Consistent running for one year, no improvements, can't even finish workouts now

So all of your weekly mileage is about HM pace right?

No, my easy pace is around 11 mile per minute, and I ran my last half marathon with a pace of around 9:20 while sick. Out of the 6 days that i run, there are only two that have faster than easy pace running in them, excluding strides of course

Hmm, you've been spending a lot of time on your feet, so that doesn't seem to be a problem. Seems like your best bet is to continue your aerobic development while working on your form/economy (both of which will go on for years).

I'm trying to get a sense for your "easy" intensity. How do you feel on your easy runs? Are you breathing heavily? Could you hold a conversation?

The reason I ask is, a lot of new runners are working too hard when running "easy". If you are unknowingly running at too high an intensity, you are not prioritizing your aerobic development. If you're only 2 years in, you are likely to be able to get faster at all distances. Keep tinkering!

You're doing all the right things.

The one thing I note, is that your HM PR is proportionally a lot slower than your 5k, which makes sense if you're new to the sport.

You're mileage seems fine, with ~40M/week.

One thing I would like to know though is how you've built up. Are you consistent week-week. Because its better to be at 30M/week in and week out, than having a great week, then being sidelined for a week or two after a higher mileage week.

Your tempo is bang on if you go by your 5k time, but might be fast if going by your HM time. You might want to back off the speed of the tempo a bit and extend it to 30-40mins.

Also, it might be worth working on some strength and mobility work, perhaps you are weak in hips and glutes, and that is affecting your form and power in your stride.

Rakott Kaposzta wrote:

The training that I did for several months before this race looked like this:

Monday: 12 mile run in around 2:10-20

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: 6 mile run in around 1:05 + 6 strides

Thursday: 2 mile warm up, 4-6 1k repeats in 4:45 2 mile cooldown

Friday: 3 mile run around 30-35 minutes

Saturday: 2 mile warm up, 20-30 minutes with a 8 minute per mile pace

Sunday: 6 mile run in around 1:05 + 6 strides

Generally looks good.

However I'd suggest you try ditching the strides for a month or two.

At your current ability, legspeed isn't particularly important to be developing. You already have Thursday to get you faster.

I'm 6'2" / 185lbs / 10% bf. Whenever I do strides, it kills my endurance.

I can't run , bad knees and a bad back . I wore this to work and now people in the office won't talk to me.

https://i3.wp.com/ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1cmTnbGWs3KVjSZFxq6yWUXXaA/Mens-Ahoy-Matey-High-Seas-Pirate-Costume-Adult-Buccaneer-Captain-Fancy-Dress-Jack-Sparrow-Cosplay-Outfit.jpg_640x640.jpg

I have no idea what you should do. I would take a break from running for a little bit and work on burning some of that fat with high intensity training and try running again after that and start over. I think you spend too much time on your feet for how slow you are (no offense). I’d run less at a higher quality. Maybe you are just too hefty and thats why easy pace is 11 min for you. Id say lose fat and try running as many 8 minute miles as you can and go up from there and establish that as your easy pace. I think running that slow for that long is bad muscle memory and bad neuromuscular memory.

Where do you live? Heat and humidity high in your area?

Getting good sleep?

Please don't take this as medical advice but I was in the same boat as you many moons ago - turned out I was anaemic. Do you eat plenty of foods containing iron? (Green veg, spinach, dark chocolate etc.)

really now wrote:

I have no idea what you should do. I would take a break from running for a little bit and work on burning some of that fat with high intensity training and try running again after that and start over. I think you spend too much time on your feet for how slow you are (no offense). I’d run less at a higher quality. Maybe you are just too hefty and thats why easy pace is 11 min for you. Id say lose fat and try running as many 8 minute miles as you can and go up from there and establish that as your easy pace. I think running that slow for that long is bad muscle memory and bad neuromuscular memory.

Are you suggesting running all mileage at 8min/mile(5k pace?) will make that as his easy pace over time rather than improving from current easy pace@ 11min/mile?

Good morning,

By the looks of it, your missing out s lot of quality faster miles. No offense, but if your running slower than 9:30 mile pace in your easy runs then you might as well be walking fast with a weighted vest.

What I mean by quality miles is that your slow twitch muscles need to get stronger and faster both in the weight room and doing variation speed/interval workouts more frequently on a weekly basis. The reason I say that is because your slow twitch fibers are becoming too weak because your thinning out your power and natural creatine sources To increase power out put. But here’s a few workouts to play around with.

