Women's training, racing and recovery thread - 2/28/10

lurking gal wrote:

Hey all,

I've been lurking these threads for a while (since I was in hs, I'm a freshman in college now)...I'm wondering now if I'm doing my easy runs too fast... I notice you are going over 9 min pace, and the slowest I usually go is around 8:30 (usually for shake out jogs).

Hi! I'm a big believer in running the balance of my runs very, very easy (actually to the point where they're uncomfortably slow). But I also do fairly high mileage, and my workouts are pretty tough (I generally combine the workout with a medium long run). The utter fastest my easy runs ever get is about 8:40 pace, and it's been working for me.

But no two runners are the same. I do know that I avoid running with other people many times for just the reason you outline -- I find myself getting pulled into a pace that's fast than I want for an easy day. For that reason, I usually do runs at easy pace by myself. I do run with my running club sometimes, but I treat that as a workout (and try to stay with the fast people).

Have you asked your coach what s/he thinks?

That's pretty interesting, a difference though I think is that I'm training for shorter distances (5k, etc.) and I double a few times a week (so maybe that's why my runs are faster). You could say our team is considered a "higher mileage" one, we have ladies that consistently get above 90 mpw. I run around 60-70 mpw, and often run with some of the seniors who are hitting around 100 mpw.. mostly because we freshmen are just getting used to the more intense workouts etc. and have to run slower on easy days, and the seniors... well when you're running 100 mpw you have to slow down on some of those runs.

I find though, that around 7:30-8 min pace isn't too bad for me. It feels pretty easy, and I don't strictly time things all the time (sometimes I just glance at the watch during a run), just go by feel. Different strokes for different folks I suppose.. sometimes when I run by myself, I get caught into going too fast too!

Lurking - I found that the best way to figure out how slow to go on easy days was to throw on my heart rate strap. The paces are really arbitrary, so I put on my HRM and keep it below 150 (75% max HR), and really try to average more like 145.

Depending on the day and the course (I do a lot of easy runs on gnarly, hilly trails), I can average anywhere between 7:50 and 8:45 pace with that HR range. My long runs, however, are more like 7:30 pace and 155 HR. Tempo tends to be 6:40 and 175, and intervals 6:00 pace and 180+. (Yes, my speed is my weakness.) Anyway, this season I've run 60-70mpw and am shooting for a 3:05 marathon in two weeks.

But generally, if it's a recovery day (shakeout), it should feel uncomfortably easy. An easy day should be slow enough you can easily gossip with your teammates the entire time.

Hi. Sorry to hear the weather has been so bad over there. I hope it picks up soon. It'll be spring soon :)

Specialist Industrail Cleaners

This is incredibly sexist. Why isn't there a men's training, racing, and recovery thread? Why do women get everything?