What's a good Suffer Score to shoot for?

bump

bump

gregmacd wrote:

I found that my Suffer Score for 5 mile runs is about 50 if I take it easy, 60 if I push it some, and 75 if I push relatively hard. However, I'm not sure if I push hard enough, since some runners have much higher scores.

What is a good SS to shoot for to improve my marathon times?

none, it's a metric no one care about.

end of thread.

7

Suffer score seems valuable, why not? Maybe the term works well for some people as compared to hate score, or even perceived effort or the other things people have come up with. I like it.

I've never heard of a suffer score. Can someone explain?

bigtool05 wrote:

I've never heard of a suffer score. Can someone explain?

A good suffer score to shoot for on a 5 mile run is anything in triple digits. If you have your heart rates set right, the run will have to be at least a hard tempo effort. Suffer score is the crappiest metric possible for this type of run--just use your pace to determine the quality of the run.

Your suffer score is totally dependent on the zones you have set up, so you can't really compare people. Also, it's a metric that's really more optimized for cyclists, who can do very long efforts at high intensity. You're just not going to get huge suffer scores doing a typical track workouts for a 5k, even if you totally blast it. My highest scores were all in long marathon pace runs, half marathons, and marathons.

Suffer score is based on total time so it follows that you won't get an extremely high value for a 5K (or 5 mile as the OP mentioned). It's relevant for cyclists because speed is too variable to be useful.

I'd bet that no professionals base their training on suffer score.

You'd be better off using Jack Daniels paces.

Advisor wrote:

I'd bet that no professionals base their training on suffer score.

You'd be better off using Jack Daniels paces.

I'd bet you're right.

xcyclist wrote:

A good suffer score to shoot for on a 5 mile run is anything in triple digits. If you have your heart rates set right, the run will have to be at least a hard tempo effort. Suffer score is the crappiest metric possible for this type of run--just use your pace to determine the quality of the run.

Thanks all! I realize that the Suffer Score is nothing to post to Facebook, but I do like that it is a relative comparison of how hard I pushed on a run.

* Last week, I did a 5 mile run at an 8:52 pace and I got a SS of 60 with 25% of the run at a tempo pace, and 0% at a threshold pace.

* This week, I did a 5 mile run at an 8:53 pace and I got a SS of 55 with 39% of the run at a tempo pace, and 3% at a threshold pace.

So basically the same distance at the same pace, but a higher SS when I ran a greater % of the workout at a higher heart rate. So, the SS is legitimate for relative comparisons, because the higher you get your heart rate the more points you get. For me this is a good way to gage whether I'm working hard or taking it easy.

Ignore the above. What I meant to say was:

* Last week, I did a 5 mile run at an 8:52 pace and I got a SS of 60 with 39% of the run at a tempo pace, and 3% at a threshold pace.

* This week, I did a 5 mile run at an 8:53 pace and I got a SS of 55 with 25% of the run at a tempo pace, and 0% at a threshold pace.

So basically, for the same distance at the same pace, I got a SS of 60 for running 42% (39% + 3%) of the run at tempo pace or faster, but only a SS of 55 for running 25% of the run at tempo pace or faster. Thus, I got a higher SS (by 5 points) for running at a higher heart rate.

Suffer scores are just stats set up for gamers who dabble in hobby jogging. Not a real metric.

I hit 9000 reading this thread....

gregmacd wrote:

I found that my Suffer Score for 5 mile runs is about 50 if I take it easy, 60 if I push it some, and 75 if I push relatively hard. However, I'm not sure if I push hard enough, since some runners have much higher scores.

What is a good SS to shoot for to improve my marathon times?