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Tara Loader Wilkinson

Jeff Galloway tends to be pretty low-key about birthdays, but on July 12 this year, things were decidedly different: the inspirational American Olympian runner turned 80.
“I guess this year, because it had a zero on the end, I got a lot of nice messages – a few thousand actually,” he laughs from his home in Florida, where he lives with his wife of 50 years, Barb, who shares his passion for running.
To say Galloway has had a positive impact on the take-up of competitive running would be an understatement.
He pioneered the Run-Walk-Run method in 1974 – known informally as “Jeffing” – a training style that involves strategic, small walk breaks to allow runners to manage fatigue and avoid injury. The method has made finishing a distance event accessible to almost everyone.
More than a million runners and walkers have read Galloway’s books, attended his retreats and running schools, or had online coaching.

Anyone can start endurance training with this method, whatever their age, Galloway believes. One of his proudest achievements was getting his then heavily overweight father, Elliott, into running using this method.
His father, who was in his early 50s when he started – and 49kg (65lb) overweight – went on to slim down and complete over 40 marathons, including his last one at age 75 in the 1996 Boston Marathon, with his son by his side.
“He hadn’t run for 30 years, but running turned his health around,” Galloway says. “He had many excuses at first and then became a great example of what you can do over age 55.”
Galloway, who has two running-mad sons, Westin and Brennan, adds: “Running changes people’s lives for the better, especially when older. Once a person reaches the age of 60, their ability to do exertive exercise goes downhill.
“However, research has shown that endurance training produces more brain benefits the older we get, with the results being more vitality and energy, a happier attitude, and a sense of empowerment.”

In addition, high-intensity exercise for 30 minutes daily can promote the growth of new brain cells – a process called neurogenesis – by increasing the levels of the hormone BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which can potentially help with conditions like Alzheimer’s disease.
BDNF promotes the development of new neurons, a process that is especially important in the hippocampus, a brain region crucial for memory.
North Carolina-born Galloway, who was an All-American collegiate athlete and a 1972 US Olympic Team member in the 10k (6.2-mile) race, is now in training for his 237th marathon. The race in December takes place in Honolulu, Hawaii, which he won in 1974 – clocking a time of two hours and 23 minutes.
“I won’t be as fast this time, but it will be nice to be back,” he says.
It was during that time in the mid-1970s that Galloway kept getting injured, on average every three weeks. It was sending him into depression, and at one point he thought his career at world-class level might be over.

But one day, appropriately while on a run, he decided to change his running style by taking a brief walk each mile, to lessen the stress on his joints and dispel the exhaustion.
“I had a bit of an epiphany and decided to create a new goal, which was to just enjoy the runs and be injury-free by taking brief rests. I figured I would be slower, but at least I would be happier.”
The resulting change was quite unexpected: Galloway got faster. In 1980, he ran the fastest marathon of his life at age 35, finishing with a two-hour, 16-minute time at the Houston-Tenneco Marathon.
He used the Run-Walk-Run method with a 10- to 20-second walk every second mile, which made him faster because he was less fatigued towards the end.
“I believe the Run-Walk-Run method has been the single greatest training component that mature runners have used to stay in the game,” he says.
He has helped develop a free app, available on his website, that gives users a run-walk-run ratio depending on the distance they want to run, the time they want to achieve and their fitness levels.












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A post shared by Jeff Galloway | Run Walk Run (@jeffgallowayolympian)



Galloway looked into humans’ ancestral history for the reasons the Run-Walk-Run method would make him faster.
“Our ancestors were capable of covering immense distances looking for food with deep reserves of endurance, but they used rest to maintain stamina.”
Galloway still runs between 4.5 miles and 5.5 miles (7.2km and 8.9km) every second day. On the days he does not run, he weight trains and walks 15,000 steps.
He decided to run only every other day after he had a heart attack and heart failure four years ago. He attributes that setback to exposure to the deadly herbicide Agent Orange when he was with the US Navy in Vietnam during the 1955-1975 Vietnam war.
“As I made my comeback after six weeks in the hospital, I could not run every day. The every other day gives me the recovery time. I had coached many runners over 50 who had given up running or were starting to run – and the every-other-day [plan] worked perfectly for them – to train for marathons, injury-free.”

His current pace on weekly runs is about 15-16 minutes per mile.
“I use various run-walk-run strategies: run 10 seconds, walk 15, or run 12, walk 18, or run 8, walk 12.”
He gets up every morning at 6am, has a black coffee at room temperature, and does either a run or his steps on woodland trails, often accompanied by his wife at the start.
Within half an hour of his return home, he has a snack of 80 per cent simple carbs and 20 per cent protein, often fat-free yogurt with a banana. This usually amounts to about a third of the calories he has just burned – and is his method for what he calls reloading.
“If you don’t reload in that period, your brain turns on the hunger circuit, and you will be hungry for the rest of the day. It also helps with recovery – the carbs speed up the reloading of the glycogen so, the next time you work out, you have more bounce in your legs.”
He has a proper breakfast at around 9am or 10am, usually wholewheat cereal with more yogurt and fruit. “A big helping,” he says.

He lunches on a “series of small snacks” including chicken or fish and vegetables. For dinner, he and his wife Barb are a bit more inventive and like to cook something delicious and flavourful together.
“She’s very into nutrition also and loves using herbs and spices,” Galloway says. He likes to wind down with a can of IPA beer every night.
He does not take any supplements. “They’ve never worked for me,” he says.
On his walk days, he lifts 30lb (13.6kg) weights in an exercise predominantly for his postural muscles that he labels an “arm running drill”, performing two or three sets.


Running is acutely therapeutic. The story of Fauja Singh, the world’s oldest marathon runner, captivated many because he only took up marathon running at the age of 89, after the death of his wife and son, to cope with the grief.
“Running showed me kindness and brought me back to life by making me forget all my traumas and sorrows,” Singh said in an interview when he was 102. In total, he ran nine marathon races.
Tragically, the 114-year-old died in a hit-and-run incident in India earlier this month.
Galloway knows that running can be wonderfully healing for trauma, and even in the worst times, he has laced up his training shoes and always felt more hopeful afterwards.
“It really changes people’s lives for the better.”
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Jeff Galloway introduces a group of runners to his Run-Walk-Run method. Photo: Jeff Galloway

Galloway and his son Westin finish a run on a trail named for Jeff’s dad, Elliott Galloway. Photo: Jeff Galloway 

Galloway qualifies for the Olympics in 1972 with teammate Frank Shorter. Photo: courtesy of Jeff Galloway

To celebrate his 80th birthday, Galloway – in a long-sleeved pale blue shirt, next to his wife Barb – had a group run in Florida. Photo: Jeff Galloway 

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Lifestyle

Health & Wellness

Health

Galloway, whose Run-Walk-Run method has helped countless people take up endurance running, reveals how he trains and what he eats


Galloway, whose Run-Walk-Run method has helped countless people take up endurance running, reveals how he trains and what he eats.


How Olympian Jeff Galloway is still running marathons at 80 as he trains for his 237th

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Galloway, whose Run-Walk-Run method has helped countless people take up endurance running, reveals how he trains and what he eats

Galloway, whose Run-Walk-Run method has helped countless people take up endurance running, reveals how he trains and what he eats