Help! Average Run Pace, your PR's, and Coach Input!

What else is your athlete doing? Like what does the typical week look like or are you just doing easy runs?

How many miles a week is he running? 8 to 8:40 is on the slow end. But if he's doing 80+ a week I think that would be fine. Throw in some strides and the occasional tempo run and he could be flying come fall.

If it's only 30 miles a week, well . . . . that probably won't cut it.

On the other hand, if he's running like 4 workouts a week, then he better be doing 8+ minute miles on the easy days.

We are doing a tempos, fartlek, hill repeats, over the span of 10-14 days. Also strides nearly every other along with a weekly long run. Mileage for the week is 50-65 with two doubles.

He is between 50-65 miles/week. The only workouts I have planned are some long/short hill repeats, 20-30 minute tempos, and fartleks that range from 30 seconds on - 3 min on. I will 1-2 of these each week but never all 3. We also do strides 3-4 times a week after runs and sometimes they are on an incline! But these arent hard hard workouts that call for an easy day in between.

That seems like quite solid summer training. Nice work. Is he performing well on those workouts? If so, I would personally see no problem running 8+ pace on the other days. Sure, he might not need to run that slow. But it is not so slow it's hurting him. Aerobically, there is very little (perhaps almost no?) difference between 7 and 8 minute pace.

In my opinion, keep your athlete happy. Find the best mix of training that you believe in, and that he believes in. 50-60 mpw with some tempo and fartlek and hills, but some easy days that are on the slow side sounds like a great compromise to me.

What's his HR during these easy runs? In other words, what's his justification for running this pace during easy runs?

Depending on the person, this could be ideal for him. There are guys like Josh Kerr that never run easy runs at sub 7 pace.

Everyone with a mile time from 4:20 - 4:40 on my team usually does easy runs from 7 - 7:30.

I want to applaud your runner for being mature and running easy on easy days. Most high school runners turn an easy run into a hard tempo day after day. I recently listened to the Sean Carlson interview on the d3 glory days podcast and he was talking about running with Nick Willis. (Who said he runs his easy runs at 8:00 pace)

It's summer, hot temps, let the easy runs be easy. When temps cool off in the fall, the easy pace will naturally get a little quicker.

Since you have him doing a few workouts a week just let him run the easy pace he wants. Don't try to micromanage every single run for him. You could take the fun out of it for him. Let your athletes have the autonomy to thrive.

How is he performing in workouts? Compromise might not be a horrible idea just to keep him mentally in a good place. A good weekly tempo day, Vo2 session, and long run a week will get an athlete in really solid shape even if he’s running 8:00-8:30 miles on easy days. As long as his HR is in the appropriate zone he will aerobically develop, 7:30 miles help you run 5:00 pace mechanically just as well as 8:00 miles.

I am an 800/1500 guy, but I found myself in somewhere between 14:50-15:10 5k shape during the late fall early winter build.

I usually have a run once, occasionally twice a week where I’ll average 7:45-8:15 pace, but that’s when I’m feeling very thrashed. It’s normal for me to get out with teammates and drop a hilly 10-12 miler at 6:30-6:20 pace. I am a big believer that if you are sore enough that you feel your running speed is limited because of it, you should disable the pace display on your watch and focus on keeping the HR under 150 for your recovery run.

Thank you! We just started the workouts these past two weeks and he is doing fine with them. I just think since these are mainly aerobic workouts and a lot of the time there is 2-3 between them, the days in between do not have to be easy. For example, tempo and hill repeats on Monday and Thursday, the other days just run with strides, and Saturday long run. I am trying to compromise though so I'll try not to get so wound up.

Its in the 130s. I am he is a well conditioned athlete. When I go on my runs, I am well into the 150s and I am twice as old as him. When I looked up his heart rate on a chart, it said, weight control zone lol smh

It's more that every run is an easy day pace. I understand that we would have more easy days during competition season but I would think we have quite a bit more moderate days in the summer. We train early in the morning so it is 65 degrees then. Slightly humid.

I am trying to find that balance of "we need to train hard" vs. everyday is in the realm of an easy day because I do not want to over train. I just want the risk taking to increase a bit.

14:10. Usually run 7-7:30 in season and 6:30-7:30 over the summer depending on how I feel that day.

Maybe try having him do surges during these easy runs a few times a week. I like doing a 30-60 second surges everytime my watch beeps each mile on easy runs sometimes. So for a 6 mile run you're only doing a few minutes of pickups, which won't be enough to stress the body but is nice to change things up and gets some better running form instead of just trotting the whole time

Sounds like you're getting in a good mix plus some doubles.

Throw away the watch.

1:52 800, 4:10 mile

Easy runs are by feel but it’s usually anywhere between 7:00-7:30 pace. Regular runs anywhere from 6:15-6:50 pace. Also depends what phase of the year I’m in or what part of training cycle. I was never one to hammer runs, I know runners with slower prs then mine that run some runs at 6 minute pace but that didn’t work for me. I think 8 minute pace is excessively too slow though, I’m all for not hammering everyday but 8:00-8:30 isn’t going to do anything for the kid.

130s for a HS kid is on the low end. But I don't think it is too low. I like the old school base building advice Marty Liquori gives out. Spend as much time running as much miles as you can at 120-140 HRs. The harder stuff comes after that.

I think it is rare and also kind of cool that this kid has more reserve and discipline than the vast majority of teenagers. I might be inclined to let him keep doing this, and maybe plant the seed that he can run an extra 10-15 minutes on his regular easy days. Maybe then do 3 or 4 doubles instead of 2. Those extra easy miles will pile up slowly, but they will pile up. And remember, you want him fast in late October/early November, not August.

Marathon PR is 2:27 and when I’m deep in training doing 18-20mi days on tue/thur/sat the days in between those are like 8:20-8:30 pace. I wouldn’t worry too much about this kid sounds like he’s got some good discipline