running by feel...what did I do wrong? (Read 1495 times)

But there are two ways towards being extreme. One is to push the pace; the other is to push the mileage: to run more frequently and longer. The second is a surer path to success.

Now that's some hippie talk there. Reads like a fortune cookie. Although very true.

I'm not quite of the "throw out the HRM" camp, but it is important to put it into perspective. When I've run too hard on an easy run (and it happens quite a bit), I know without reviewing the data off the HRM. I feel like crap. I feel sluggish. I don't feel like running the next day. That is why the pace was too hard. Not because my HR was high but because it affected my other running goals (running the next day, covering more mileage, or having the reserve to run hard on my "hard" days). If you felt good and didn't feel like you were pushing it then it wasn't a hard running day, regardless of what the monitor said afterwards. As others have mentioned, your HR will vary enormously with temperature. More often than not, I slow down some in the heat because if I don't, I overextend myself and feel bad. Some people would say to slow down and run by HR regardless of how you feel. I don't find value in that. If you felt good, you felt good. Don't overcomplicate it.

If you want to be more extreme in your training, by all means go for it. But there are two ways towards being extreme. One is to push the pace; the other is to push the mileage: to run more frequently and longer. The second is a surer path to success.

That's exactly what I'm trying to go for (with the latter). I think that, like a lot of people relatively new to the sport, I struggle trying to avoid the first case. I'm dedicating myself to long, slow runs this fall to increase my base and learning to listen to my body. I think I'm going to throw out all my preconceived ideas around pace and rules and just try to get my shoes on more and get out the door. Unfortunately, it's harder to find the time to run since we moved but I think it's just a matter of sacrificing some sleep (and finishing the giant list of remodeling projects we have).

Since I love to be the voice of dissent in these "running by feel" threads, I'll take up the mantle once again. After reading two pages of posts telling you that you actually had a "great" run, despite your own suspicions to the contrary, I consider it a tiny bit frightening that no one seems to have picked up on I what I consider the key issue in your original post:

I decided on an early evening run in the 6 to 8 mile range @ an easy pace.... About 4.5 miles in my hamstring (separate issue) started to twinge and I slowed way down and wrapped it up at 5 miles.... It wasn't until my hammy started hurting at 4.5 miles that I realized I was running too fast.

If you set out for an easy run, and ended up injuring yourself or pushing yourself to the edge of injury, then you had a bad run. "Running by feel" did not work out well for you on that day. Period. All apologies to the hippy crowd, but seriously ... if a runner has to cut a run short because he ran too fast and injured his hamstring, lets call it what is was: a failed experiment.

It wasn't "bad", it just wasn't what I was intending. My intention was an easy effort.

I respect your right to drink the kool-aid and try the "running by feel" thing. I honestly hope it works out for you, and I look forward to hearing about your progress. But don't whitewash your experiences; you set out for a 6-8 mile easy run, and you had to stop it at 5 due to injury. Something didn't work, and I suspect it was "running by feel." One bad day doesn't mean you should throw the baby out with the bath water, but you shouldn't ignore the data point either. Since you didn't elaborate on how severe or chronic this hamstring injury is, and since I haven't seen you comment as to whether it affected your subsequent workouts, hopefully it was a one-time thing. I do hope that you take it easy and don't risk aggravating the hammy issue. Whatever type of training philosophy you follow, injuries suck. Whatever and whomever's advice you decide to follow, train well and stay healthy.

Don't forget, he spent a good portion of his run chasing someone down , which in reality, was good example of inadvertent self-sabotage (and a good way to turn an easy run into something else entirely). If he ran too fast and injured himself, this is probably the reason why.

I like your style, Lank. Keep it up.

I appreciate that. Thanks very much. Good luck in your training. I see great things ahead for you.

You ran. You learned. Nothing wrong with that. Not sure if your pace that day lead to a tweaked hamstring. Maybe it did, maybe not. Who knows? Run a lot, keep notes. It's good to follow some sort of plan. And see what happens.

When I got home and reviewed my pace and HR, it was clear that I wasn't running easy but had actually ran somewhere between tempo and race pace.

If you're actually doing a training run of that distance between tempo and race pace, you'll be praying the run was over about half way through. You certainly wouldn't confuse it with 'easy'. It takes time to know the feel of effort. Most newer runners don't run hard efforts hard enough and definitely run easy efforts too hard. Recovery efforts are completely foreign to newbies, maybe a pride thing that they can run much faster, so they do. Same with easy that they run it much faster than they should simply because they can, and end up compromising their next run(s). It sounds like your run fell into what's often called 'no-man's land', where it's too easy to gain from and too hard to allow recovery, somewhere between easy and tempo.