How do I politely decline running with a slower runner?

Just dress up as Darth Vader and look him in the eye and say "[name], I am your father." That'll make him think you're really weird and never ask to run with you again.

Be honest. Tell the guy you need to run faster. You'll be doing him a favor. It'll pi$$ him off and he'll work harder to beat you in the next race. It works.

flightless wrote:

But if you value the person's friendship in other ways go for an easy run (for you) with them every now and then.

It seems to me that this is the key point out of all that has been posted.

Just say no.

Pete wrote:

This is a misconception. Nothing wrong with going real slow a couple days a week. Fast "easy" days don't make you faster. The workouts and races make you faster.

Of course, I expect to get flamed for stating this opinion. Bring it on fellas...

I understand what you're saying, Pete. But that's why I prefaced my remarks by saying that it depends how serious you are. Not to blow smoke up my own ass, but I was a sub-4 miler, and my easy days were very, very easy (to the point that I couldn't do "easy" runs with most of my training partners). But they would still seldom be slower than 7 minute pace. Running 9+ min pace would be a whole different stride, really just adding fatigue and pounding without any benefit whatsoever.

That's really my point -- if you're training on the edge, then (depending on what part of the season you're in) you have no energy at all to run for purely social reasons. If you had more energy, you would have run harder in the workout the before. And your body is always a few strides away from injury, so you need to be lying on the sofa icing, not adding junk miles.

It's nice to be friendly, but there are plenty of ways to be sociable other than running. Like I said, my perspective is different now that I'm no longer competitive, and I enjoy jogging with friends. But all these accusations that people are selfish if they won't run with joggers strike me as a little unfair.

these responses are great! Although it's funny how some of you guys assume the worst about me just from such a simple question. I don't mind running with the dude once a week, maybe even twice, especially since I'm doing base mileage over the summer. Just don't want it to become an everyday thing, like he probably wants.

I suppose then you would disagree with Nourredine Morceli, #3 ever, with a 3:44.39.

He did easy runs at 10:00 pace; he surely did not consider it a "waste of time."

If you ever get a chance to read "Running with Champions" go to the section on Frank Shorter. Very few runners have had his success and he has a good perspective on this. Always run as slow as your slowest runner. He also said he would run with HS teams in the area and many of them would anticipate a super fast run b/c he was a world class runner and they were treated to runs where they would be passed by joggers.

A lot of posts have been alluding to this point. I would say it is not going to hurt you to run slower than you want to, but it never helps to run too fast.

I guess it depends on if you have the time and think it is worth it.

Right. You'd have to run about 66% slower than your 5k pace to lose benefit. To put that in perspective, consider a guy who can run 16:34, or 5:20 per mile. He could run 8:04 per mile and still get an aerobic benefit. And even that % is questionable.

wstuart wrote:

I've made a new friend here in town out on the trails, however he is a 50 minute 10k runner and thinks that we should do some training together. Anybody have this situation where somebody a lot slower than you wants to run with you? What did you do?

Would you ask someone way faster than you if you could do some training with them?

Before I ask I allways consider their pace.

So is this guy really someone you want to be friends with?

Jogster wrote:

If you are such a jerk that you will not run with a friend, then you don't need to be concerned about declining politely. Just tell him he's not good enough to run with you, and that he ought to consider himself lucky that you even talk to him.

How would you feel if you knew that the person's jogging pace was 15 minutes per mile? If you took a long walk on a recovery day, it would help you recover and get your heart moving, but there comes a point where the tedium of going slow just isnt' worth it.

Pete wrote:

To put a twist on this thread, have you ever refused a run with someone slower than you because they train too fast, or been refused by a slower runner because you train too slow?

I don't refuse to run with them, but I do get into this situation often. My easy training pace is usually around 7:30-10:00 effort ("effort" because it's often 1-3 minutes/mile slower on hilly and rough trails). One of my friends trains at about 6:30-7:00 effort. He is probably about 5 minutes slower than me in 10k. I let him run in front while I relax behind him and try to be as efficient as possible, so I let him drag my pace up a bit, but usually I end up letting him pull away. If we do an non-loop trail, we'll often run together one way and I'll run twice as far and do the return trip too. He aways comments that I know how to train better than him, but he does his own thing anyway.

Other fast runners who train at slow paces: wejo has said that he has trouble finding running partners because everyone thinks his training pace is too slow (I recall him saying maybe 7:20 pace or even slower). MAYEROFF says he trains at 8:00 pace a lot. Someone brought up Morceli's 10:00 pace easy days. Then there are the Japanese marathoners jogging 10:00 pace and doing long walks all the time.

master of obvious wrote:

I suppose then you would disagree with Nourredine Morceli, #3 ever, with a 3:44.39.

He did easy runs at 10:00 pace; he surely did not consider it a "waste of time."

Yes, that's right: I disagree with 10:00/mile runs. Emil Zatopek did a lot of training in combat boots, and ran on the spot and held his breath a lot. I don't emulate that either.

I never said there's one way to train, or that running slow is bad. I was training the best way I knew how, and I didn't have energy to add more running on top of that just because it wouldn't hurt me.

get over yourself just say you dont want to run with him...i mean really

WL wrote:

I'm in college and so many times I have done my normal run then come back and run with a girl a few more miles because of the possibility to "expand the relationship". Worst example was 2 days ago with a former sprinter here, I ran my long day of 16 miles then came back and was asked less than an hour afterwards if I wanted to run with her... thus 3 more miles, my legs being massively sore, and possibly the start of something... Oh the runners version of spitting game.

i guess it's better to run with her than to miss a day because of her. and as long as it's extra mileage instead of your main run. when it hits the fan you don't want to think, "man, i can't believe i counted those 10:00 miles as mileage." (no offense to anyone who runs 10 min pace.)