Any benefits from really SLOW running?

Certainly beats sitting at home watching TV and eating Cheesey Poofs.

There's more to life than always running fast! You have friends that want you to run with them, so run with them. I'd love to have people to run with.

That said, don't do more than 5-6 miles at a time and finish up with some faster strides to get your legs turning over. I used to do a thing when I ran with slower friends. I would take a stride out every mile or so and then turn back around just to get it out of my system, but often I'd just enjoy the company.

anyone else?

I think that a transition to higher mileage by adding some very slow running can be very useful. But 10-11 minute pace sounds very slow, and doing it for just 5-6 miles probably isn't going to do much except provide a warmup for faster running. I also think that running at a pace that is much slower than what is comfortable can lead to injuries, because you have to alter your running form to run that slow. So do it for the company if you want, but don't do it with the expectation that it's doing much for your running fitness.

Often, elite runners supplement their faster training runs with jogs in the morning. Lydiard's runners, in addition to their 100 miles a week in afternoon runs, would go jog in the mornings for up to an hour. The Kenyans will get up at 6 AM and to a 30 or 45 minute easy jog before their main run at 10 AM. As you mentioned, the Japanese also do this kind of training. So slow running does have some benefit, and it's better than nothing.

However, 10-11 minute miles is really pushing it as far as going too slow. There comes a point at which your form simply falls apart because you are not going fast enough, and going this slow could be detrimental to your racing. You need to consider how much you value your training, and how much you value running with your friends. If you do your normal runs at 7 minute miles, a "slow shakeout jog" pace is probably going to be 8:30 miles, at the slowest.

Yes--by increasing mitochondria and the ability of capillaries to provide blood and hence oxygen to muscle fibers. Besides the Japanese, German runners under the guidance of Van Aaken incorporated a fair amount of long, slow runs. This thread might be helpful:http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=619851

wondering about this wrote:

I read on here about the japanese women marathoners running 8-9 minutes per mile on many of their runs. Well, what about 10-11 minute pace? Is it a complete waste?

Here's why I'm asking:

I normally run about 40 mpw (most recent 10k in 36:41). I normally run my comfortable runs at about 7 minute pace. Recently I've increased my mileage to over 60 but there's a twist.

I run with some friends about 20-24 miles a week at 10-11 minute mile pace (5-6 miles at a time around 4 times a week). They are increasing mileage too so it may be more soon. Assuming the extra pounding doesn't injure me (I actually feel fine once I got used to running slow), is this helping me at all? I'm sure the heart/stroke volume isn't helped at all, but what about mitochondria and capillaries?

running very slow needs to be balanced out with very high mileage.

Hey, montesquieu. Thanks for the link to the Van Aaken thread. That was some interesting stuff.

Bump

Getting in stress-free miles and time on your feet has a lot of benefits, not all of them physical.

The major concern is keeping your form and turnover. Other than that, everything else seems to be beneficial. I am yet to see a single scientific article bashing super-slow running.

10-11mm seems a bit on the slow side, but 7:00 seems a bit too fast for your regular runs (at the 36:xx level). I would be inclined to run more miles in the 7:30-8:00 range, and get in some real quality in the tempos and speed work, as well as solid long runs, depending on race goals.

I think some very slow running is a good way to add miles to your program.

Someone said 10-11 minute pace would injure you... probably not. There is so little impact at that point. However that is like... really really slow.

When I decide it's time to run new mileage, like 5-10 miles a week more than the previous month, I usually add it in at 8:00 pace until I adapt and start running it faster naturally.

Also as mentioned the Japanese are doing these slow miles while in very high mileage.

At any rate you will get the muscular benefit of being able to handle more miles in addition to what it does for your heart, energy systems etc. At some point that pace may just become super boring and you'll run faster because you're more fit.

I did some really slow long runs during my marathon build up. I would basically jog 2+ hours then pick up the last 20-30 minutes running faster than goal pace. I felt like those tempos at the end helped me get stronger and helped my focus. My longest was 3 hours.

+1

I decided to increase mileage when I was 50 yo. I had just ran a fall marathon of 3:16 and a spring HM of 1:29. Usual mileage was 60.

I managed 80 m/w on-an- 11 week campaign, and ran a breakthrough HM of 1:22.

In the first 4 weeks, the fastest run was 8:23 pace and 75% of my runs between 9:00-11:00 pace.

In the second 4 weeks, 75% of my runs has become faster, 8:00-10:00 pace;

I adapted to 7:30-8:00 for the remaining runs.

In the last 3 weeks, I had some high end aerobic runs where I fast finished to 7:10 pace, the fastest.

I had no tempo training and to my surprise ı had managed a pace close to 6:20!

Renato Canova:

In WCh 1995 (Goteborg), I saw Michael Johnson before his races : almost 2 hours on the bed for massages, with his physio (a lady) helping with stretching step by step more hard, but without running. Half hour before the competition, about 100m straight with normal shoes, then he put his golden spikes, one full turn at high speed, after he removed and went to win. And, after the race, almost 20' continuous jogging, in order to remove the lactate from his muscles.

Read more:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3205309&page=1#ixzz3QRFlfQao

kesimli wrote:

+1

I decided to increase mileage when I was 50 yo. I had just ran a fall marathon of 3:16 and a spring HM of 1:29. Usual mileage was 60.

I managed 80 m/w on-an- 11 week campaign, and ran a breakthrough HM of 1:22.

In the first 4 weeks, the fastest run was 8:23 pace and 75% of my runs between 9:00-11:00 pace.

In the second 4 weeks, 75% of my runs has become faster, 8:00-10:00 pace;

I adapted to 7:30-8:00 for the remaining runs.

In the last 3 weeks, I had some high end aerobic runs where I fast finished to 7:10 pace, the fastest.

I had no tempo training and to my surprise ı had managed a pace close to 6:20!

That is an incredible progression. How was it going to 13-hours of running a week the first four weeks?

10:45, 14:12, 13:06, 12:02 hours and minutes in 41 sessions to be exact.

I had just come across with Maffetone principals at the time (2006), and strickly followed HR limit in the first 4 weeks and it helped a lot. I felt an overall fatigue manageable and later on I adapted and felt fresh and springy on the legs. Break down of 41 sessions; 2 runs 130 HR, 8 runs of 120 HR, 31 runs of less than 120 HR.

70 percent of this training was on soft ground and trails and I tried different courses not to be bored.

To complete the training summary,

4 weeks out 15X1min on/off, 6X800 @ 6:42 pace

2 weeks out 12X1min on/off, 4X800@ 6:00 pace , for speed development.

Above 4 workouts had their share in my HM time but I am not sure how much.