Run more until 7:30 is your easy pace.

Seriously though, I don't have any great advice but I find the same to be true. When I start getting over 8:00/mi my form starts to deteriorate to the point where I feel significantly more prone to injury at an 8:30 pace than in the 7:30-7:50 range. Mainly it's my calves, which I think is due to the longer ground contact time. McMillan puts my "easy" pace between 7:23-8:24 (Daniels is a smaller range but falls right in the middle of McMillan) so I generally stick to a 7:40-7:50 pace for easy runs. I don't follow McMillan specifically so I don't use their "recovery" pace (8:29-9:12), I just try to keep the RPE for easy runs in the 2-4 range. I've noticed that when I hide my watch and just run at what feels like a comfortable pace, I almost always end up somewhere around 7:45. I don't train by heart rate so I don't worry too much about zones, although that usually puts me in the high Z2/low Z3 range. Probably a bit high but I find it's the best balance between maintaining form, preventing injuries, and keeping the effort easy enough to maintain training volume.

Believe me, it's not like it's hard, I just feel like Barry P would be disappointed.

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

Same here. Running 7 min/mile my form is fantastic. Running 7:30 it's still okay. 8 min/mile the form begins to deteriorate. My easy pace is about 8:30 and at that pace my form sucks unless I'm very methodical and deliberate and make a conscious effort to keep a good form. It never lasts and in a few minutes I catch myself hobbling.

I run on the treadmill a lot, where there are mirrors.

Good running form is my goal no matter the pace, from threshold (5:40+/-) up to so-easy-it-kind-of-sucks 8:30+ pace.

What is the difference in those strides/gaits for you other than stride distance? Does your arm carriage change? Torso posture? What is changing?

I'm the same way. I feel very comfortable in the low to mid 7's and when I slow down to 830ish it hurts my upper hamstrings. My stride becomes a shuffle, overall posture/form gets bad. I need to focus more on my form on easy runs.

Snort! I love this forum! My "dear god I'm going to die pace" is around 9:00 / mi...

The problem is you skinny guys have no padding. I can run 12/mi forever and not get injured!

On the treadmill I do one minute on and one minute off for about 30 minutes to build coordination. So that could be 7:50 pace for a minute followed by 8:30 for a minute. Really like the feel. As part of a brick might start at 9:00 pace going up .4mph and then down .3mph to gradually get into 8 and 7 pace.

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Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

Just avoid easy runs for a while. I had a similar issue where running slower than 7:00 would flare up my ITB. The nice thing about being a triathlete is that you can get the aerobic base from the bike.

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