Here's something for people to ponder:


It's easy to run too hard but it's hard to run too easy

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

just so. Pace-shaming the 100/100s isn't helpful.. these runs should be slower than usual.

Triathletes follow other AG triathletes on Strava.. but follow real runners and average pace is in 7s

And how does that compare to their race paces? An average of 7:00 is probably quite easy for "real" runners, and doesn't mean that we all can or should do that, as many of the coaches here point out.

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The point is, ladies and gentleman, that speed, for lack of a better word, is good. Speed is right, Speed works. Speed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Even truer for swimming, but yeah. My runs have been averaging 830ish for this challenge. Doing the minimum so far. Mid-19s 5k shape, and that was averaging 12-15 miles per week with 1 short speed session.

I'm sort of following the MAF 180 - (Age + 5) beats per minute right now. That puts me at a 'cap' of 141 bpm, but I will go over that for a small part of each run depending on the terrain. I think that Amy and I will add in a short track session each week next week.

I've had a nerve issue in my knee, and I found a couple of nerve glides before this challenge that seem to be helping. I'd say that my knee is now about 90% where it's been 75%-80% for the past 4+ years.

I think though that if a Kenyan marathoner who runs 5ish mpm in a race can run 830-9 mpm on an easy run, everyone should be able to do so. I've been encouraging the few athletes that we coach to go easier on the non-key sessions. You can make the argument that if you've got less time to train it should all be 'harder', but then I think that the large majority of the training ends up being in no man's land all year. There's a time for that, but I don't think that it's now.

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Brandon Marsh - Website | @BrandonMarshTX | RokaSports | 1stEndurance | ATC Bikeshop |

I had an ITU guy running 31 flat off the bike while racing the conti cup circuit. His avg pace over a 6mo period was something like 7:45 mile.
Had another couple of LC guys running sub 1:20 & sub 2:50 off the bike same thing. most runs were slow.

I think a lot of time limited AG athletes would see larger gains if they slowed down + see a decrease in recovery costs.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

I think that's the first time I've seen that said around here...

I say that because it takes effort to swim easy, and some of the fastest swimmers in the pool can also swim the slowest...and still look perfect doing it.

Swim quietly, pay attention to what your hands are doing, where your eyes are looking, where bubbles are, etc. It's difficult to not just get in and thrash around.

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Brandon Marsh - