walk breaks are a tool, not a rule
Starting out, planned walk breaks let you run longer before you tire. In a trial with non-elite marathon runners, run-walk finished within minutes of running the whole way.1 As you get fitter, plans move to continuous runs, higher effort and intervals, and many days have no walking at all. If you already run, your plans start from there.
It’s training, so it gets harder
When you handle a session, the next one asks more: longer runs, higher effort, harder intervals. Effort is a percentage. 100% is everything you have, and 60% is working with plenty left. Easy days are there on purpose.
Plans follow you
People respond to the same training very differently.2,3 So each plan follows how your sessions have actually gone. Want today easier, or more? Ask your coach, and the plan changes.
Shorter beats skipped
On a busy day, a short session keeps more of what you’ve built than stopping does.4
Walk in, walk out
A brisk walk warms you up for the first run.5 An easy walk at the end brings you down and gives you a moment to say how it went.
Good Company is an AI coach for walking and running on iPhone, coming soon to the App Store. Its plans are not medical advice. Check with your doctor before starting a new exercise program.
Sources
- Hottenrott et al. 2016, run-walk versus running only in a marathon, randomized trial
- Bouchard et al. 1999, HERITAGE Family Study: training response varies widely between people
- Hecksteden et al. 2018, individual response to a year of walking and jogging
- Barbieri et al. 2024, detraining in endurance athletes, review
- Fradkin et al. 2010, warming up and performance, meta-analysis