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Need help with paces (Read 443 times)


A Saucy Wench

    As for the side conversation that has spun up regarding easy pace--easy pace is the one area of training where the calculators are the LEAST useful. Just run easy based on effort, don't try to hit a certain pace on your easy days.

     

    This.

     

    Easy PACE can vary a lot.  Where you are in your training week, sleep quality, life stressors, what you ate yesterday, etc. etc. etc.

     

    Quite honestly if you ARE going to use the pace calculators to give you an easy pace, dont look at the range, just look at it as NO FASTER THAN X.   Any thing slower is ok, as slow as it needs to be.

    • If you are really, really, really fighting the urge to go faster than X, bite the bullet and schedule a quality day.  Tempo or intervals.
    • If you are repeatedly fighting the urge to go faster but you cant hit your quality targets and your overall weekly training without excessive fatigue, then force yourself to hold that easy pace - you are burning it up at the wrong time
    • If you are repeatedly fighting the urge to go faster AND are completing all your training runs with ease maybe it is time to do a time trial and reevaluate your overall paces. 

    I have become Death, the destroyer of electronic gadgets

     

    "When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7

    TxDiverMom


      Because, especially for beginners, the pace is a constantly moving target.  The effort level is not a moving target (or at least resists movement to a far greater degree).  The effort level is what makes the workout accomplish its purpose.

       

      Thanks so much for saying it this way.  I've struggled with pace as well and this is the first thing that helps me really understand it.  As a beginner, we read stuff that's probably talking about runners who are not beginners and it just doesn't really work.  I've seen a couple of people talk about how in the beginning you basically have 1 pace and it's slow and all you can do.  It has just taken me a while to understand this.  I'm dense.  Smile

         

        So, just to be clear... Should I be running my scheduled "Pace" runs at 9:30-10:00 or my projected marathon pace ~10:20?  And I'm assuming my LR should be in the 11:00 zone?

         

        I would not intentionally run slower than easy pace for long runs or pace runs. But that's me--you have to figure out what works for you.

        Runners run

        npaden


          dvuoung85 - If you are running your easy runs easy, then it seems to me that your target marathon pace is soft.

           

          My easy runs are around the same pace as you and my half marathon PR is within a couple minutes, but my goal marathon time is 40 minutes faster that yours.  There's a decent chance I'm being overly optimistic, but your goal time seems like it has a hit the wall and crash time built into it.

           

          Again, take my comments very lightly as I have never run a marathon, I'm just working toward one, but I'm hopefully going to end up putting in the training to be able to race my marathon instead of just finishing it.

          Age: 50 Weight: 224 Height: 6'3" (Goal weight 195)

          Current PR's:  Mara 3:14:36* (2017); HM 1:36:13 (2017); 10K 43:59 (2014); 5K 21:12 (2016)

          AmoresPerros


          Options,Account, Forums

            (In which I pretend to expertise that I do not in fact possess)

             

            I think there are two ways to approach one's first marathon.

             

            1) Conservative - lower crash risk, and easier target pace

             

            Here the goal is the accomplishment of the distance. In this case, the "marathon pace" is probably a relatively easy pace. MP pace practice may be less useful here, b/c there is not so much danger of red-lining early, if one has a watch.

             

            Building up the ability to go the distance might be the most important thing.

             

            2) Aggressive - higher crash risk, faster target pace

             

            The goal is to achieve a fast time in the race, just as in a shorter race. In this case the "marathon pace" will be faster than easy pace, and faser than "long run pace".

             

            Here it is more important to train the body to be able to run faster aerobic pace without crossing over too far, and train the self to be able to stay near that threshold.

             

            ============

             

            I speculate that people whose "marathon target pace" is easy are in category #1 above.

             

            Elites go straight into category #2 from the beginning, of course.

             

            I started in category#1, as I was daunted by the distance. I was happy with my first experience, and my second marathon was much faster (as I was no longer so afraid of the distance, and no longer just aiming at finishing).

            It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.

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