I love the run:walk method. Hi, I'm Kirk Mahoney, the author of Run:Walk Pace Tables in Minutes/Kilometer. Why did I write this book? I love the run:walk method. I trained for my first marathon with the run:walk ratio of 5:1. I now train regularly with people who use ratios of 10:1, 5:1, and 3:1. My best average pace in training has been with the 1:1 ratio. And, my marathon personal best (PB) came by racing with the 2:1 ratio. But, before I wrote this book, I saw a HUGE gap in the run:walk community. This gap has been causing a lot of unnecessary confusion and unhappiness. This book closes that gap. Is the run:walk method driving you crazy? If you are like me, here is why you love the run:walk method: You get a better workout because you use your muscles differently. You get more variety during a workout or race. You get predictable milestones in a race or training session. You get more stamina. You get fewer injuries. Last but not least, you can get faster chip-times! All of this contributes to greater happiness as an endurance athlete, and I'm all about happier running and walking! Unfortunately, there has been a gap that has driven many of us run:walk athletes crazy. Let me talk more about that in a moment... Do you prefer guessing, folklore, driving directions, or a map? Seriously, how do you figure out just the right combination of running and walking on any given day and for any given race or training distance? Let's compare it to driving from point A to point B: You could guess. Some of us have done this, at least when we were younger. "Well, let's see. If I want to go to the convention center, then I guess that I'll start by driving toward downtown and keep looking for the big building along the way." You could rely on folklore. Many of us have done this. "A neighbor told me that I should take highway X to somewhere around street Y and then go left until I get to street Z ... and the convention center will be around there somewhere." You could use driving directions. A lot of us do this now. We get driving directions from a GPS unit, which can work well ... until the unit dies suddenly or there is an unexpected obstacle. Or, we go online, enter our starting point and destination, and print the directions. Still, printed directions cannot handle unexpected detours, and they give you no sense of the greater territory around, say, the convention-center destination. You could use a map. I know -- "What's that?!" Yes, you have to learn how to read maps. You have to locate on a map where you are now and where, say, the convention center is. But, a map eliminates guessing and folklore, never dies suddenly, and gives you options -- LOTS of options -- when one route or another is blocked. Pace calculators are like driving-directions websites. Yes, you could search the Web and find some run:walk pace calculators that will let you enter some variables to get some other variables. A pace calculator is like a driving-directions website. You enter some stuff, and it tells you what to do. That's fine, as far as it goes. But, what if you were to run into an obstacle? Would you know what to do? The fact is, you could poke and prod all day with a pace calculator and still not end up with the big picture about how YOU can best use the run:walk method. In contrast, pace tables are like maps. Now, think about a map. It gives you the big picture, and this gives you LOTS of options to achieve your goal. Pace tables are like maps. They give you the big picture and lots of options to achieve your goal. This book fills the gap of pace tables for the run:walk method!