Women's easy pace and 5k times don't add up

High School Running Distance

2 years ago 10/09/2021 4:06pm EDT

I'm looking for some advice on how to get my high school girls team to get faster 5k times. We don't use heart rate monitors but their easy runs appear to be easy. But yet the 5k race times are not much faster than the easy pace. A lot of the girls run about 10:00 easy pace and 5k pace is about 20-30 seconds per mile faster. It is possible that easy runs are too fast and they need to slow down, but I do feel like they are at an easy effort. It appears to me that they aren't pushing hard enough in the meets. It looks like my girls are jogging but acting like they couldn't give an ounce of effort more. Almost like they don't know they could run faster. Like there are only two different speeds, easy and I might die (but yet it's barely faster than easy pace).

Have any high school coaches experienced this? How did you get them to realize they could race faster?

2 years ago 10/09/2021 4:40pm EDT

re: HS XC

What do you see in workouts at faster paces.

Only you have the information necessary to answer the questions you ask.

2 years ago 10/09/2021 5:49pm EDT

re: ..........................

Honestly, at what would be tempo paced workouts they seem comfortable and workouts a little faster they are able to handle them.

It's almost like they think they should look a certain way while racing without actually putting the effort to race.

Just doesn't add up in my mind. They go on an easy run at 10:00 pace but when they do a 5k it's about a 9:30 pace but act like they are runner as hard as they can even though it looks like they are jogging

2 years ago 10/10/2021 6:01pm EDT

re: HS XC

HS XC wrote:
Honestly, at what would be tempo paced workouts they seem comfortable and workouts a little faster they are able to handle them.
It's almost like they think they should look a certain way while racing without actually putting the effort to race.
Just doesn't add up in my mind. They go on an easy run at 10:00 pace but when they do a 5k it's about a 9:30 pace but act like they are runner as hard as they can even though it looks like they are jogging

I solved this by pacing the girls myself in track workouts.

1) Have them do a timed mile in practice

2) Use a conversion chart for what their 5k ‘should’ be

3) Do 1000m repeats at that projected 5k pace. Eventually work up to a mile, and then 2000m. I only do 3x1000m or 2x1 mile - no need to kill them, but give them the ‘feel’ of what race pace is like.

2 years ago 10/10/2021 6:08pm EDT

re: HS XC

this is definitely an issue with many on my team as well. there are good suggestions in this thread. it is unfortunate that my team has 2 meets per week probably 60% of the season, so it is difficult to get in those good workouts to teach them how they should be running.

Another issue is that I am boys and girls coach without an assistant, so most of my individual attention is not directed towards 9:00 pace racers who should be 8:00 minute pace races. Decisions have to be made regarding priorities.

Good luck with this challenge.

2 years ago 10/10/2021 8:48pm EDT

re: HS XC

We have 75 girls on the team and the slowest one runs 27 minutes. The majority run 21-22 minutes. Your listed times make no sense.

2 years ago 10/10/2021 9:37pm EDT

re: Supralapsarian

Thanks for the tip and was kinda what I was planning on doing the next few weeks for our upcoming workouts.

2 years ago 10/10/2021 9:40pm EDT

re: concerned mamA

Totally agree. I coach in a very rural area, so the few girls running in the 21 range are considered the fast girls in my region. I think what we lack are examples of girls running fast times to give girls something to chase after. But unfortunately 24 minutes is considered fast to a lot of girls in my region.

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