Stopping during runs

You never have to take a dump?

Watch some of Ritz’ videos. 5 mile warmup, changes shoes to flats, 11 mile fartlek, changes shoes, easy 5 mile cooldown.

Sometimes you just have to stop to admire the scenery.

There are two ways to do a long run, either as a time trial/tempo effort where the pace is important and the other way is to just cover lots of miles not worrying about elapsed time so much because you still get the training effect you are seeking.

Worrying about stopping in most training runs is an OCD way of thinking about training.

Shape is shape. If your average pace is fast enough, it doesn't really matter that much, especially if you're slower than 230.

realistic wrote:

There are two ways to do a long run, either as a time trial/tempo effort where the pace is important and the other way is to just cover lots of miles not worrying about elapsed time so much because you still get the training effect you are seeking.

Worrying about stopping in most training runs is an OCD way of thinking about training.

Yep. If it’s something other than a straight aerobic long run (pace run, tempo, other structured workout), then absolutely you should keep interruptions to a minimum. But an easy-effort 20-miler just to log the time on the feet? No reason to fuss about some stoppage time. Your HR is going to pop right back up to a productive place as soon as you start moving again.

Are these guys training alone? If you’re with a group, it would be pretty coming to drop water in a couple spots by the side of the road. When you hit the water stop, you’ve got to stop for 2-3 mins to let everyone fill a cup, take a drink, somebody pees in the bushes. That time adds up pretty quickly, but again, there’s no real effect on a straight-up long run.

Also, since OP talked about Strava, it may be just a delay after starting recording and not stopping recording immediately at the end of the run.

fruuuu wrote:

I've noticed that a lot of the sub-elite marathon runners I follow on Strava will stop a lot (or at least, a few times) during their longer runs. Sometimes, during the course of a 2-hour run, there will be as much as a 10-12 minute difference between the total elapsed time and the moving time.

These guys all train on routes with no stoplights, etc., and I can't imagine it takes them 10 minutes to, say, take a sip of water mid-run. Any idea what's up with this? I always thought it was best to run continuously.

As a sub elite marathoner I can think of no reason to be stopping. 20-22 miles is not a distance that should require a rest break at that level and a 10-12 min break would serve no purpose. In fact for me it would just be an interruption to my rythm. I can see a few minute restroom or very quick water stop on a warm day. Otherwise I'd chalk it up to a technical glitch in tracking software. Unless there's some new training technique I'm not aware of that involves breaks in long runs.

I thin the larger the group you are training with, the longer the total time in breaks.

When I'm doing a long run by myself, if I need to use the bathroom, I just duck into one quickly - I can be done in less than a minute. But when you have a group that stops at the bathroom, you need to wait for each person to take their turn. If you're running in a group of 6-7 people, that can add up.

And then of course you get a few miles down the road and the one person who didn't go before realizes that he/she needs to go now, and that's another break. And so on and so forth.

As others said - if it's just a time on your feet at easy pace run, I really don't worry about it. For long runs with quality in them, I think it's much more important to limit or eliminate the breaks during the quality part. I sometimes see people do workouts that consist of intervals of 2-3 miles at marathon pace with 1 mile recovery....except that after each interval they stop their watch, do some stretching, hit the bathroom, refill their water bottles, and then start the one mile recovery. And they can't figure out why the paces they hit in those workouts are not reflected in their race performances....

For myself, if I need to stop for the bathroom or water or shoe-tying during a marathon pace workout, I keep the watch running. Just like the clock would keep running in a race.