Couple of question on pacing and stoplights.. (Read 1158 times)

You are just overly paranoid...heheh! Why are your long runs too fast? If you are comfortable at that pace, perhaps your treadmill runs are too slow. I wouldn't worry too much about the traffic lights. Your first concern should be to not get hit by a car. I speak from experience when I tell you that that can ruin your day in a hurry. Just take them as little breaks every few minutes, although it probably wouldn't hurt to find a running route that minimizes the number of lights that you'll need to go through.

I got back into running using the treadmill and I still use the treadmill quite often. I have the same issue though, I am HORRIBLE with pacing. This is one of my biggest struggles with reaching any of my goals. I need a "pace bunny" friend along to help me maintain a speed that won't burn me out. When I do run outside I prefer to hit the paths at the local parks, but most of the time I'm running in my neighborhood and I have mapped out several routes that avoid traffic lights and heavy traffic roads (I'm a wimp about traffic). Now that I have a Garmin I enjoy heading outside to run and I use the Garmin to pace me.

Some say you have to set the treadmiloll incline to 1 or 2% to get the "effect" of an outside run (account for wind resistance, etc.). You might try that and see if it evens the paces up.

I do my longer long runs (14+ mi) on a trail so I don't have to deal with stoplights (and rude, un-runner-friendly drivers!) ... the rest of my runs I do in the city. I don't think the stoplights have had much, if any, effect on my running!

Any tips on how I can make myself slow down?

Throw out an anchor your first two miles. That'll slow you down. Seriously though, just like some of the others who have replied to this, I started out on a treadmill as well and experienced the same "pacing" problems that you are now when I began running outdoors. Be patient, it will take a considerable amount of runs outdoors to even start to get to know what your comfortable pacing is starting out to finish a run of any given distance. You'll get to know this in time though. The main thing is to take it easy and start out slower than what you think you should, or even maybe what your body is telling you it would like to do (feeling good, in a groove, gonna go). That way as you get into miles 2, 3, 4... you can increase your pace if you are feeling really good which is easier to do than to try and bang out one more planned mile when you're already exhausted. I live in more of a rural/suburb area so, I have country mile-type blocks and only have to deal with intersections every mile. Traffic is my biggest concern, cause as others have said, the vehicle traffic is not always runner-friendly. Ask a mail box on Dean Road that about ripped my arm off because of an oncoming car! Keep running outdoors though and, be patient, it'll take some time to figure out the outdoor pacing of your body for any given run, but it will happen in time.

I don't know if anyone else has suggested this, but an excellent way to pace yourself (at least, it has worked well for me) is to use a heart rate moniter. You can plan your workouts based on the average heart rate you need to maintain. If you do that, you are always maintaining the desired level of effort and you don't have to worry that your maintaing a specific pace. For example, Bob Glover recommends starting your long runs at about 60 to 70 percent of your max heart rate, and keeping it under 75% the whole way. For easy runs, keep it between 60 and 70. For tempo runs, bring it to about 85 to 90 percent max. Intervals 90 to 95 percent, or 85 to 90 percent for long intervals. Matt Fitzgerald also gives similar ranges for the different types of workouts. I've been using a heart rate monitor for about a year now, and now I really don't even need to look at my heart rate monitor anymore - I just know from experience what it is. The really nice thing is that a year ago, my pace for an easy run with a 70% max heart rate was probably about 9:00 minutes per mile. Now it is about 8:15. Same effort but faster pace because I'm more fit, but I didn't have to worry about figuring out exactly what the right pace was for me as I became more fit. This is also very helpful in hot and humid weather conditions or on hills, etc - by running according to your average heart rate rather than pace, you can easily adjust your pace up or down based on weather, terrain, etc.

I warned my coworker with regards to the "treadmill effect". He trained for a half marathon almost exclusively on a treadmill. Then we did a 10k race together a couple months leading up to it, after he'd been doing 14 mile treadmill workouts, and totally blew out after 2.5 miles. He switched to road running after that and beat his per mile time in the Disney Half by 1.5 minutes! For just fitness, the treadmill is fine. But the treadmill has momentum and it "carries" the rear part of your stride. With running on a surface, you have to create that momentum each and every step. I agree with the others that without a slight incline it can become detrimental. The treadmill has its uses, though. You can run yourself into the ground on a treadmill without having to worry about traffic or weather. And it's easier to meet girls on a treadmill, if that's your thing.