As for the running clinic: one of the emphasized techniques that is revealing itself to be quite clear, in both the class and the propaganda, is the run/walk split. That is, when we were out the other night we did our run in the pattern of run five minutes, walk one minute, repeat four times. Ultimately that ends up being a run of about twenty-five minutes (including the walks).

They claim that there is some sort of research-based justification for why they do this, but I can’t be bothered to look it up, and frankly I don’t think it matters too much. It’s how it’s done and I’m taking the clinic, so I’ll play along.

While we’re not really encouraged — well, actively discouraged actually — with regard to headphones and iPods while running with the group, I thought it might be fun to compose some run-along tracks for my own use while practicing on my own. I sat down with a bit of audio-mixing software last night and built a twenty-nine minute track with the ‘good parts’ of some running-esque music, interspersed with sound effects. Those sound effects included a number of blips and bleeps to act as signals marking the switches between running and walking and then back to running as per the five and one pattern.

In essence, the pattern follows something like this:

- walk 1.5 minutes to warm up
- start, and run 5 minutes
- break, and walk one minute
- repeat the two previous steps 3 more times
- break and walk 3.5 minutes to cool down.

It wasn’t my idea. Obviously the pattern came from the clinic. But also, I had found (and tried) a running podcast built around the same idea — but the music wasn’t exactly my style. So, since I’ve got the basic tracks laid out, I think I’m going take a bit of time and build a small variety at various intervals (apparently we need to work up to ‘ten and one’ by the end of this clinic) to toss onto Karin’s shuffle and take running.