While jogging is my favorite workout, I've never covered long distances -- five painful miles on the last leg of a triathlon is the farthest I've ever gone. Currently, I run 5Ks on the treadmill and enjoy a 2.1-mile route in the neighborhood, but I'd really love to up my mileage.

This past year, a couple of my 'beginner runner' friends pulled off half-marathons and marathons. They trained and successfully ran their long-distance races by applying the run/walk method. Famous distance runner and author Jeff Galloway invented the Galloway RUN/WALK Method, which has made longer distances possible for most runners.

In a marathon, Galloway recommends incorporating a run/walk ratio within the first mile of your race, keeping up the pattern through mile 18. After that, you're free to run like a purist all the way to the finish line. The rationale behind walk breaks is to prevent muscle fatigue and speed recovery. Switching back and forth between walking and running muscles increases your overall performance capacity since a wider variety of muscles are sharing the load. Makes sense.

Here are Galloway's recommended run/walk ratios based on your current pace per mile. I jog a turtle-like 10 minute mile, so I should start out applying a 3 minute run/1 minute walk ratio. He also offers a bunch of other tips on how to get started. I also found a couple run/walk ratio charts to train beginners for a 5K or a longer five mile run, offered by The Complete Running Blog Network.

I like the fact that regular walk breaks open up longer distances to more modest runners. Any tips out there from experienced run/walkers? For now, I think I'll start applying a 3:1 ratio and see if I can comfortably work myself up to a 10K, which would shatter my previous five-miler record. I'll let you know how it goes.