Is it bad for college coach to insist our distance guys run 6:10-6:25/mile on a daily basis?

Maximus wrote:

well. wrote:

Source?

Haile G trains hard, really hard. If he does a very few runs at 9 minute pace(which I doubt), it is because he has already done a couple of really hard runs that day. When people say the Kenyan's or Haile G do some really slow miles, it might be 5 or 10 miles out of their 120 or more miles. Then someone who is doing 60-80 miles a week thinks they should be doing 8 and 9 minute miles. The bottom line is these guys train hard; much harder than almost all of us. Don't look to them for the reason to do much of your running at 8 minute pace.

He'll start most runs that slow (or slower). But he's usually clipping miles at 6:00 or better when cruising. For an official quote, I think the German book on him listed his long runs before London 2002 as 32 miles at 5:40 per mile.

i think people should run every easy run as hard as possible. no pain, no gain.

"I have a saying 'train, don't strain.' The Americans have the saying 'no pain, no gain' and that's why they have no distance running champions. They get down to the track with a stopwatch and flog their guts out thinking that it'll make them a champion, but they'll never make a champion that way." - lydiard

Not at all. college guys should probably even going faster. I am a girl and I typically run 6:30-7:00 min pace and I am just barely a sub 5 minute miler and I run low 17's for the 5k.

Runner girl wrote:

Not at all. college guys should probably even going faster. I am a girl and I typically run 6:30-7:00 min pace and I am just barely a sub 5 minute miler and I run low 17's for the 5k.

You are running too hard.

how much mileage do you do?

" Is it bad for college coach to insist our distance guys run 6:10-6:25/mile on a daily basis?"

It's perfectly fine if you/your coach dont mind you underperforming in races and being burned out after 1 or 2 years with the program.

.124? wrote:

" Is it bad for college coach to insist our distance guys run 6:10-6:25/mile on a daily basis?"

It's perfectly fine if you/your coach dont mind you underperforming in races and being burned out after 1 or 2 years with the program.

Exactly.

Matt Gerard wrote:

"I have a saying 'train, don't strain.' The Americans have the saying 'no pain, no gain' and that's why they have no distance running champions. They get down to the track with a stopwatch and flog their guts out thinking that it'll make them a champion, but they'll never make a champion that way." - lydiard

dude, people are giving you advice, but you're being stubborn about it. stop being a moron. cush was damn fast, he knows what he's talking about. just cause you can't run that pace, or dont feel like trying that hard, well thats your problem.

I never ran a mile slower than 6:30 in college, well maybe a few. Was a numerous x all-american and several times was in contention for the win. I never once felt like I was pushing on the runs. Most normal runs were 6:10 pace and long runs would just naturally end up at around 5:50 pace. These were hilly runs. Post collegiately, the runs were even faster, with many runs dropping into the mid 5's for the majority of the run. Represent the US and raced in trial races, US champs, etc.. As long as you can hold a conversation, you are running easy enough.

Some might like to go really easy, 7 min or slower, to each their own.

With all that being said, I would think anyone who can run 15:00 - 15:30 should be able to handle sub 6:30 pace without any strain. The only way it would be hard is if they are running their workouts too hard, as mentioned by another person on this thread. Often times, workouts are run much too hard because a majority of the coaches don't know what they are doing or are just lazy.

From all my experience, I will say that you can have success by running your easy days slower than needed, as well. There are many ways to skin a cat. On the flip side, to say that running 6:30 pace is asking too much for a mildly competitive college team is rubbish.

I know 14:30 guys who do most of their easy runs at 7:10 pace. They work out hard, of course, but every run has its purpose. If 6:10 is too hard then don't run 6:10. To suggest otherwise is dumb.

Ho Hum wrote:

I know 14:30 guys who do most of their easy runs at 7:10 pace. They work out hard, of course, but every run has its purpose. If 6:10 is too hard then don't run 6:10. To suggest otherwise is dumb.

I just wanted to add that I too know several 14:30 - :40 guys who run 7 min pace or slower. It does appear that they are underperforming though. Being guys from small towns who ran 9:10 - 9:20 in high school. I wouldn't say they are underperforming because of the easy runs, more so because they only do 1 moderatly hard workout a week ( 4 - 5 x mile at threshold). This would be a time when running quicker on the easy runs would be better.

You must maintain a rigid state of flexibility in these matters.

Anything slower than 6min/mile is a waste of time.

Advice to everyone, THROW AWAY YOUR F***ING WATCH! Do you think the Africans are marking their runs and checking to make sure they are hitting 6:00 miles? F*** no, they just pick a time or distance and go run.

JUST RUN BABY!

Matt Gerard wrote:

.124? wrote:

" Is it bad for college coach to insist our distance guys run 6:10-6:25/mile on a daily basis?"

It's perfectly fine if you/your coach dont mind you underperforming in races and being burned out after 1 or 2 years with the program.

Exactly.

if you're looking for advice from an anonymous poster like .124, good luck.

if you're looking to lydiard for a quote, read his BOOKS. you'll find out you're really being a pussy. if you want to follow his training regimen, again, good luck.

if you're looking for anyone here to confirm that your coach is an idiot, i'd have to ask why? you clearly already have an intractable opinion. so, finally, once and for all, good luck.

While I don't think it at all unreasonable for competitive collegiate distance runners to do much of their running at 6:10-6:25 pace, I think it is impossible for any coach to tell any athlete what "easy" is for them. If you are, let's say, a 15:00 guy, 6:00 pace might be easy if you are putting in summer mileage and the weather is nice and you're not running serious workouts. On the other hand, if it is a snowy Sunday in January and you ran an indoor 5k the day before, 7:30 pace might be easy. No coach can tell you that.

lardary wrote:

I never once felt like I was pushing on the runs.

This is the most important thing, FEEL. People who worry about pace rather than feel are the ones underperform.

Our coach instructed us thus: if your legs are sore after a hard workout, then go along easily. If you feel good and things are flowing, then there's nothing wrong with running at a moderate pace on an "easy" day. Easy is a huge range. 6:00 pace one day might be easier than 7:00 pace another day. It shouldn't matter, just go out and let the flow happen. The trickiest part for college runners, in my experience, is making sure you don't get caught up in someone else's "feeling good day" if you're tired.

For a 14:30-15:00 guy, 6:15 pace is probably pretty easy most of the time. You might have a a day or two in a given week where you're sore and tired and need to jog, and there's nothing wrong with that.

As far as elites go, there are scores of runners who fall into either camp. I think the Kenyans and Ethiopians have it mostly right- start nice and easy, get warmed up, get a feel for how the run is going and how you feel on a given day, and then progress from there. The OP seems pretty dead-set on his opinion, though, which I think is a worse problem than the opinion itself. The idea of running slow on your recovery days isn't horrible (like I said, you can find scores of great runners who trot along on their easy days) but insisting your coach is an idiot tends to seep into other problems. "Why are we doing 10x400 with 90 sec rest! We should only have a minute rest! I'm not fit now!" and so on. . .