Forums >Look What I Can Do!>Sub-7 Pace for Weekly Mileage Goal Starts Now
Only recently started on RunningAhead, but my goal is to hit quality mileage and to stay under 7 minute pace for my average weekly mileage pace consistently from here on out through my next 4 years of collegiate athletics.
Be careful with that average weekly page goal...back in 2011 I did 212 consecutive runs faster than 7min/mile pace with an average pace for the year of 6:34min/mile and the result was only one PR the whole year. That one PR was at a distance I had never raced before (4 miles and my pace in that race was slower than I ran in 5 mile races in 2010 and 2012).
Getting in enough slow recovery runs will drag down your average pace but increase your total volume and pay benefits both for your health and your speed.
There's a saying around here that goes something like: run a lot, mostly easy, sometimes hard. It seems to work for most of us.
Goof luck!
Truer words were never spoken!
Actually, Shrey, listen to deluca. Be careful with that goal. There is a good chance that once you start at college, your workouts will take on a new quality that you didn't have in high school.
Your focus should be on your race results, not your easy run pace. And the best way to get good race results is to focus on your hard days, and just run mileage on your easy days. Over time, you'll see your pace drop some, but I don't believe forcing is good for the long run.
There was a point in my life when I ran. Now, I just run.
We are always running for the thrill of it
Always pushing up the hill, searching for the thrill of it
Truer words were never spoken! Actually, Shrey, listen to deluca. Be careful with that goal. There is a good chance that once you start at college, your workouts will take on a new quality that you didn't have in high school. Your focus should be on your race results, not your easy run pace. And the best way to get good race results is to focus on your hard days, and just run mileage on your easy days. Over time, you'll see your pace drop some, but I don't believe forcing is good for the long run.
focusing on average weekly pace doesn't mean much, if anything. It's putting the cart before the horse. As you said, its' better to focus on the hard days and just put in the miles and not stress about pace on the easy days. Last I checked, there aren't any awards for a person's average weekly pace!
You have to find out what works for you. Cam Levins famously ran 150-160 miles per week in college. I think his easy pace was around 7-flat. Diego Estrada runs about 50 mpw (peaked at 70 for the Half Marathon Champs) and his easy pace was about 6-flat. Those guys are obviously outliers, but I have friends that run sub-7 (or at least low 7) pace on their easy runs. They are mid to low 15 min 5k guys. From personal experience, I was running about 30 mpw last year with an easy run at about 650 pace. Mostly it depends on the runner and what training is looking like and how you feel. That said, I think many college programs run easy at low to sub-7 pace. Another option would be to train by HR and forget pace.
And we run because we like itThrough the broad bright land
3 months til Masters
As I tell my high school runners and as my college coach told me, after a 5-10 mile easy run, your feeling should be "meh." That is to say short of it being 90 degrees or 50 degrees and downpouring rain, you should not feel all that different after the run as you did before you started. If you get your miles in the summer and the winter, easy days should be something you simply check off. Easy days you should not feel the pace at all. You should not have to think about pace, but rather you should just feel like you are gliding along. If you are planning on running DIII in college and being competative relative to other freshman, I would expect 7-7:15 pace depending on weather and distance on easy days. I would be conservative on Freshman goals because unless you have always run year round the milage will add up and you will feel like you are always racing a little bit tired. This is especially true of your first year of track. You may PR, but you will see bigger jumps as you go on through seasons.
Also, get a copy of Once a Runner, always do your morning run and striders after every run, and don't take 8 am classes.
2023 Goals
Marathon Sub 2:37 (CIM) 2:41:18
10k Sub 35:00 (Victory 10k 34:19)
5k Sub 16:00 (Hot Dash 5k in March (16:48), Brian Kraft in May (16:20), Twilight 5000 in July and August (16:20/16:25 Both heat index 102-103F)
Sub 1:16 Half Marathon City of Lakes Half Marathon 1:15:47)
Sub 56:30 in 10 mile (Twin Cities 10 mile, Canceled due to weather, 56:35 as a workout)
2024 Goals
Sub 2:37 Marathon
Sub 1:15 Half
Sub 34 10k
Sub 16 5k
I've got a fever...
Average weekly pace might be the least important goal you can set. Far better to focus on total miles, getting good long runs in, and hitting quality workouts.
Tying yourself to a meaningless pace goal may end up having the effect of forcing you to push it on days when what your body really needs is a nice easy jog to recover or loosen up. You don't too want make your easy/recovery days harder than they need to be.
One thing we don't about you is what kind of times you run in races. Could be that 7:00 miles or slightly under is a walk in the park for you.
