You think a lack of activity at a younger age could make easy paces slower along the board, which explains why a more sedentary generation could have slower easy runs overall
Could be something as simple as mismeasured courses etc
Just a quick thought not much put into it
HRE wrote:
Agreed. Arthur once wrote that good runners rarely run slower than 7:00 per mile. When he wrote that it was generally true. Anything much slower lead to questions about whether you were really running. Now 7:00 pace is fast by a lot of people's standards and I don't really know when, if ever, someone is going so slowly that it's not really running. To the OP's question, I'd say he's not running too slowly but he might get fitter faster if he ran a bit faster.
The one guy I would really love to hear their thoughts on the matter is AlSal. Supposedly he had Mo pick up his easy run pace from like 645 min to 5:45. Now 545 isn't blistering (call it 90s off 10k pace) but it is at the upper end of easy. In general AlSal had a reason for everything. You might disagree with that reason but I would like to know it.
Short answer: not really.
Longer answer: If you're say, a 16 minute 5k runner, your easy pace probably varies between 7:00 & 8:00 depending on how fresh you are. If you're tired the day after a workout, there is zero reason to go out and feel like you have to run 7:00 pace. How slow is too slow? If you've run 16-minutes for 5k, you're probably never going to run 9:00 pace because you won't feel like you're moving. You don't want to mess with your mechanics. Just think about heart rate. An easy run is probably 130-160 range.
I think there are limits. If the question is can a 16 minute 5k runner run 10 minute pace then, sure, the answer is yes. But they'll recover just fine at 7:00-8:00 pace. I find with younger runners that they tend to push the high end of the easy day range on every run. I would be more concerned about someone running too fast on their easy days and not getting the most out of their workouts and racing.
HRE wrote:
Agreed. Arthur once wrote that good runners rarely run slower than 7:00 per mile. When he wrote that it was generally true. Anything much slower lead to questions about whether you were really running.
AHA! I was right all along!
cramister wrote:
You think a lack of activity at a younger age could make easy paces slower along the board, which explains why a more sedentary generation could have slower easy runs overall
Could be something as simple as mismeasured courses etc
Just a quick thought not much put into it
Mismeasured courses? Definitely for many but there have always been people who are very meticulous about measuring their courses accurately. But sure, there were always guys thinking they were running 6:30s who were closer to 7:00 because their 10 mile course was really 9.5.
One thing I have noticed in my 54 years in the sport is that there is a LOT more emphasis now on recovery days and easy running. We pretty much had the idea that we were training every day. Some days we were training harder and others we were training easier and maybe as a consequence we were not willing to run real, real, slow, if only for fear of being mocked. And the Lydiard quote from that time was the one about not usually running slower than 7:00. The one about it not being possible to run too slowly but it being possible to run too fast was decades in the future.
I think the other thing was that over time as more and more examples of people training slowly and racing well turned up the question of whether you were really running if you were going much slower than 7:00 pace was clearly resolved and the answer was a definite yes. I know of a guy in his mid 40s who could run mid 15:00s/31:00 s for 5 and 10 km who NEVER went under 9:00 pace and sometimes went above 10:00. I have a friend who did a fair amount of running with Henry Rono, I did it myself once, and I will say that based on that information it is almost impossible to believe the OP is doing his easy runs too slowly.
ddidididid wrote:
HRE wrote:
Agreed. Arthur once wrote that good runners rarely run slower than 7:00 per mile. When he wrote that it was generally true. Anything much slower lead to questions about whether you were really running. Now 7:00 pace is fast by a lot of people's standards and I don't really know when, if ever, someone is going so slowly that it's not really running. To the OP's question, I'd say he's not running too slowly but he might get fitter faster if he ran a bit faster.
The one guy I would really love to hear their thoughts on the matter is AlSal. Supposedly he had Mo pick up his easy run pace from like 645 min to 5:45. Now 545 isn't blistering (call it 90s off 10k pace) but it is at the upper end of easy. In general AlSal had a reason for everything. You might disagree with that reason but I would like to know it.
It's called base training.
Listened to a podcast a while ago where they discussed a study looking at form objectively where runners ran fast and slow. They asked the participants how it felt and they say they had worse form when running slow. The video however showed no difference in form whatever tempo. I guess its mental.