Is there a nervous system adaptation where since they are used to running fast , it feels slow for them compared to someone else who is not as fast
your version of fast feels slow to them. But pretty sure everyone's fast feels fast to them. It's relative.
Though there is the thing where somebody runs their fastest race ever, and then proclaim that it felt easy, and they could have run faster. But that turns out to be their lifetime PR. Like hitting the sweet spot on a bat. When everything is perfect, it probably feels easier than usual.
Pretty sure it would feel fast as fast. Fast runners still have to have a guage of speed if they race. They know when they are starting too fast for a given distance, etc. So yeah it feels fast. That is why many do positive splits. They are aware of how fast a pace is.
my personal experience the fastest races felt good technically and smooth, flying, less muscle effort. if you have to work it you probably tie up and run slower.
as someone who did some 300H/400 i agree that it cuts both ways when you feel good and lively and break out quick. you would have to catch yourself and hold back a little.
nervous adaptation? no. it's more like a peak state. you might have to work for it start of the season or tired or you blow up. you quit working out you feel the work every time. 5-10 years from being serious and you're average joe with slightly more natural pop in your legs.
Fast is relative. If by pace, 8:00/mi might feel very fast for one person, but feel like a jog for another. But there is always an intensity where a run feels fast, just is a different pace for different people
Always wondered that - my 5k pace is a an easy run for some elite runners (3:50-4:00/k), and I’m still faster than most of the populace. 6:00/k and below feels like a jog but might be someone’s 5k pace.
I wasn’t “fast” fast but at my fastest in college, running a mile felt fast the entire time compared to earlier times in my career. I’m sure it’s emphasized at elite levels where you’re running even closer to your top speed for ~4 minutes. Most slower runners have insufficient endurance and some are pretty solid sprinters so I think the gap between a sprint and their race pace is greater. For me, the 1200 felt like the smoothest distance and was probably my best (unfortunate for me). I would assume there’s a smoothest distance for everyone.
Is there a nervous system adaptation where since they are used to running fast , it feels slow for them compared to someone else who is not as fast
your version of fast feels slow to them. But pretty sure everyone's fast feels fast to them. It's relative.
Though there is the thing where somebody runs their fastest race ever, and then proclaim that it felt easy, and they could have run faster. But that turns out to be their lifetime PR. Like hitting the sweet spot on a bat. When everything is perfect, it probably feels easier than usual.
I think that's correct. I was never super-fast (1:57.5 800m, 4:20 mile), but as I aged the similar effort felt just as fast.
I remember in my mid-50s doing a session of 4x1000m and finishing thinking "I was flying.." then realized the last one - the quickest - was slower than my 3000m steeplechase pace from 20 years ago.
I think feeling "fast" is just having a good day relative to your current state....
When I was young and in my best shape, I did most of my runs under 6:00 pace. It felt pretty normal. If I was running faster, like 5:40 pace, it felt doable but I could tell I was moving fast. If I ran a 10k race, usually around 5:15 pace, it felt about the same as a tempo run at 5:40 pace (the race day magic where somehow you're running way faster and it feels the same).
If I ran a mile race in the 4:20s, it didn't feel faster than a 10k race at 5:15 pace, but if I ran a mile in sub 5:00 in the middle of a 7 mile run, that felt fast as hell.
If I ran an 800 and opened in 60 it felt pretty chill, but if I opened in 57 it felt a little bit pressed but I could still be relaxed doing it. My 400 PR was 55.04 and any time I ran in the 55s (I ran low 55s at least 10 times), it felt super fast, like the fastest thing I ever did.
Now that I am old and fat, a 9:00 mile would feel fast. A few months ago I was getting in shape and got to the point where I could progress my pace down into the 7:30s for about half an hour. That felt really fast. I did a run on a treadmill and slowly stepped it up to 6:00 pace, which I could only do for 30 seconds, and that felt like a dead sprint, like a 55 second 400 used to feel.
So my answer to your question is that what feels fast is all relative to your fitness.
You assume feeling slow means feeling easy? I would guess it would feel fast since the wind feels the same at any given speed.
What?
No it doesn't.
Stick your head out a car window and see how that feels compared to walking down the street.
You completely missed the point. Not wise to try debating physics with someone who graduated Magna cu m Laude from Georgia Tech. I'm a Ramblin Wreck from Georgia Tech and One Helluva engineer.