You may want to consult a book like Daniels' Running Formula by Jack Daniels. Like a lot of coaches out there, he has recommended training paces for different types of runs based on what kind of times you can actually run in races.
VDOT Calculator -- enter a recent race time or some other all-out effort.
MTA: I see you've posted some times in another thread. Your 17:21 5k, for example, recommends an easy training pace of 7:13~7:40. Granted, your track times will recommend a little faster easy pace, but personally, I'm a little dubious of using your mile time to predict how you should train for an 8k or longer. Anyhow, it's better to err on the side of going slower rather than faster on easy days.
On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office. But you will wish that you'd spent more time running. Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.
I bet you win a lot of workouts with that approach.
Why is it sideways?
You sorta missed your window to become a monster this season. You definitely don't want to make a goal to train harder headed into your first college XC season. You are now, once again, a freshman. A boy among men. You're going to be running alongside 22 year old men who eat 50 mile weeks for light snacks between meals.
This summer you don't have the base to train hard and survive a college racing season. Train hard and race an 8k every week? Off of a couple 50 mile weeks? I predict depletion and mild despair by early October. Questioning your choice to be a runner by late October. Then you've got indoor.
Just survive and listen and learn a thing or two, grasshopper. Then, next summer, after it's all over, it's a steady diet of 70+ mile weeks for you, hopefully over hilly terrain. Relentlessly. At easy paces. You will come back next year gaunt and floating. They will call you the sophomore monster.
outstanding insight and advice!!
You sorta missed your window to become a monster this season. You definitely don't want to make a goal to train harder headed into your first college XC season. You are now, once again, a freshman. A boy among men. You're going to be running alongside 22 year old men who eat 50 mile weeks for light snacks between meals. This summer you don't have the base to train hard and survive a college racing season. Train hard and race an 8k every week? Off of a couple 50 mile weeks? I predict depletion and mild despair by early October. Questioning your choice to be a runner by late October. Then you've got indoor. Just survive and listen and learn a thing or two, grasshopper. Then, next summer, after it's all over, it's a steady diet of 70+ mile weeks for you, hopefully over hilly terrain. Relentlessly. At easy paces. You will come back next year gaunt and floating. They will call you the sophomore monster.
LOL! I have a son in HS and this mentality seems to run rampant with the young guys. They haven't learned the benefit (or joy) in the easy recovery days. It certainly doesn't help when you have coaches that stress working hard, all the time. It makes the kids that know better feel like slackers.
This looks like a synopsis of my running log, 2007-2011. I ran my first season of college XC off of 50 mpw and did merely okay but was burned out, skipped indoor, outdoor, and the next XC season while I built up some strength and ran a marathon. Then I ran more and more in the summers, up to 85 mpw and ended up the fastest runner on the team by senior year.
Feeling the growl again
I am not sure why you are choosing one of the least valuable metrics possible for a goal. If you are choosing an arbitrary goal to chase, more power to you. If you seek to get faster and improve your PRs, you are missing the boat by a mile.
I am fat and out of shape now...but when I was in shape...running by myself easy pace was 6:25-7:00. I raced 5Ks mid-15s. I thought nothing of running 8min miles with slower friends on easy days...not running sub-7 on easy runs had no impact on overall conditioning, and in fact probably was a good thing that rested me for running harder on workouts.
Same reason I never got into streaking...I forced myself to take every third Monday completely off. I was still running 100-120mpw but forcing myself to take a rest day to stave off over-training. Nobody needs to run 100 days in a row without a day off to race fast.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
Good thing he said average weekly pace. He's talking about upping his overall training intensity, not the intensity of every single run.
I am not sure why you are choosing one of the least valuable metrics possible for a goal. If you are choosing an arbitrary goal to chase, more power to you. If you seek to get faster and improve your PRs, you are missing the boat by a mile. I am fat and out of shape now...but when I was in shape...running by myself easy pace was 6:25-7:00. I raced 5Ks mid-15s. I thought nothing of running 8min miles with slower friends on easy days...not running sub-7 on easy runs had no impact on overall conditioning, and in fact probably was a good thing that rested me for running harder on workouts. Same reason I never got into streaking...I forced myself to take every third Monday completely off. I was still running 100-120mpw but forcing myself to take a rest day to stave off over-training. Nobody needs to run 100 days in a row without a day off to race fast.
Leave my boy Shreyas alone man
3K: 8:29.12 (2017) 5K: 14:56.59 (2016) 8K: 25:27 (2016) 15K: 53:46 (2022) HM: 75:41 (2022) FM: 2:43:17 (2022)