easy run pace (Read 2156 times)

it always amazes me that people can have 20 seconds difference between 5k pace and half-marathon pace.  For me I'd be considering it a win if I could get that spread down to 50 seconds. 

 
My race paces are pretty close to what Ken listed with again with the 20 second spread between 5k and half -marathon.  Several people have told me  that the reason for this is that I don't run 5k's hard enough.  I agree , 5k's are tough and too painful, so I don't go hard enough.

The big difference I have with the paces that Ken mentioned is my "easy" pace is more like 7:30-7:45 or a little less than a minute slower than my marathon pace. 

 

it always amazes me that people can have 20 seconds difference between 5k pace and half-marathon pace.  For me I'd be considering it a win if I could get that spread down to 50 seconds. 

Ken is very consistent across the board, but if you plug his PR's into the VO2max calculator, you'll find that his 5k is slightly weaker than his 1/2 marathon.  Thus, the tight spread between the two.  If Ken ran a 5k commensurate with his 1/2mar PR, the spread would be about 30 seconds.  Which is still excellent -- far better than most of us, who tend to post weaker races as the distance increases.

 

it always amazes me that people can have 20 seconds difference between 5k pace and half-marathon pace.  For me I'd be considering it a win if I could get that spread down to 50 seconds. 

I think Jeffgoblue has it exactly right in that only a 20second spread probably means the 5K is soft.  Until I made a specific push to drop my 5K and 10K times this past year the gap between my fastest marathon and fastest 5K was only 30seconds.  Talk about being soft at the short distances!

This past summer I ran a bunch of track races at the local All Comers meets to try attack my 5K times.  I think it helped immensely to run 400m, 800m, 1500m, 1mile and 2mile races.  I never ran in HS so I missed out on all that track fun when I was young.   The first 400m race I ran I literally almost passed out just before the finish line.  As I was approaching the finish my arms and legs were tingling and I wondered if I'd even be able to cross the finish line.  I had never felt that sensation in all my years of running.   I had run a 70.7 second 400 and finished second-to-last in the second heat of the day (first heat was for the fast guys).  71 seconds is SLOW!  There were guys in that heat that I absolutely destroy at 5K/10K/HalfMarathon that ran 65 seconds! 

I guess my point with that look-at-me paragraph is that most of us older and maybe new-to-the-game runners have never REALLY run fast.  I had run sub-3 marathons before this past summer but that is just really a cruise.  I think you have to train yourself mentally, as well as physically, to allow yourself to run closer to your potential at short distances.

I will never forget my first 400m race, as a high school freshman. I approached it with a distance runner's mindset: imagining a pace I should sustain as I went out, making sure not to hurt too early, etc.

I got smoked. I finished last. I remember thinking: "That's unfair: they sprinted the whole way!"

The next race, I decided come hell or high water to sprint the whole way. It hurt a lot worse. I ran 5 seconds faster.

Such is the role of belief in running. It's much more evident in young runners, but this is only because, for them, it is much easier to change their beliefs about who they are as a runner.

I agree with "easy runs feel easy," but to put some numbers to it, you can play with the McMillan calculator.  You'll see that it puts easy runs at 30-60 secs per mile slower than marathon pace and recovery runs at 60-90 secs slower.  I think I'm just a wimp, but my marathon PR is 3:15 (7:27 pace) and I consider < 8:30 to be moderate and run easy runs at ~9:00-9:15 and recovery runs at 9:30+.

I have a theory that Americans at least have some obsession with the 10 minute mile (not sure what the metric "barrier " is) and everybody's easy runs tend to end up faster than that even if they should be running slower.  I went to the track today and did some intervals.  I was doing 1600s at HM effort and passing people jogging around the track at 10 minute miles and breathing harder than me.  I did the same thing when I was on the "run for 2 months every two years" program.  It wasn't until I let myself shuffle at who-knows-how-slow (12+?) that I built my mileage and got in shape.

II have a theory that Americans at least have some obsession with the 10 minute mile (not sure what the metric "barrier " is) and everybody's easy runs tend to end up faster than that even if they should be running slower.  I went to the track today and did some intervals.  I was doing 1600s at HM effort and passing people jogging around the track at 10 minute miles and breathing harder than me.  I did the same thing when I was on the "run for 2 months every two years" program.  It wasn't until I let myself shuffle at who-knows-how-slow (12+?) that I built my mileage and got in shape.

  It's a tough one to learn.  To look at it from the perspective of the 2monthsevery2years type of crowd (excluding the new you :-) ), they won't really make that investment of time.  From that, I'm not sure how much there is to gain, if anything, by really reducing those effort levels.  For the folks that do want to improve and are willing to make a decent level of commitment, they're the ones that really need to slow it down.

 

  It's a tough one to learn.  To look at it from the perspective of the 2monthsevery2years type of crowd (excluding the new you :-) ), they won't really make that investment of time.  From that, I'm not sure how much there is to gain, if anything, by really reducing those effort levels.  For the folks that do want to improve and are willing to make a decent level of commitment, they're the ones that really need to slow it down.

You make a good point.  If you're trying to get the best bang for your buck then some intensity is probably a good thing as long as you don't get injured or get turned off by the unpleasantness.  My brother, for instance, has really whipped himself into shape on an elliptical.