I have been doing easy runs for a while now (6 miles usually give or take) I feel pretty chill with the pace (although sometimes I drop down into the 6:50) zone. My PR in the mile last year before I started hitting big miles was only 5:19, so should I slow it down?
CalvinRange wrote:
I have been doing easy runs for a while now (6 miles usually give or take) I feel pretty chill with the pace (although sometimes I drop down into the 6:50) zone. My PR in the mile last year before I started hitting big miles was only 5:19, so should I slow it down?
A good way to gauge if a long easy run is easy enough is if you can hold a conversation with someone without a struggle.
Easy is easy.
If it's easy it's easy.
You never need to intentionally slow it down just for the sake of being "easier" on your legs for recovery. Run whatever truly feels easy. If you get fast, then 7:20 will certainly be easy.
If you're really uncertain about whether it was easy enough, you'll know for sure when you do a workout the following day.
However, if your all-out mile time is 5:19, then I doubt that 7:20 is actually easy for you.
Oh wow. Yes you are running too fast. That was one of the biggest changes I made after college that aloud me to get fast enough to make the Olympic trials and pace Deena in her world record.
Slow down!
My easy pace is 6:50-7:20, but I’ve got a minute on you in the mile. What’s your mileage like? If you are just doing 3-5 miles for your easy runs I’m sure 7:20 is fine.
Easy is a feel, not a number. If you can run at that pace and distance mostly every day you're fine. If you're needing to go much slower, shorter, or both somewhat regularly you're going too fast.
The OP says that he has upped his mileage and that the 5:19 is from last year.
I once coached a kid who had transferred to our school during his senior year. he came with a PR of 5:18. At his previous school, he didn't have much coaching and didn't run very much. I brought his mileage up to 35-40 per week and over the course of the season he dropped his PR to 4:38.
So, I guess the moral of the story is that OP could already be in FAR better than 5:19 shape, especially aerobically, if he's been consistent with his 6 mile runs for a long period of time. As stated by HRE and others....easy is a feel, not a number. Numbers are nice, though for someone who isn't super experienced and thinks that any pace that is not killing him must, by definition, be easy.
If I was the OP's coach, I'd have him go out and TT a 3-5 mile effort to get a pretty accurate gauge of where his is at aerobically. Let's say the kid only runs 19:30 for 3 miles, clearly his easy pace really isn't easy. But, if he runs 17:30, then his easy pace is pretty realistic.
Slow down to 8-8:20 pace and you will get better quality at your faster workouts.Run 40-60 min for your easy runs mostly.
-Santa pro-
no maybe
rojo.bot.2.0 wrote:
Oh wow. Yes you are running too fast. That was one of the biggest changes I made after college that aloud me to get fast enough to make the Olympic trials and pace Deena in her world record.
Slow down!
Many runners have improved after college without slowing their easy day pace to a crawl. If you ran the OT qualifier, you averaged 5:20 pace so 7:00 pace would have been very easy for you and it would have allowed for full recovery for the harder workout days.
You've increased your mileage a bit so I bet you are 5:00 or better in the mile now, I think you running 7:20 is not too fast at all, even dipping under 7:00 for a couple miles at the end of the easy runs once you're all warmed up.
Personally I think someone running around 4:00 could run as fast as 6:30 for their easy runs, a 4:30 runner can run 6:50, a sub 5:00 can run around 7:00. So ya you're fine where you are.
You'll hear some stories about how a really fast person (olympian like Nick Willis) runs easy runs above 7:00, but then you'll hear stories about a different olympian running everything sub 6 (Bernard Lagat among others)... I think the common reality is that these really fast people are somewhere in the middle, often running 6:20-6:40. It also depends on how hard your workouts are. If you're not doing very intense workouts right now your easy run pace can be a bit faster since you're generally not breaking your body down much. But when you're doing really hard workouts you have to make sure your easy runs aren't breaking you down at all, so you should go slower in that situation.
SDSU Aztec wrote:
rojo.bot.2.0 wrote:
Oh wow. Yes you are running too fast. That was one of the biggest changes I made after college that aloud me to get fast enough to make the Olympic trials and pace Deena in her world record.
Slow down!
Many runners have improved after college without slowing their easy day pace to a crawl. If you ran the OT qualifier, you averaged 5:20 pace so 7:00 pace would have been very easy for you and it would have allowed for full recovery for the harder workout days.
Come on, SDSU. The poster is obviously riffing on the brojos’ story/career arc (look at the handle), though I think he meant Paula, not Deena.
It’s not funny, which could partially excuse your missing “the joke.”
You're fine at 7:20 wrote:
Personally I think someone running around 4:00 could run as fast as 6:30 for their easy runs, a 4:30 runner can run 6:50, a sub 5:00 can run around 7:00. So ya you're fine where you are.
Not sure that those times check out. It means the 4:00 miler is doing easy runs at 61.5% of their mile race speed, while the 5:00 miler is doing them at 71.4%.
John Wesley Harding wrote:
SDSU Aztec wrote:
Many runners have improved after college without slowing their easy day pace to a crawl. If you ran the OT qualifier, you averaged 5:20 pace so 7:00 pace would have been very easy for you and it would have allowed for full recovery for the harder workout days.
Come on, SDSU. The poster is obviously riffing on the brojos’ story/career arc (look at the handle), though I think he meant Paula, not Deena.
It’s not funny, which could partially excuse your missing “the joke.”
I've never clicked the Rojo.bot thread so it makes sense I'm not in on "the joke."
Yes my all-out best mile was 5:19 last year, HOWEVER I got that time strictly off of speed training and now that I finally been doing more than 5 miles per week I feel I've improved rapidly. I did go hard today and 6: 20 was my pace for the 10k so 7:20 is not hard and I find it to be pretty easy.
I completely agree with this. Over the past few runs it's gotten easier and easier to keep 7:20 and some miles I'll dip into the 6:40 range, today was a lot harder but I ran my 10k at a 6:30 pace (although I'd say it was at least 70% effort)
Everyone is different. For me, routine runs were 6 minute pace most of the time, easy was 7 minute, like a walk in the park.
You ran your 10 k race or 10 k training session at 6:20 pace?
CalvinRange wrote:
Yes my all-out best mile was 5:19 last year, HOWEVER I got that time strictly off of speed training and now that I finally been doing more than 5 miles per week I feel I've improved rapidly. I did go hard today and 6: 20 was my pace for the 10k so 7:20 is not hard and I find it to be pretty easy.
If you’re covering 10k at 6:20 pace on a hard run, then you’re likely close to 5:00 right now.
It depends on how hard that 6:20 pace was, though. If it was an all out race effort that left you wiped out for a couple of days, then you’re probably not in 5:00 flat shape and 7:20 is as fast as you’d want to do the majority of your training miles. If it was challenging, but you still had gas in the tank and felt like you could have gone another mile or two at 6:20 pace, then you’re looking pretty good for a sub 5 and 7:20 pace is good for most of your runs, but you’re safe to pick up the pace once in a while.
Are you in a state that has indoor track, or are you building up for outdoor?
COACH WIZARD 1 wrote:
Slow down to 8-8:20 pace and you will get better quality at your faster workouts.Run 40-60 min for your easy runs mostly.
-Santa pro-
I would run 14 miles of doubles at 7:00 pace on a easy day, another 6 miles at the same pace the morning of an interval day and then run a 4-3-2-1 workout where some of it was not far off from my PRs. Other times I would run 6:00 pace with our 14:00 guy on an easy day and have a terrible interval workout the following day.