Easy miles pace

You should jog your easy runs, so that you can actually do your workouts properly and race hard.

two and a half minutes, per mile, slower than your 5000m pace.

examples:

5000m 20:00, pace is 6:26.2 per mile, so do your Easy runs at 8:50 - 9:10 pace

5000m 18:00, pace is 5:47.6 per mile, so do your Easy runs at 8:15 - 8:30 pace

5000m 16:00, pace is 5:09 per mile, so do your Easy runs at 7:30 - 7:45 pace

this is not a law, but a good place to start figuring it out.

cheers.

The most important training for you is work at ±5% of 2 mile race pace. Long runs for you are support work that should enable you to do more work around race pace. So you are better off keeping your long runs relaxed, so that you have the energy to do good workouts. 7:00 pace should suffice, although it would be fine to do the first few closer to 7:30 and the last few closer to 6:30.

Again that thread.

No matter what pace you use for easy and recovery runs. You can run with kids and girls and still be very fast miler or 2 miler with 2 hard workouts.

If you are 2 miler, so focus on VO2max workouts and tempo + some strides at 800-1500m.

If base is done, so try to run about 4-5 k at 2 mile goal pace in one session.

You can do 4 x 1000 with 3 mins of recovery and still be able to break your Pr's.

Tempo or mile repeats should be at LT pace or slightly faster.

Training should develop you, not to kill.

Easy and recovery are being in range of 60 to 75 % of maxHR.

You can also mix your workouts:

1k at 2 mile pace , 400 m jog + 4 - 6 x 400 at mile pace + 3 x 200 at 800m

Enjoy your training !

I try using heart rate. I'm 60 so my max is 160. My recovery pace is supposed to be 120. It's so slow I have a hard time with it.

I usually stay at about 130-132 if I go by "feel".

Take your easy runs easy.

Not to brag but I am a decent runner with solid PRs:

800 - 1:57

1500 - 4:02

3200 - 9:45 indoor

5k(xc) - 15:49

Irun about 50-70 mpw, I do most of my long runs at 6:45-7:15

Just use the jack daniels vdot calculator

If you need convincing, follow elite athletes on strava. You'll be surprised to see many do the bulk of their miles at 7min pace. They are running good volume >80mpw, but much of it at 7min pace. The wrinkles: the Sunday long run is sometimes faster ( in the 6 or even 5s) but not always.

Bottom line: Hit the 2 to 3 workouts per week hard, and do the rest jogging around at 7 min, but jog ALOT.

I ran on a college team where every run evolved into 6 flat or below. It's not smart. You feel fatigued all the time, your workouts are flat, and you don't race well cause you're fried.

5:50-6:15 pace in insanely fast for someone with a 9:45 2 mile pr. For reference, Mo Farah is known to run his easy days around 6:15-5:30. So you should be no where near that!

To get a better understanding of your abilities, what is your sprint speed like, ie 200m, 400m, 800m???

If 6:00/mile is easy for you, you should be running under 9:00 in the 2 mile.

runn wrote:

I try using heart rate. I'm 60 so my max is 160. My recovery pace is supposed to be 120. It's so slow I have a hard time with it.

I usually stay at about 130-132 if I go by "feel".

This is correct. Easy days should be easy. Hard days should be hard. /Thread.

Mahavishnu1500 wrote:

5:50-6:15 pace in insanely fast for someone with a 9:45 2 mile pr. For reference, Mo Farah is known to run his easy days around 6:15-5:30. So you should be no where near that!

To get a better understanding of your abilities, what is your sprint speed like, ie 200m, 400m, 800m???

If 6:00/mile is easy for you, you should be running under 9:00 in the 2 mile.

See that's the problem I should be able to run a lot faster but my speed is dirt slow. My 400 is 59(practice with training shoes) 200 and 800 I have no clue since I don't really do those in competitive meets. And I know I might sound like a troll but I don't understand it. On a non windy day I could probably run for awhile at a 6 flat pace(did 8 miles one time in 5:47 and felt amazing at the end) But my speed is terrible and I need some way to get 55 or faster 400 speed to help me. Plus my 2 mile pr could be faster if I went easier on my easy run days

Used too wonder the same thing. I'd hammer all my easy runs. They felt "easy". But when it came down to workouts and race day. I'd run much slower than what I was capable of. Once I started jogging my easy days, my workouts and races improved tremendously.

If we're being honest, 59 second speed isn't as bad as you think it is. Bill Rodgers won Boston and NYC 4 times each with a PR of 2:09:27 and he had 57 second 400m speed. Don't stress about your speed, it's good enough.

You'll improve tremendously by taking your easy runs a lot easier. My 5k PR is 16:53 and I do all my easy and long runs at about 7:30 pace. I just use a stopwatch instead of GPS to avoid pushing and running too fast. Running too fast on easy and long runs defeats the purpose of them.

Easy days should be easy, hard days should be hard. You'd be surprised how many pro (male) runners do their easy and long runs 6:30-7:00 pace. I would slow your easy runs to 7:00-7:30 pace. After a few weeks you'll feel a lot fresher and start hitting better workouts and it will suddenly be much easier for you to get more mileage in over the summer.

Distanceguy wrote:

I should be able to run a lot faster but my speed is dirt slow. My 400 is 59(practice with training shoes) 200 and 800 I have no clue since I don't really do those in competitive meets. And I know I might sound like a troll but I don't understand it. On a non windy day I could probably run for awhile at a 6 flat pace(did 8 miles one time in 5:47 and felt amazing at the end) But my speed is terrible and I need some way to get 55 or faster 400 speed to help me. Plus my 2 mile pr could be faster if I went easier on my easy run days

Did you read what the others said???

Run a lot at slower paces.

Then run hard when hard is the schedule.

That speed you miss will miracelously appear.

Totally agree with you here (but apparently not about sarcasm). These youngs guys run easy days way too fast.

The only non-pros I know who run their easy days that fast are a 2:13:30 marathoner and a low 14:00's 5k guy.

Even people i know who can run 14:30 and 2:21 marathon run around 6:30-40 for typical runs

Are you using a gps watch or a different method to calculate pace? You're either running way too fast or don't know the pace

no problem if you run that fast, but your 3200m should be under 9:10 if so.

Easy runs easy.

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=7881337

2:06 marathon runner doing his easy runs at a 8 minute mile pace.

http://bobhodge.us/running-logs/takayuki-inubushi/

Wejo used to do his easy runs 6:30 or faster in college. Switched to doing them at a 7:30 or slower. Went from 30 minutes for 10000m to 28 minutes for 10000m.

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2006/09/wejo-speaks-why-i-sucked-in-college/

Good read here, you can read Humane Way to Train for free here:

http://www.joehenderson.com/longslowdistance/

One more example, Henry Rono:

Yes, I use the garmin forerunner 235 and it works great so I'm pretty sure I'm going way too fast. Today I did an 8 mile run at 6:25 (really trying to keep myself slow and under control) and I feel amazing and a lot better than if I would of went out at like 6:05. And the more I read these I think that I am not racing as fast and my workouts are slower is because my "easy" runs are too fast and really take a toll on my muscles and I just feel too fatigued. So hopefully slowing down will make a huge difference in how fast I race and how my hard workouts go ??