How do I drop my pace more (Read 278 times)

The short answer is to increase you mileage and to lose body fat. (Almost everyone--even D1 runners--could lose body fat and get faster. A rule of thumb that has proven fairly accurate is that each pound lost is worth 2 seconds per mile).

Don't worry about intervals at all. Your comfortable running pace is significantly below your lactate threshold, and most interval training is significantly above it. Intervals are useful if you're running 3ks and 5ks flat out, and if you've already got a good deal of aerobic strength.

There are two reasons that you may not find a pace "comfortable." The first is that the pace is beyond your lactate threshold. Lots of easy mileage will help your LT, but specific runs at that pace are also helpful. Essentially, you want to get 15-20 minutes of running at a pace that's just below when you start breathing really hard and loud. Once or twice a week is sufficient, though it's also useful to touch on this pace for a few minutes towards the end of your easy runs. This pace is sometimes described as "comfortably hard." It should never feel like you're straining, but conversation should be impractical.

The other reason you might not find a pace comfortable is that you lack the endurance to hold it, i.e. it is comfortable for a limited amount of time, but before you can finish your run you find yourself slowing. Your breathing will be more or less under control. This is a classic sign that you need more mileage. Essentially what's happening is that you have a small group of muscle fibers that have been fairly well trained. You call on those fibers when you start running, and you're able to move at a decent clip, but when they're exhausted, the next group of muscle fibers that your brain recruits won't be as well trained. Running longer, past the point when you're forced to slow down, will start training those "second string" muscle fibers so they'll be as well developed as your first string fibers. A great bonus to this kind of training is that even though you don't have to run that fast, it actually will help you run fast when you choose to. You train these fibers in small groups as they get exhausted, but when you want to go fast, you can recruit lots of them at once and go pretty fast. This is why coaches often say "strength=speed."

For a while, it's okay to start your runs faster and get slower as you're forced to. This will still train all of your slow twitch fibers, which are the most important thing by far. Eventually, however, you will want to also start training your fast oxidative fibers. These are sort of in between a sprinter's pure fast twitch fibers and the distance runner's slow twitch fibers. They're not quite as fast as pure fast twitch, but they actually respond to distance training, which makes them very, very valuable. The problem is they only respond to certain kinds of training. Basically, you need to exhaust your slow twitch fibers with a medium-long or long run, then you need to pick up the speed at the end of your run in order to recruit the fast oxidative fibers. If you stay slow, those fibers won't be recruited.

#1 is simply to run more, irrelevant of pace.  #2 is to run smart.  No offense but doing 3 10-mile runs in a weekend at "race pace" is going to beat you down, not make you faster.  For now, try 2 truly easy days between faster workout days.  And workouts are supposed to be at appropriate effort....NOT racing every one.  Nice, comfortable tempos (20-25min at a pace you could race for an hour) is your bread-and-butter.

Thanks everyone for the feedback..