cramister wrote:
Also forgot to add but Saturday's hill was about 441 meters long.
Looks decent. Hill runs show up when next running intervals on flatter surfaces, and of course in faster runs during the week. 10 min at 6:30 pace during a longer run is promising.
Don't know the weather where you are, etc., but runs so slow almost induce mild atrophy because you are clearly fit enough to run better. Unless there is something else going on with your situation, I don't think your slow paces (8 min miles) are because of physical fitness, but because you are not emotionally or mentally determined to run at the next level.
There is no magic pathway to faster times. No combination of slow running and intervals that will do the trick. Running hills or intervals increases your ability to run faster distance runs, and faster distance runs increase your ability to run faster intervals.
It is different when one is not in shape and slow distance is better than what they were doing.
However, a 45-min brisk walk is superior to building a track athlete than 8 min miles (or slower). Gunder Hagg did a year of training that included a lot of brisk walks, before his fitness was such that he ran of the time. And this was during a time when everyone worked very hard in the fields or other such work, so that even teenagers where very strong absent any formal exercise.
For each week, I wonder if only one long run at 8 min pace, and one shorter run at 8 min pace, with the rest of the runs at 7:30 pace or faster, is a path that will really bring results. If you can't run the mileage at 7:30, then run less at 7;30 or faster. Mileage is a siren for those who lack leg speed, and somehow became en vogue because PED athletes could handle ridiculous workouts.
It is better to run 2 miles at 5:30 pace than 5 at 8 min pace.
Train to be a fast track athlete, and the distance running ability won't go away. I've not been able to hardly run at all the last few months, but I realized there is a narrow strip of grass or similar for most of the path around here, so the other day I ran on that path for about 3 miles and my persistent back pain of over 1 year was gone. A couple of days later, I easily ran 7 miles and no pain. Can't go fast because of the narrow path and awkward footing, but I can find athletic fields and run on the grass there. It was the hard surfaces causing me so many problems. If I wanted to run 8-10 miles easy tomorrow on grass or trails, no problem. The distance runs are there for me. However, I will probably seek out a field where I can run 100m repeats.