Decreasing pace and its effect on training (Read 1144 times)

August 2005: Average week ~ 15-20 miles. Several "easy" runs at the 9:35 pace. HM Pace 9:40 Didnt run much in the way of 5K's but at best I would have done 28 minutes. Probably slightly over. Burned out a lot Slowed way way down for a long time. I wasn't intelligent enough to do it on my own, fortunately for me I got pregnant. While I didnt buy any of the "dont run" I used it as a good excuse to "run lazy" Plus I recruited a bunch of newbies to run with me so I went at their pace. Lots of 11 mm. Then took it slower and smarter when I came back. Aug 2007 - Average training pace 10-10:30 30 mpw very little speedwork 5K 24 Aug 2008 - Average training pace 9:45-10 ~ 50 mpw still not much speedwork 5K <23 i="" am="" usually="" slower="" than="" all="" my="" mcmillan="" training="" paces.="" at="" best="" a="" few="" times="" a="" week="" i="" strive="" for="" the="" slowest="" end="" of="" them.="" i="" have="" shaved="" tons="" of="" times="" of="" all="" my="" races.=""></23>

3. Should I throw in speedwork once a week or just focus on increasing my mileage until I reach my goal mpw (25 - 30).

My practice is to ramp mileage OR do speedwork. I lay off all speedwork if I am in a period of significantly increasing mileage. Then I hold mileage and add speedwork back in.

60? If I waited until 60 mpw before I added a tempo run, I would have been slow as molasses. For a recreational runner, particularly one doing 5ks and 10ks, I'd say this number could be lower.

I dunno, I got a lot faster doing long slow runs and nothing but and then throwing in a race now and then. This can be debated forever

And isn't that the beauty of running? Somebody - Jeff maybe? - pointed out the other day how it all comes down an experiment of one. Me, I never believed all of the above ... until I noticed that every time I got in good marathon shape, I took 20 seconds off my 5k PR. Does that work for everybody? I dunno. But everybody should probably try it out and see for themselves.

I'm another believer of running mileage and the speed will come. I started seriously running beginning of this year. I set a goal to run 100 miles a month. I started out running slow 12min miles but that was an easy pace for me. Every couple of weeks, I would speed up a little bit, on and on. Now, my easy pace is roughly a 10min mile. I recently ran a 5k in 24:30, that's under an 8min pace. Before the race, I never ran more than a mile faster than an 8min pace. This was all on barely any speedwork. I did some faster runs here and there but about 98% of my runs were just a slow easy pace for me. As a relative newbie myself, I think us beginners worry about speedwork too much. I read all this stuff on tempo runs and interval runs and it all sounds really exciting. But realistically, I think just building a big base at this point of my running life is much more beneficial than trying to sharpen what little base I have.