incredibly slow running

slow = good. I've never heard of anybody going that slow though. I'm fast and I'll go 8-7:30 pace on a recovery day.

Japanese runners do this quite often.

SOMETIMES THEY EVEN WALK!!!!!!!!

gasp!!!!

im not kidding when he says he does this, ive seen a camcording of it and it seems like the guy is walking with a running motion

The way I've always heard it these runs last 3+ hours or so and are considered a recovery aid. Does that sound right with what you've seen?

im pretty sure he said the kenyan did these slow paced recovery runs for the same amount of time that the rest of the team would do theirs

blue suede shoes wrote:

at this pace is it really doing any good?

What do you mean by this? The goal of a recovery day is to recover. The hard work occurs on hard days. You can't take your easy days too easy.

Whats the downside if you do?

You are all the more rested and recovered (i.e. recovery and then adaptation has occured) and you can run balls on the next hard day

Does improvement come from the work you do on your hard days or your easy days?

Off the Grid wrote:

Does improvement come from the work you do on your hard days or your easy days?

Both. Otherwise, we wouldn't run so much on our non-workout days.

Of course it's doing good! I would reserve this type of training to just once a week or so - unless you are cranking out really hard workouts/races more than once a week. It does wonders for your body and allows you to recover quicker. I also feel it improves your running economy.

I suppose my point was that the emphasis on the hard days is to run hard w/ a specific goal, and on the easy days, it is to recover, this being the primary goal.

A long run at a faster pace will accomplish the former goal, but not the latter. And these two goals are usually mutually exclusive.

I agree its better to err on the side of slower rather than faster on recovery days, but running 10-12 minute pace?

I actually think this would hurt more. In college, we held a HS invitational meet, and I was the lucky bastard that had to follow the last runner in the girls JV race. "Running" 10 min pace ended up making my calves sore as hell the next day. Its unnatural to force a running motion going that slow.

I agree with anywhere between 7-8 minutes for recovery runs, depending on the day, season, etc.

10-12 minutes is not walking pace for mile you idiot....is 16 18 minutes.

elguapo16 wrote:I agree its better to err on the side of slower rather than faster on recovery days, but running 10-12 minute pace?

I actually think this would hurt more.

I probably run 20 miles a week (out of 60-80) at about 10 minute pace (i.e. all the miles I run with my wife). The rest of my easy mileage (say another 25-35 miles) is at about 7:30-8:00. But then the hard stuff is pretty hard (for me).

I'm not "fast" (16-low 5k, 41 yo), but I don't think the slower running hurts me, and I think it helps. I get to recover very easily, and any slow running helps maintain aerobic fitness, which supports the faster stuff.

I remember when I started going slower on my easy days a few years back - at first it was awkward as hell and I hated it. After a while, it was all good.

do0diw wrote:

10-12 minutes is not walking pace for mile you idiot....is 16 18 minutes.

YOU\'re the idiot. I (and just about anyone) can easily walk miles in 12 minutes without any race-walking technique or strain. I repeat.......easily.

So WHO\'s the idiot?? That\'s right.....it\'s you.

A 12 minute mile is pretty hard to walk without racewalking technique and is a lot harder than just jogging it. For example if you have ever used a treadmill mill and are ramping up the mph 4.5-5.0 mph is about where you start getting into your running form.

Hey Pete didnt you use the Hadd method of training? I think I remember your postings in those long threads. Of course it could be another Pete.

good one wrote:

do0diw wrote:

10-12 minutes is not walking pace for mile you idiot....is 16 18 minutes.

YOU're the idiot. I (and just about anyone) can easily walk miles in 12 minutes without any race-walking technique or strain. I repeat.......easily.

So WHO's the idiot?? That's right.....it's you.

racewalking is not walking you idiot...i walk a mile before my runs on the track as a warm up and it took 16 to 18 minutes to finish it.

"Slow" will vary widely of course from person to person. However, in terms of aerobic development, you get almost as much AEROBIC benefit from running slow miles as you do from running moderate or fast miles, its just that you can go farther and therefore get a better aerobic workout. I think the problem a lot of people have is that their slow runs are too fast and their fast runs are too slow, i.e. they are floating around somewhere in the middle and not really getting the full training benefit from either their "fast" or "slow" runs.

2nd wrote:Hey Pete didnt you use the Hadd method of training?

Yep, that's me. Still follow Hadd's advice, although my training is geared for short races at the moment (1500-5000) so looks a lot different than the base training he described in the long thread.

While I don't think Hadd ever recommended that anyone should run around at 10:00 pace all day, I know for sure he did write that there's no such thing as running too slow on your easy days. I've read/heard the same advice from many other seasoned oldtimers also.

While I don't think 10:00 pace running is the biggest key to my current "success" (a relative term - in my case at 41 I'm running my fastest ever, having set PRs at 800, mile, 3000 and road 5k in the past few months), I think it has played a role in aerobic fitness, and in any event has certainly not made me slower.

Now if I were running ALL my miles at that pace, I'd likely be racing fairly slowly, but I'm not.

well if a successful kenyan does it, we should all do it now shouldn't we. WE are so intelligent here at letsrun.com. yes we are.