 |
| I'm gonna feel like this guy after my 5k YIPPEE! |
Tomorrow I'm racing a 5K and I have every intention of running as fast as I can - right up to the point of feeling like puking. (Hellz yeah! How did I ever get to the point in my life that something like that even sounds like fun?)
Anyway -
Today, after having a crappy Weight Watcher weigh-in (up 2.8!) Yikes… (Still under goal but still…) I decided I needed to get a little extra run in today for at least a little calorie burn.
I decided not to aim for miles but rather for minutes. I decided to aim for a light pace. I wanted to slow my roll and save most of my weekend effort for tomorrow. I tried. I failed. I thought the minute vs mile thing would help. Yet I still ran around my average speed of about 10:40 per mile - I was trying to run more like an 11min mi. 10:40 is still pretty speedy for me. My best 5K is around a ten minute mile. Every time I would try to slow down it felt like I was dragging, practically walking. The crisp air and sunny skies begged for me to pick up the pace.
While I wasn't running my hardest, balls-to-the-wall and it was only a 3.5 mile jaunt - I still think there is something to the whole question of why it's so hard to slow down. I mean there was a time in my life where I would have preferred to run slow that pushing myself to run fast just sucked.
I don't know.
Who woulda thunk this could be such an issue?
But selective and strategic slowing down is (from what I understand) crucial to running success - especially in long distances. We all saw what happened to Mary Keitany who decided she wasn't going to slow her roll at the beginning of the ING NYC marathon. It was her race to lose and she did. The commentators frittered about her way fast start and indeed it was her undoing.
 |
| no slow roll here |
And the commentators were right but I don't think there's a runner out there that didn't understand Mary's heart.
Now, I don't think my whopping 10:40 3 mile run today is going to affect my race tomorrow one way or another - and I don't think this was so super fast or anything. Just brought up some interesting observations about trying to find the right balance between speed and distance.
If you want to run faster, you've got to run faster :) So there's obviously 'right' training times for speed work too.
What about you? Do you find it tough to slow down? Do you ever train at a slower speed? Have you ever faced this issue in a half or full marathon? Has running too fast ever bit you in the ass?
Inquiring minds.
Have a great Saturday!!
XO
Jen
12 comments:
Um, I always train at a slower speed... much slower. Except for once a week on speedwork days. My normal training pace is even slower than my marathon pace. There is a very detailed science as to why this is a good way to train... it has to do with developing your aerobic capacity.
Lesley, I do consider you an expert. I guess, for me, I have to at some point seriously consider coaching or finding at least a good book. I'm very 'willy nilly' with training. There is no rhyme or reason to my training sessions right now. But knowing when to focus on speed and knowing when to focus on distance might be an answer.
Um, can I possibly slow down anymore?!?! HaHa!
Running fast always bites me in the ass at shorter races - like a 5K. I start out at a 12:00 or something and by mile 0.5 I think - Woo, I've got this for the race!" Then by mile 2 I crash. I need to work on that, I guess.
Good luck tomorrow, speedy! Can't wait to hear about it. :)
Thanks Sara! Will report back :)
Sara - there's definitely an art to learning your pace!!! And a second art to learning how much you can suck up pain. ;-).
Have a great race Jen. I'll be racing too.
Thanks, Lesley! You have a great race too!
And it's true, every 5K I get a wee bit better at sucking up the pain. lol
I think it somewhat of so called horse shit to say that she should have slowed down at the beginning of the race so that she had more in the tank. How in the world do the announcers know what paces she was training at? How do the announcers know what her HR was? I mean give me a break. All experts yet they are behind the mike and not on the course.
For me you have to train fast to race fast. PERIOD.
Yes, there are days when you will be slower which is what you do on hill repeats. Those are naturally going to be slower.
When you do interval training you will have slow recovery periods but the intervals are fast and overall it may look slow b/c those recovery periods are practically walking.
Tempo runs may not be at marathon pace, but they sure as hell better be fast. if your tempo pace is 1 min/mile slower than your marathon pace how in the world will you know that you can give that work at marathon pace for that long?
I know there is a lot of literature on going slow to go fast but I'm beginning to not buy it. I raced a 70.3 as hard as I could and ran a 1:53 half-marathon. I then ran 18 miles less than a week out and ran them at a pace of 7:51/mi. Then during the week I ran a 13.1 mile training run and ran it at 7:36/mi pace. That next weekend I ran 18 total miles with 5 miles before a race and then a 13.1 race at 7:31/mi. No slow days in there for me but getting faster. What does science say about that?
My HR on those 'slow' days was 155 and on race day was 171.
If you recover properly then you can go as hard as you like in my opinion.
This is one of those where Jason and I will have to agree to disagree. He knows I love him. But just like he feels he's proven his theory, I feel like I've performed to mine. I can consistently train at 11 min per mile, except on Speedwork days which occassionally include tempos at 9:20s, and I consistently get faster and race faster than my training. I can still run 5ks sub-9 and 10k and 15k at just above 9s... Paces I only hit in small intervals during my once (rarely, but sometimes twice) a week Speedwork. I believe in the slow and building the aerobic systems and not tearing down the body. But I know there are other trains of thought, and respect that different things might work. I do wonder if some of the divergence may be tri vs. Just running. Since there are 2 other sports to focus on, perhaps when you are running, they need to be very focused. When you are solely running and building a base some of it is about getting miles on the legs without battering the body.
my experience has been when training for endurance and long runs-which means training at a lower HR and a slower pace but for longer periods of time, I got faster with out trying.
THEN
throw the speedwork in there and you have a great formula for building speed.
But that is MY experience and I am not a running coach.
Speedwork is necessary to learn turnover and economy. Distance is required to build stamina.
Some great food for thought, runners! Jennifer, thanks for your insight.
Jason & Lesley - I was interested to see what you both had to say on this subject and you didn't let me down with both compelling p.o.v's on this.
I guess there isn't a 'hard fast' rule on such a thing. I will continue to look into different schools of thought because I find this very interesting.
Thanks!
Jen
I think you should ask Santa for a Garmin watch instead of an iPhone. As far as life changing devices go it is A #1. One of the screens is a pace runner. She's on top and you are below. You can set it for long steady runs, speed work, tempo runs. Anything you can imagine and more.
Ang, I might need to add the Garmin to the list for sure!!
Post a Comment