I was never "fast" at shorter distance (my best 400m was 56 seconds and my best 800m was 2:00).
But I could run 4:55/mile pace for a Half Marathon (1:04) and 2:16:52 for a marathon (5:12/mile pace) in my prime. Good enough to make the Trials, but didn't really make any money on the roads even with those times 15 years ago (I was on a non-salary sponsorship from Brooks-Hansons).
Basically it's like this: "Marathon pace just feels more and more like a sprint...the faster you get."
What generally changes is your ability to run with a longer stride and have more power in each step (since cadence usually stays the same around 180 for me)... then you just learn to suffer more at a higher intensity closer to 100% max HR.
So the more aerobically fit you get, and the stronger your legs can get...then the more you can get your Lactate Threshold pace closer to your Marathon Pace. So all your "race pace ranges" get closer together. Lactate Threshold pace gets closer to Velocity at Vo2max pace. You go from only being able to race a marathon at 83% of max HR to 88% of max HR.
So no, it doesn't "get any easier"...if anything it just "feels more intense longer" and the world comes at you faster because 12mph on a crowded bike path feels like you're flying compared other the runners only doing 9mph or whatever.
Sure, when my marathon race pace was 5:12/mile, some days 6:00/mile would feel like an "Easy jog day" kind of. Now, as I approach 40 (and after having pulmonary embolism mind you) I go to the track and run a 35-second 200m rep and it feels like what a 32-second 200m used to feel like when I was 20. A 5:00 mile split feels like what a 4:40 mile used to feel like.
My experience sorta mirrors Sage's, but I'll speak to the shorter distances. I remember in HS thinking that sub-4:20 and sub-15:00 seemed ungodly fast. After HS I eventually ran both. Running 63-64s felt just as fast as it always did (my 400 PR is 55), but my fitness allowed me to hold on. A 1500m felt like a long sprint.
I assume it's the same for elite runners. I'm sure they feel like they're flying. To me, it was the best feeling in the world to feel like I'm running insanely fast but have the fitness to sustain it.
you adapt to a point and it depends on circumstances.
ran a 450 mile solo warm up and it was choppy and dull, then coach had me follow a great athlete for 430 time two, and i just followed in his footsteps literally, felt very easy, maybe the mind set in, that we need to do a proper job here?
another time in the middle of the winter, where i was running 90 miles a week at 530 to 630 mile pace, and i went for a few runs with a fellow from switzerland that started training with John Walker, where 5 min a mile was average, and the pace felt under those circumstances like a million miles per hour, asking myself, why am i doing this? i suck.
after my first proper buildup, miles, then quality 1-3 km work, minor intervals, 64 second quarters felt slow, while earlier on in the season, that felt like sprinting.
i was following more modern lydiard, but if i were to do it again i would repeat the different phases, except, not build up more than 10 weeks with just mileage, it took too long to get up to speed,
the build up of 8 to 10 weeks, i'd do about 20 percent less mileage and 20 percent better quality, i was doing 90 miles / week, so the running component would be down to 65 miles/wk
every two weeks, take a weekend to do only cross training, easy, fun
20 percent bike swim other aerobic
in the build up phase, do a basket of 100 m full recovery strides, and one hill repeat session, of 300 to 800m fairly hard.
weights 30 to 40 minutes two times per week
if there is any sluggishness two days in a row, cut the work in half until their is jump in the stride.
10 weeks of that and you'll be right
maybe a schedule would be
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am 4 miles every day morning except sunday
afternoon 6 miles every days omit on quality days
2 quality days
one 1.5 mile warm up. 2 sets of 10x100 of 150m strides. if you can run 12 x 100m then strides can be in 14 sec... run the last couple a bit faster. 1.5 miles warm down
3 miles easy, then 4 x 800 m tough hill repeats medium hard challenging walk down recovery.
one long run of 15 miles on the hills sunday, next sunday no running cross traning.
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this build up phase should set a person up for the pre race phase where you do things like 6 x 1 mile, 4 miles hard, resistance long sprints, quality sessions with rest says between.
in the peaking phase, you improve the quality of the workouts further, and lessen the volume down to 60% or less the buildup.
after a couple of tune up races, cut the mileage and you're peaked for champs or important races...