I've always wondered this... how can I get faster, if I am naturally faster than the team but my coach makes me run their pace? Won't this make my improvement curve be slower than everyone else's?
Also, does tapering actually work? I have a huge race tomorrow and I only ran 3 miles. I feel unsuccessful.
Also, I went the 3 miles slower than the lead pack because although I usually lead runs, I felt like their pace was too fast for a taper day. Thoughts? Was that smart or stupid?
Thanks!
runnerquestioner wrote:
Also, I went the 3 miles slower than the lead pack because although I usually lead runs, I felt like their pace was too fast for a taper day. Thoughts? Was that smart or stupid?
Do you want to train faster than the team or slower? :)
Your best bet is to run more than the team, at the same pace. If they are doing 6 run the 6 with them and add two more. Most high schoolers already hammer their easy runs fast enough anyway and could use more mileage.
You did the right thing running the taper day 3 mile slower.
Hi, thanks for replying!
I was wondering if I should run faster than them. All my times are faster, and I am one of the only ones coming back from xc season (most of the other girls are from soccer).
Today was the first day I did not lead the run.
Thanks for the reassurance. We went super duper hard yesterday (for them; before I started running with them, I would go 7:30 pace for all my runs. Now we do low 8:00's. Yesterday, we went 7:40, very hard for them.) So I was very surprised when they started pushing the pace today.
As I figured, you're already running plenty fast. That pace is fast enough for an easy run even if you're one of the top girls in the state. Again I would suggest simply adding mileage rather than dropping everyone just to hammer 30 seconds faster.