Monday-4 miles easy jog, try to run even splits or negative splits, nothing slower than 8:30 per mile, it’s ok if it feels a little tough. You’ll get use to the pace

Tuesday: mile warm up easy but fast and comfortable, try run under 8’

20x160 meters with 90s rest walk, this will increase your slow end for long runs-these aren’t sprints, just move fast and relax

Weights:

2x5 back squat

2x5 bench press

2x10 step ups

40 reps of hammer curls-focus on contraction

One legged hamstring curls standing on machine

One legged extension on machine-focus on full ROM

Wednesday

5 mile farlek

Play around speeds and different gears

Thursday

4 mile hike with weighted vest

Friday

No warm up

6x 800, with 2’ rest at somewhat hard effort, see what your splits are and start tightening up your slow end speed base off this

Weights again, same stuff, add lunges and front and lateral raises if you want. Forgot to mention retraction exercises like rows.

Saturday rest

Sunday-6 miles easy

Let me know how it goes

coach.chasewiedel@gmail.com

I am not understanding above responses. How can OP run 8-8:30 min/mile as easy run if he mentions his easy pace is around 11min/mile. Is it not his 5k pace? Would it not be better to follow an easy, hard, easy, easy/off, easy, hard, easy approach to makeup his mileage to 80/20 easy &hard principle? I agree with strength training

No offense but the reason i'm asking is i'm in similar situation as OP trying to improve from my 2hr HM except i'm 4inches short& 10lbs lighter but have similar far%.

I agree with this coach. The way you describe your training sounds logical and good theoretically, so then it seems mysterious that you wouldn't be faster or improving. The missing piece of the puzzle must be that you are too weak to run faster (probably particularily your core strength and leg power).

Yeah im saying he should get used to running 8 min miles. 8:30 is fine too I suppose. If thats his current 5K pace it is fine. When I and many other people first started running, yeah we would run what would be close to our 5K pace because we couldn’t run for 10 minutes “easy” without breathing hefty. We weren’t training for races at that point we were learning how to run. Gotta do that before you can learn to race. He’s trained so slow for so long that I think he’s worse off than when he began running. May as well start over with a new approach. What the coach above said is good advice. I would do some things he mentioned differently but it is along the same line of thinking I have and is much better than 11 min mile pace...6 miles in over an our and 12 miles in 2 is no bueno training.

Saturday he already does a 20-30mins at 8min/mile

Thursday he does 4-6x1K repeats at 7min40/mile

There's no lack of trying to get faster in there.

I still say the issue is doing 6x strides on two of the easy days. With a lactate threshold at 9min/mile (as shown by 1/2M time), I'd give it 99% probability that the strides are producing high levels of lactate and that's killing the endurance.

Two days a week he is going good pace. The other days he is training his body to run very, very slow. It’s counterproductive. You may be right about the strides but I think he should just implement 8-8:30 pace runs with a couple strides every few days. If he can only run 2 miles at 8 min pace some days that’s fine. But it seems he can hold it for 20-30 minutes. That’s where he should start. He doesn’t need repeats or hard workouts yet.

But that should be accomplished after he makes it easier on himself and loses fat. It must be very difficult to run at all like that. My point in all this is he seems to be taking good advice-running easy, but he is doing it too early. Running “easy” seems to me to be best done after you have a good baseline of fitness. As evidenced by his pace, no offense to him, he does not.

I could be wrong about all this. Take it with a grain of salt.

Get a blood test. Check for Ferritin among other things.

It’s a matter of running. I’m not saying this is a panacea cure all type formula. His diet and seeing what the athlete is eating on a daily basis is definitely something looking into. I was in a similar experience with this athlete in college. I ran too many slow long runs and two a days because I thought it would benefit me, felt like I had no energy but I could ran fast when needed too. When I transferred to a 4 year college, I dropped the 2 a days and my first workout was running 5-6 miles hard at 6:45-630 pace. It was tough but manageable and I eventually ran that pace more consistently and frequently every other day.

So in short, it’s a matter of flipping a switch and lower the miles for better quality. Another workout to consider is to run 2’ on and 2’ off for 40’ to get more familiar on how 7:30-8’ pace should feel. Maybe also increase calories, eat some dark chocolate-low on magnesium perhaps and drink some beet juice and buy clean protein supplements take twice a day. Definitely get more meat protein in the diet. Hope this helps. I’m looking for clients to train. Email me at

coach.chasewiedel@gmail.com

for specific guidance or any other questions.