What should my easy pace be? New-ish runner.

Hey man good start!

First you want to safely and slowly increase mileage if you're serious about marathons. At least to 40, probably to 60 if you're a serious runner.

Slow down your easy runs! You should be able to carry on a conversation the whole time on most runs. Get a running buddy or try singing to yourself if you can stomach the weird looks you'll get.

Good luck and have fun! Hope you come to enjoy the sport.

Your easy pace should be wherever you feel confortable. Think of it more as a running pace where you can easily keep a conversation. If you really want to see your times drop, consider upping your milage some, and introducing some speed-work.

Good luck!

What ever feels "easy".

Run at 9 minute pace until you get a better sense of what you can handle.

Thanks for the tips!

Would you recommend training without a watch for my easy runs?

Your long run pace should be about 8:45 per mile. You should be running about 4 miles at LT pace which is about 7:15 per mile. Through in some VO2 Max of about 6:45 per mile pace for 2 miles. Increase your running to about 30 mpw. All other running should be at you easy/long run pace of 8:45 per mile.

From MyRunCoach app.

Welcome to the running community. Your easy run pace should be more about feel, not so much time. Just as another poster said, read your body and go off of how you feel. Easy run pace varies from day to day, meaning my easy run pace mat be faster on some days than others. It should be a run to where you can conversate back and forth with a friend, but not too slow to where it feels like a jog.

Try looking up some running calculators online and type in your current race times to get an idea of what your easy pace should be. I would look at 3 or 4 different calculators and average out the easy paces they each give (they all use different training methods, but are almost always around the same time -- some may be 3-5 seconds faster or slower, so find the average between the ones you find).

As for your training, I would make sure I am bumping up my mileage (no more than 10-12% a week to ensure progression) and I would also do some strides or "quick sprints" after the easy runs -- they will improve leg turnover and give you a little bit of speed action. Just as you train your slow-twitch, work on your fast twitch. With that said, once you've been running [consistently] for at least a good month, you can incorporate some workouts such as tempo runs, fartleks, and even speed intervals (200m rpeats, 400m repeats, etc..) in order to better improve your race times. Make sure at least one day out of the week you get in a long run (most runners, inluding nyself choose Saturday as our long run day). This should be the longer run that you complete for the week. Also, make sure to take one down week every 4-6 weeks... doing some very easy mileage or easy workouts during this week will help your body recover and prevent you from getting injured. Work on your core (abs/lower back), lift some weights, and take care of your legs!

Best of luck on your new adventure.

Thank you everyone for your assistance. You've been super helpful and I will continue to take heed all of your tips, suggestions, and advice!

Hey ekw,

Those are some great goals you have, I believe you can definitely get there, plenty of people start later in life and are able to complete ultra marathons. So, you are in a good spot.

To figure out a good training pace the easy way is to stay at a pace where you can hold a conversation if someone was with you. If you are breathing too hard that would make a conversation choppy, then it may be too hard of a pace.

Remember that you only need to run about 20% of your training runs at a hard pace to improve mechanical and chemical changes to improve your running.

Like lifting you dont do it every day. So lifting would be comparative to a track workout or a hard paced run. Everything else needs to be recovery which can be even slower than you think.

I remember when I was in college, I was racing at a national championship and everyone was warming up for the race. All the Americans were running like they were out for a tempo almost, I saw the Kenyans running almost 15 minute mile pace.

Some running coaches will tel you that one of the most common mistakes people make is that they run too hard in between their "workout" days. I think this says something about how you need to just listen to your body and take it easy in between workout runs.

If I can help you out any more, just shoot me an e-mail!

hope this helped!

Red Mules Running wrote:

I remember when I was in college, I was racing at a national championship and everyone was warming up for the race. All the Americans were running like they were out for a tempo almost, I saw the Kenyans running almost 15 minute mile

While I agree with some of the things mentionedone by the previous poster, I do not agree that anyone run at around 15 min/mile pace. For starters, that's WAY too slow. For anyone -- elite athletes, beginners, fat or skinny, etc... just like some of the other posters mentioned, make sure your easy runs are run at a comfortable pace to where you can hold a conversation. Track workouts should be done no more than 3 times a week. Anything more than thathe and you're going to, 1) sacrifice mileage and 2) over-train which will eventually lead to injury.