Do slow runs make slow runners?

It must be true! Never mind why virtually all elite runners from 1500 and up run the majority of their mileage at an easy pace (>70%). And by easy we're talking sub 3:35/13:20 men running at something like 6:30 or even 7:00. Your coach is your coach and you should listen but he doesn't sound right here. The numerous physiological purposes of easy running can be found online with ease, no need to list them here. Of course, if you just do easy runs, you won't attain your potential, but they're crucial to reaching it.

Poor genetics and/or lack of hard work make slow runners.

if all you do is run slowly then yeah, you're gonna be a slow runner.

If all you do is quality, then you're going to injure yourself or you'll peak quickly and then lose fitness because you never give your body a chance to recover.

Yeah, everyone else here is just trying to confuse you. No, your coach is not right in any way, especially considering that summers are supposed to be times to work on your aerobic base and do easy runs. Of course, during the season you do want to put workouts in that will make you faster and break them up with easy, slow runs, but for the situation you are talking about, your coach is a complete retard.

And if he disagrees, show him the most popular training article on letsrun:

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2006/09/wejo-speaks-why-i-sucked-in-college/

He is right, even one step done too slowly will hurt your career. Ask him to borrow a set of sprint blocks to put by your door for every run this summer.

Latsran wrote:

And if he disagrees, show him the most popular training article on letsrun:

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2006/09/wejo-speaks-why-i-sucked-in-college/

I'm not sure what to say because he sounded very assertive and certain when he said that slow runs make slow runners. He's appears to be a typical American that would never change their opinion regardless of new information. What should I do?

Ignore him, it's not like he's going to put you on a leash and force you to run a certain pace on your easy runs. Besides, once the season comes around and you improve by not following his instructions, you have evidence to back your training.

Tempo runs. Tempo runs. Tempo runs. Learn how to run tempo runs. Start slow and finish faster. Run tempos as best as you can. And have fun.

I guess that I should ignore him but I'm worried about what will happen when school starts and I have to go to his practices everyday... What do I do then?

Latsran wrote:

Ignore him, it's not like he's going to put you on a leash and force you to run a certain pace on your easy runs. Besides, once the season comes around and you improve by not following his instructions, you have evidence to back your training.

Jim B wrote:

I guess that I should ignore him but I'm worried about what will happen when school starts and I have to go to his practices everyday... What do I do then?

You'll be in good shape from putting in a lot of easy mileage over the summer, so you'll be prepared to handle the "quality" training and run fast. Your coach will think he's a genius and tell everyone else that "you don't want it bad enough".

That's a loaded question. If you really look at the studies or listen to some of the best coaches in the world (Jack Daniels, Alberto Salazar, Mark Wetmore...), your controlled mileage should account for roughly 80% of your training time and should actually be at a reasonable pace. So your easy runs should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 80% of max HR to maximize their actual purpose. I recommend going to Jack Daniels VDOT Calculator and putting in some reasonable times for yourself and see what you get. Thats what Ive done with some of my athletes and have had great success using that tool for easy paces specifically.

The idea that pro runners on the top level run 6:30-7:00 pace on easy runs is simply not true in the vast majority of cases.

Ultimately, your coaches plan SHOULD take things into consideration and you should follow either all of it or none of it realistically.

Hope thats slightly helpful.

-Ethan

Are there some runners who can do lots of low intensity volume over summer, then pull of huge PRs with some intensity added later? Yes. Are there many runners like this? IMO, no.

IMO, if you don't run aerobic paces that are difficult to maintain toward the end most people will have done many hours of endurance work and not actually laid a base for intensity. That's most people, not all.

Unfortunately, you have to find out how your body best responds the hard way sometimes.

Yeah my coach's training schedule looks pretty cancerous, that's all I gotta say.

There's nothing wrong with slow runs. My best times have always came after increasing miles and slowing training speeds. 5 easy days a week & 2 moderate tempo runs is all you need. Do some reading on Arthur Lydiard.

Good response

Jim B wrote:

So today was the only time I could see my new xc coach next year (old coach moved) until the first day of school in August (state rules). I told him that I will run more miles this summer than ever before but he said to only put in quality miles like he says so (he will email the team a training schedule later tonight). He said at least three times that "slow runs make slow runners." Is this true? Explain to me why or why not.

If he said "Doing only slow runs will make slow runners", then I would agree. Tell your coach to read Lydiard or almost anyone. My classic Lydiard inspired example is Viren (his coach Haikolla studied Lydiard). In his base building Lasse Viren did some easy runs at 8:30 pace, that's over 4 minutes slower per mile than his 5k pace. In case you don't know who he was, he only won several Olympic golds. Of course, he also mixed in some higher end aerobic stuff and later because he had such a good base could do some really tough quality workouts when it counted.

I would love to see the summer schedule he gave you. Email him and ask him which coach (es) have influenced him. I'd be curious about his response. It's possible that if he gives you a lot of intervals they are still focused on aerobic speeds (like CV, 10k pace), which won't be too bad. The Verheul method has done stuff like this and works for some people.

You could try to email him your concerns. A good coach will listen to feedback from their athletes. If he is still lame then do your own thing.

I usually feel that people should listen to their coach. But perhaps not in this case. If it's too brutal, just don't follow it. He isn't going to be in touch with you anyway over the summer. Then when you get together in August just be cautious in the first workouts. He will think you improved a lot over the season.

How slow? I assumed what he meant was don't go run 8:30-9:00 pace all the time, but try and get your easy runs to a relaxed 6:40-7:00 pace.

I'd be inclined to agree.