My point with pain free is that I have found the best way the stay smooth and efficient is to relax through the pain.

But, My best runs start out super pain free, I feel I'm running (biking, swimming) well I am amazed at split times. There is usually pain at the end that I try to focus through.

I hate the short races for the same reason; pain barrier, and agree 100% that the only way to get faster it to throw yourself at this pain barrier over and over and over again.

Case in point:

in '03 and '04 I raced in an off-road DU (5k/10mile/5k). I posted a 2:06 and 2:04 for the two years. My run times sucked (over 30min on the 2nd run). I was constantly being passed during both runs. Pretty damn discouraging.

This year I really upped the quanity and quality of my running in the winter. Lots of quality intervals on a treadmill, and all runs at 1.5 elevation.

So at the the race this past weekend, I put up a 1:54 (10 min PR improvement) and was able to chase down several folks on the second run. This has NEVER EVER happened in the past.

The race hurt bad, but no worse than any of the training I had done up to that point.

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