Forums >Running 101>Getting back to running
Good Evening all,
Im in the Navy and I want to get back to running very seriously . My prt is coming up in 12 weeks . I have already started running easy now for about a week. My last prt run was a 10:29 second 1.5 mile. Any ideas on how to approach my goal time of sub 10 ? Whats should be my easy pace? Any idea of how many miles i should get up too ? Eventually i want to go sub 9:30 . I weight 149 lbs and my height is 5'9'. I already went to the local running store and picked up a pair of brooks. Thanks in advance.
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Run lots, mostly easy, sometimes hard.
Speed and endurance come from lots of easy miles. Weeks and months and years of steady, daily miles.
Your easy pace is the effort at which you could hold a conversation with someone running alongside you without gasping for breath. As you run more, the pace will get faster -- easy, hard, medium, tempo...these are efforts, the pace each generates varies day to day.
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What milktruck said. Mostly easy, sometimes hard. For the "sometimes hard" part, I'd suggest, in three or four weeks closer to your trial, to add in a faster-paced "tempo" workout once each week.
Not something where you're going all out, hammering your speed, but something faster than your easy pace - instead of being able to have a conversation while running, at this pace you're able to speak in short sentences. This would be mainly to get your body used to the feel of that pace, before you have to try it in the prt.
How hard was your effort in the 10:29 prt? Were you gasping, lying on the ground, completely spent? Or worn out, flagged, but pretty well recovered 5-10 minutes later? Or, did you feel like you could go do another couple easy miles shortly after you finished?
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What milktruck said. Mostly easy, sometimes hard. For the "sometimes hard" part, I'd suggest, in three or four weeks closer to your trial, to add in a faster-paced "tempo" workout once each week. Not something where you're going all out, hammering your speed, but something faster than your easy pace - instead of being able to have a conversation while running, at this pace you're able to speak in short sentences. This would be mainly to get your body used to the feel of that pace, before you have to try it in the prt. How hard was your effort in the 10:29 prt? Were you gasping, lying on the ground, completely spent? Or worn out, flagged, but pretty well recovered 5-10 minutes later? Or, did you feel like you could go do another couple easy miles shortly after you finished?
Thanks for you detailed input and help . What about intervals , should that be closer to that time too ? I went all out but I feel I didn’t pace right . I was gasping for air but I recovered well after 5 mins though. Before that initial prt , I was running 3-4 times a weeks running about 2-3 miles easy pace .
On intervals, you generally want to finish them feeling like you could have done 1 more set.
Let's put some data on these questions...your goal is 1.5mi in 10:00 flat. That is a 6:40 mile/min pace. Your target 'race pace', so to speak.
Your easy pace is going to be way slower, like 8:30-ish or slower.
Your tempo pace is going to be about what you could run a 10K race, or a bit easier. I'll guess 7:15 - 7:30.
For intervals, you might want to target 1:30 (ish) 400m, with a full 400M recovery for your hard, short work.
Of course, these are just 'throw 'em out there' numbers...could be total fiction.
Milktruck ,
This is kinda starting make sense to me . So my goal race time which is 10:00 in mile and half . Do I just go based off those goal paces like say for instance the easy pace which is around 830 ish . Do I need to be hitting that time or slower on my easy days ? Btw thanks for bearing with me to and with all the help .
Milktruck , This is kinda starting make sense to me . So my goal race time which is 10:00 in mile and half . Do I just go based off those goal paces like say for instance the easy pace which is around 830 ish . Do I need to be hitting that time or slower on my easy days ? Btw thanks for bearing with me to and with all the help .
You don't have to nail the pace exactly on the dot. If your target is 8:30, then 8:20-8:40 is a good range to hit. If you're a couple seconds above the high end or below the low end, don't sweat it. But if your goal is 8:30 and you're going at 7:40s, that could be a problem - especially if you can't carry on a conversation. That means you're working too hard, and your workout just dropped down toward the tempo/ harder effort area. Remember - mostly easy, sometimes hard.
(Now, if you're running 7:40s and it feels easy, you can talk without a problem, that's a different story. Then you're likely fitter than your previous prt shows.)
I neglected to mention, at some point before your prt trial, you will want to run at that race pace (6:40-6:20), or slightly faster, so your body knows what the correct pace feels like. But this should be for much shorter intervals, like maybe a couplefew 1/4 miles, with ample rest in between.
That will help you nail your pace in the prt, and not go out too fast at the start.