Easy pace for 19:40 5k runner

HRE wrote:

Mocazilla wrote:

I ran 19:46 and 10-11 min miles. Probably on the slow end, I don’t know anyone that runs that slow

There's a guy I've mentioned here in the past called Francis Burdett. He's probably in his mid to late 50s now but in his mid 40s he was running 5kms in the mid 15:00s, miles under 4:40, 10kms in the 31:00s. Everything he did was 9 to 10 minute pace. That was it, no intervals, no tempo or hill repeats, though it is kind of hilly where he lived. I've also mentioned on other threads that Henry Rono did his distance work very, very, slowly. Not just slowly for a guy with multiple world records but slowly for almost anyone who runs. Of course there was a lot more to it than that for Henry but I do think Lydiard nailed it when he said "You can't run too slowly. But you can run too fast."

The Magic Coach J.S wrote:

HRE wrote:

There's a guy I've mentioned here in the past called Francis Burdett. He's probably in his mid to late 50s now but in his mid 40s he was running 5kms in the mid 15:00s, miles under 4:40, 10kms in the 31:00s. Everything he did was 9 to 10 minute pace. That was it, no intervals, no tempo or hill repeats, though it is kind of hilly where he lived. I've also mentioned on other threads that Henry Rono did his distance work very, very, slowly. Not just slowly for a guy with multiple world records but slowly for almost anyone who runs. Of course there was a lot more to it than that for Henry but I do think Lydiard nailed it when he said "You can't run too slowly. But you can run too fast."

Hello HRE! Hope you are okey buddy. 👋

Did you remember Lydiard also explained to the audience in a lecture he hold in Tokyo 1964 that many had missunderstood the meaning of his so called LSD training? He very clearly pointed out the " S " stands for steady and not slow as many had got it wrong.

I myself once ran with the Olympic 5000m silvermedalist Markus Ryffel the day after he won a team EC track race in my native city Gothenburg,Sweden.It was just a very slow snailjog and could hardly be called a training run, but the purpose to recover good after the hard race the day before. I had plenty of time to ask him about his training and he told his normal distance pace to be around 3:45-4:00 min per km ( 6- 6:30 per mile) .

HRE wrote:

Mocazilla wrote:

I ran 19:46 and 10-11 min miles. Probably on the slow end, I don’t know anyone that runs that slow

There's a guy I've mentioned here in the past called Francis Burdett. He's probably in his mid to late 50s now but in his mid 40s he was running 5kms in the mid 15:00s, miles under 4:40, 10kms in the 31:00s. Everything he did was 9 to 10 minute pace. That was it, no intervals, no tempo or hill repeats, though it is kind of hilly where he lived. I've also mentioned on other threads that Henry Rono did his distance work very, very, slowly. Not just slowly for a guy with multiple world records but slowly for almost anyone who runs. Of course there was a lot more to it than that for Henry but I do think Lydiard nailed it when he said "You can't run too slowly. But you can run too fast."

The Magic Coach J.S wrote:

HRE wrote:

There's a guy I've mentioned here in the past called Francis Burdett. He's probably in his mid to late 50s now but in his mid 40s he was running 5kms in the mid 15:00s, miles under 4:40, 10kms in the 31:00s. Everything he did was 9 to 10 minute pace. That was it, no intervals, no tempo or hill repeats, though it is kind of hilly where he lived. I've also mentioned on other threads that Henry Rono did his distance work very, very, slowly. Not just slowly for a guy with multiple world records but slowly for almost anyone who runs. Of course there was a lot more to it than that for Henry but I do think Lydiard nailed it when he said "You can't run too slowly. But you can run too fast."

What we never will know is what this guy Francis Burdett could have done with steady paced easy runs and faster workouts and so on. Looks like he was a very good talented runner to run around 15:30 at 5 k with only 9-10 min per mile paced easy distance work.