la cringe wrote:
How do you make yourself run slower? I get that’s kind of an “obvious” question and answer, but even without pushing myself, I find a limit on how slow I will go naturally. In my prime I was sub-15 and did the easy runs around 7:00. As an oldster today I run 18 minutes for 5k and tend to run the easy days at 7:45. I could probably stand to slow that up a bit but I seem incapable, even if it’s just a mental thing. Any advice from the crowd?
Run with someone slower than you. It is easy to slow down when carrying a conversation with someone incapable of running as fast as you do.
Another way is to pay attention to how it feels after running the day after leg day at the gym which should be quite tough if you really lift hard.
Change from running on the roads to running on trails. This will slow you down a good bit especially if running singletrack.
Run hillier routes. This will cause you to have to adjust pace more frequently. That may help with conscious pace changes on flatter terrain.
Wear a heartrate monitor or watch with heart rate. Set a heart rate alarm or a pace alarm so it beeps when you go above a certain threshold.
Get more patience.
A lot of different options, but most of it is mental. I also found that training for different distances helps. If you are only focused on 5k then you dont have as much of a need for many of the longer slower efforts needed in training for longer events. These longer and slower runs for half-marathon to ultra distance training give good persective on how to slow down.