I've read threads here where some of them will go as slow as 14min/per mile. I'm assuming that's not on a regular basis. Or do they just run really, really, really, really slow on there recovery days and then just hammer like hell on there hard days?
I meant to use this form of their. Sorry.
What? Who cares? Why?
They all do exactly as Arthur said. Haven't you learned that from letsrun by now?
Allegedly, they do their morning runs extremely slow, but they run close to their aerobic threshold for their "main" run.
I think 14min/mile is an exaggeration though. That is walking pace. 8-9min/mile doesn't seem unrealistic, however. Heck, some of MY early morning runs in the winter are 8min-miles!
Some of the Japanese marathon training was very slow. I witnessed some incredibly slow running, by some very fast runners. I doubt they were doing it just for me :)
the group that trains in boulder - which has included noguchi and some 2:06 - 2:07 guys routinely run terribly, terribly slow. i have passed them while i was going 8:30 pace. sometimes they walk, sometimes they do this light jog/walk action. sometimes, mid-day during the summer they will do a slow jog or walk in full sweats and a hat. you tend to see them going very slow, which is more often than not. other times they can be seen doing ~5 mile loops around the res, with each lap getting faster and faster until they are running faster than marathon pace after 4 - 5 laps. other times they can be seen with the straining samuri face up by eldora at 8000+ feet. other times they are up at silver creek high school in longmont belting out hard interavls, or at fairview in boulder, followed by barefooted strides and form drills. all done under the stoic eye of a coach and some assistants wearing khaki business casual pants and a golf shirt, with clipboard in hand.
the thing about the japanese is that they can crank out sub 2:10 guys like they crank out toyotas on the assembly line. they do heavy, heavy volume at a terribly easy pace, sprinkled with a few very intense interval workouts and progressive long runs.
well-said. we can lock this thread now!
These guys are very patient. They use 4 year training plans much like the Finns did back in the day. The first year might be building to 100+ miles a week. The pace during this time period is as slow as needed to put in the mileage. Most Americans that run 60-70 miles a week could easily switch to 100+ mile weeks at a very slow pace. However they would not be willing to continue for upwards of a year to to get to the second, third, and fourth years where the intensity would be increased. But the easy runs would still remain extremely easy as they learned in the first year. This is important to understand since time on one's feet and economy are linked in this philosophy.
I ran past several 2.08 Japanese marathoners most mornings in NZ 25years ago. They were probably doing 5min kms/8min miles. They were running 3 times a day and at least 250km per week at the time. Most of the running I saw was slow stuff but they also did long reps at 2.50/55 km pace and long runs of 40kms at 3.25-30s per km. I also witnessed 2 of them (the Soh twins) run a long run of about 126kms at 4min per km pace -the run was around MtEgmont/Taranaki.