Forums >Running 101>Understanding my pace
Daniel
I've been running now almost 7 months and I've worked my way up to running around 9.5 miles and 35 miles a week, but up until recently my pace had stayed somewhere in the 8'45"/mile,which I was fine with, because I'm not looking to make the Olympic team. However the last two weeks my pace has gotten faster and today topped out at 8'08"/mile. What has happened? I don't feel like I've changed anything other than losing a couple lbs (which is my goal). I'm not trying to run faster but each time I've gone out I seem to go a little faster each time. Is this something I need to keep an eye out for injury wise? Is this normal? Do I need to start working on my signature for autographs? Let me know what's up
an amazing likeness
It is quite normal to have pace move around without you changing anything. Your fitness improving will have some effect, cooler temps, your overall health and whole slew of factors come into play. This -- pace varying day-in, day-out, is why it is so often recommended that you train by "effort" -- how hard you're working. Let the pace be whatever the pace is, the goal of the workout is to run at a certain effort.
For example, "Easy" effort means at level of effort where you're able to talk in full words and sentences, or sing a song out loud without gulping or struggling to breath. "Hard" effort means you can't do anything other than grunt out of a word or two. Medium is in between.
Now, there are a lot of different definitions of the levels of effort, you sort of end up with your own catalog.
Most your miles should be at Easy effort, ie, general aerobic running. If the pace is 8:30 one day, 8:50 the next, 8:10 the next...so be it, the workout's goal was an easy set of miles.
Run lots, mostly easy, sometimes hard.
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However the last two weeks my pace has gotten faster and today topped out at 8'08"/mile. What has happened? I don't feel like I've changed anything other than losing a couple lbs (which is my goal). I'm not trying to run faster but each time I've gone out I seem to go a little faster each time. Is this something I need to keep an eye out for injury wise? Is this normal? Do I need to start working on my signature for autographs? Let me know what's up
Good job with your progress. You are making progress. Be cautious about timing or racing your your normal training runs. I hate when I hear people training for a race and go out for a long run or a normal training run and boast about beating their times from earlier training runs. Training runs should not be raced. Each day is different depending on weather, humidity, wind, sickness, stress, not recovered from previous runs etc. You may feel different day to day and 8:45 pace may feel easy one day but 8:20 pace may feel the same the next day.
I don't mean to make this complicated as you are doing great. Keep doing what you are doing and listen to your body. However, if concerned about running too hard, ask yourself what pace could you run a 5K race tomorrow? If your comfortable training pace is 8:15 - 8:30 pace, you probably should be able to run a 5K race at 7 min pace. If you have no plans to train for races, I would just tell you to run by feel and listen to how your body feels. If you are looking to do some races, you will want to develop some structure. A 5K race can tell you how fit you currently are and guide you to what your training paces should be.
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It is quite normal to have pace move around without you changing anything. Your fitness improving will have some effect, cooler temps, your overall health and whole slew of factors come into play. This -- pace varying day-in, day-out, is why it is so often recommended that you train by "effort" -- how hard you're working. Let the pace be whatever the pace is, the goal of the workout is to run at a certain effort. For example, "Easy" effort means at level of effort where you're able to talk in full words and sentences, or sing a song out loud without gulping or struggling to breath. "Hard" effort means you can't do anything other than grunt out of a word or two. Medium is in between. Now, there are a lot of different definitions of the levels of effort, you sort of end up with your own catalog. Most your miles should be at Easy effort, ie, general aerobic running. If the pace is 8:30 one day, 8:50 the next, 8:10 the next...so be it, the workout's goal was an easy set of miles. Run lots, mostly easy, sometimes hard.
It's been one of those winters where I've been able to run in tee shirt and shorts a lot more than I expected. I do notice on these days my times are better, but I feel better and not as confined to my apparel. It's just such a shock when you get back and check your times and see such a huge change. Thank you for taking some time to help me out with this!
Good job with your progress. You are making progress. Be cautious about timing or racing your your normal training runs. I hate when I hear people training for a race and go out for a long run or a normal training run and boast about beating their times from earlier training runs. Training runs should not be raced. Each day is different depending on weather, humidity, wind, sickness, stress, not recovered from previous runs etc. You may feel different day to day and 8:45 pace may feel easy one day but 8:20 pace may feel the same the next day. I don't mean to make this complicated as you are doing great. Keep doing what you are doing and listen to your body. However, if concerned about running too hard, ask yourself what pace could you run a 5K race tomorrow? If your comfortable training pace is 8:15 - 8:30 pace, you probably should be able to run a 5K race at 7 min pace. If you have no plans to train for races, I would just tell you to run by feel and listen to how your body feels. If you are looking to do some races, you will want to develop some structure. A 5K race can tell you how fit you currently are and guide you to what your training paces should be.
Thank you! I plan on running a 15k in Nashville a couple weeks from now so that is my goal before I go with a half in April. I'll start looking for a 5k to do between now and then to run. The races definitely help with keeping me motivated to run everyday and I'm getting excited about the one coming up. Like I had said before I am running to lose weight (and I can proudly say I would no longer be a Clydesdale in those races that look at weight) and so the calories lost are more my concern. I'll start looking at speed work after the 15k. I really think my biggest problem in training is that I'm a creature of habit and have a mental block that says if I ran 9 miles yesterday then I have to do the same 9 miles or more today. I also have to hang my clothes in my closet in Roy g biv order. So changing my routine is difficult to say the least.
When I was in the army I could run a 14:30 2 mile fairly regularly but when I got out I stopped running. Now at 35 I'm trying to do something I told myself I could never do. I'm a bigger guy so it's unreal to me what the body can do when you take care of it.
Thanks for the advice! I'll keep checking back in to talk some more!
You want to get faster at the same aerobic heart rate. Shows that your endurance is building. This should be happening during training. If it isn't, something is wrong and adjustments need to be made (either more or less volume, depending). Imagine starting out at 8:45 pace at 70% of your maximum heart rate (MHR) and after a year you were running 7:30 at the same heart rate. You'd be what might be called an "aerobic machine."
Couple things can attribute to this but a lot of runners peak in early Spring and Fall because of the weather. Colder weather makes it tougher on the lungs and for your body to warm up. Ideal racing weather for most people hovers around 60.
Another part to this could be your base miles, and your body becoming adjusted to running a pace and you not realizing you're able to pick up the pace now without knowing it.