Just curious which is better for building stamina for the marathon:
>Jogging at a steady rate for all runs; or
>Alternating a slightly faster jog with periods of walking (for example, 3 minutes jogging with 2 minutes of walking)

Karin,
It really depends on how your body adapts, and a little bit on what you expect out of the marathon. Since stamina can be a measure of how long an individual can keep going at a certain pace, I would suggest that jogging (over the long haul) is going to be more beneficial to building your stamina than a combination of jogging (faster) and walking, if pace is a factor. However, if the body can't adapt, then the combination jog/walk is best for you. Say you're going to do an Ultra-Marathon of 50 to 100 miles. Then the combination of jogging and walking may be the only way you'd get through it. And there's nothing wrong with that, as that's how a fair number of Ultra racers complete those distances.

Hope that helps.

Know thy body. :-)

Karin-
www.jeffgalloway.com
This is a good resource for discussions on run/walk.
all the best,
-airsick

ps- his team of run/walkers, doing a 1 min on 1 min off, crossed the Big Sur marathon in front of me. Damn cramps!!!

Karin - As a slow paced runner who follows the run/walk strategy, and finished quite a few marathons, I've found that a 1 minute walk interval is maximum for efficiency. Keep the pace for the run and walk intervals as close to the same as possible. The walk interval is not a break, it is an alternate way to move forward, using the muscles slightly differently. My former coaches always emphasized "walking with purpose", and no talking during the walk interval. Make every step count. Find a run interval that works for you. As a former coach, I trained my group using 6 minutes run/1 minute walk for the long runs. Do check out Jeff Galloway as airsick recommended.

Hey, Karin:

I'm in the same boat. Last year, I did all the runs without walking at all. This year, I read a bit about intervals and I thought I'd try it. It's made a huge differende in my stamina. (Well, I'm doing my nutrition better this year, too, but that's another story!)

I started by doing 8 run/2 walk intervals. Lately, now that we've been at it for a while, I've been doing 9/1 on the week runs and 8/2 on the longer, weekend runs. My weekend runs have felt awesome! I don't feel completly spent when I'm done, and -- I think -- it really helps the mental stamina, too.