I have a good friend who is 55, male, and a highly ranked masters runner in his age group on the national level. He has a long history of injuries and has not been able to make it through a whole season without a minor injury sidelining him. His 5k pace is around 5:20/mile, 10k pace sub 5:40, 15k pace sub 5:50. Yes, he is really fast for a 55 year old. He runs his everyday aerobic training runs at sub 7:00 pace, often averaging 6:45/mile for 8-10 mile runs. I have told him that it is too fast and he is breaking down, but he insists that the pace is conversational and easy for him. He has run 1:13 for a half marathon as recently as a few years ago as a 49 year old.

For those of you who are running 5k 16:30 or faster, how fast are your regular training run paces? I just think 90 seconds slower than 5k pace is too fast for a 55 year old to be running day after day. I would rather see him slow that pace down to 7:30 and cruise, to see if he can stay healthy through a whole season.