I'm a high school runner training for the 1600m and maybe the 3200m and I was wondering about the pacing for easy days in the off season. Is it OK to take all the easy runs fairly slow and average about 7min/mile or would it be better to try to bring down? Keep in mind, I'm not doing much intense stuff at this point, mostly just mileage and some tempos.
Yeah just work on aerobic base.. don't even worry about it.
Get your miles up to where you think you can hold it during the majority of your season, and once you are there you can do some tempo work at about 35-40 seconds per mile over 3200m pace or about a minute per mile over your current mile race pace. The effort should be moderate, not hard. If in doubt, do a bit more mileage and less intense running in the off-season and transition to the season. Here are some pace guidelines for you:
Run most of your easy mileage at 3200m pace per mile divide by .70-.65. So, if you can run 10 flat for 3200m now, then your current easy pace is 10 / 2 = 1 mile time of ~5 minutes / .7 to .65 = 7.14 minutes (7:08) to 7.69 minutes (7:41). Your faster distance runs, but not tempo runs, use about .75 and for tempo runs, once you are ready, use .85. good luck...tinman
Once you are in the racing season, you may want to do some tempo runs at 3200m pace / .90, but consult your coach. Tempos at .85 can be done without really messing up your coaches overall plans, since it is not wicked fast, but still it would be good to talk it over with your coach. Better to work together, I think, than apart.