JK got me to thinking about something.. (Read 965 times)

I was reading a response in another post. My last race pace was 10:04 for a 10miler (only my 3rd race)..however, when I do interval training I can do 1600 meter repeats at about a 9:00 and do okay( I pick 9 because my training plan had me doing 9:36 Intervals when I did that pace, I felt I was not working that hard so I went a little faster and it felt just right for an interval), not feeling as if Im going to hard- as in, I still feel I could go faster. Which leads me to this. Perhaps I am not pushing myself hard enough in my races. Forgive me for my ignorance, but racing is new to me and have only raced 3 total so far. So, Im still on a learning curve. My training plan also has me doing 10:36 pace for Tempo runs and I end up going faster because I feel at 10:36, is still a tad on the easier side vs feeling as if Im comfortably pushing myself. Does that make sense or am I a total idiot? On my easy runs, I struggle at times to slow my pace down to stick around the 12mm pace. So this kind of confuses me.

Your first obvious mistake is in your subject line. Me + thinking = wrong. That said, here's my two cents, which is worth approximately a peso: I see a lot of people in your shoes and it confuses me, but I have a few theories: 1) Maybe you're right - maybe you just need to push harder when you race. Or maybe you need to be patient and race more, at different distances, to get an idea where your fitness level really is? 2) I suspect some people have the same races paces at different distances (and not much faster than their training paces) because they just plain don't practice running at different speeds. That doesn't mean you need some fancy shmansy program to follow, just that you might want to practice running a full range of paces. Just doing a few 100 meter striders at say 8:00 pace in the middle of an easy run would probably help. 3) You just need more patience. It'll come. Your race times will drop as your running continues, and eventually you'll be running faster tempos, too. And intervals, though you don't really need them now. 4) Here's my personal favorite: I think a lot of new runners start running consistently and mostly slowly, and then get all confused about race paces and quality-day paces, because they're improving. Some people have lots of natural talent and can get significantly faster kind of quickly. So maybe that 9:36 pace made perfect sense when you started whatever program you're on, but now you're actually a lot faster and you just don't know it yet. Run some more races. At different distances. Train at varying speeds. Have patience. See what happens.

Jake is probably right That 10 miler was in May and you have put in some solid training miles since then. Many people tend to train at too higher pace but it appears that you can up the pace somewhat and still stay within your comfort zone. Another race would give you some up-to-date feedback on where you are right now.

Please stop saying that. His big head barely fits in the avatar box as it is.

And Reason #4 is Why I supermegaheart JK .... ( er..... well you know what I mean) My training paces are 12mm for easy/long runs..... I have not been able to stay at that pace for 2-3 months now. I figure it's because as the endurance has improved, my speed is naturally increasing by no real effort. I have runs that feel totally comfortable, no extra pushing, and I can gaze down at garmie and it's somewhere in the mid 10's to low 11's per mile. Thanks for posting that, I needed to see that so that it ( for real) made sense, and validates what I have been thinking.

No problem- sometimes I hope my questions can help other people as well- aside from me looking like an idiot that is.

Sorry to do a mini-hijack, but that calculator is great. I've seen it in other places but admittedly didn't actually use it until now. I've been having problems with pacing and soreness as I'm a new runner (January 2008) training for my first Half (9/28/08) with two 5Ks under my belt. This was really informative.

Happy to reacquaint you with it. Good luck with the HM.

The title of this thread scares the bejesus out of me. I swear, I'm in some sort of parallel universe. Twilight Zone. I hear creepy music. Does anyone else hear that? Great Zeus' pimples.....

The title of this thread scares the bejesus out of me.

I can only imagine your relief to find it was just another thread where hotties were supermegahearting the big ape. It's good to see back hair becoming popular again with the youngsters.