Do you ever run slower than your long run pace? (Read 955 times)

My easy run pace is generally much slower than my long run pace and fluctuates a lot depending how I'm feeling. Pretty much any easy run that I do the day after a hard workout or a race is laughably easy.

It totally depends on what my body is telling me. Two nights ago I ran 8.5 at a 9:20 pace. Last night I ran 5.5 at an almost 11:00 pace. I treated last night as a recovery run. I am doing a 20 miler tomorrow so I decided to take it nice and easy because I had some really sore muscles.

Long runs aren't always easy. It really depends on the purpose of that particular run and your level of conditioning. If you're just stretching out distance, a la marathon training, you'll probably keep your longest runs easy just so you can cover the distance. If, however, it's more of a bread-and-butter long run that's part of your regular regime, you might push the pace on some of those long runs to build stamina. My longest runs are around 14ish miles right now as I don't often have more than a couple of hours to spare on the weekends, and I might run them easy and I might run them somewhat hard.

I often run my long runs at a slower pace then my easy pace. Currently my long runs are 10 milers and I purposely slow myself down. Sometimes I catch myself speeding up to my easy pace and even faster on days that I feel really good. BUT often times during one run during the week and my Sunday (long run), I make sure that I'm a full minute or more slower then my easy pace.......been doing some reading on this subject and have seen notable quotes from known names saying things like you cant run too slow on a long training run...and run 2 minutes slower then your race pace on a training run....... I personally think the slower the better sometimes.....

+1. I (actually Pfitzinger) call it "recovery" pace. For me, its anywhere from 10 secs/mile to 60 secs/mile slower than easy/LR pace, depending on the day.

That's a really good idea to log them as recovery, because they are slower than easy. I've started to not even run them with a watch because the time means nothing. Infact I think it's smarter to stop and do some stretching in-way than try to keep a certain pace. Berner you have excellent color choices in your log. I may copy your design.

Berner you have excellent color choices in your log. I may copy your design.

I confess to putting some thought into the colors. Geeky, I know, but it helps me derive some feedback from the Summary chart. All the workout types go on a spectrum from Red (fastest) to Blue (slowest). Lighter shades of the same color indicate incrementally harder efforts, such as strides or long runs. My whole scheme: Plus, it makes for a diverse, colorful display.

I like that terminology - "Homerun Trot Pace". I may use HTP in my log...

I like that terminology too......of course this means David Ortiz HTP not Dustin Pedroia (Pedroia acutally runs his HTP pretty fast)...... When talking to people, I normally call it my 'really stupid slow pace' which is a lot more appropriae to what I probably look like when i am running my slow pace...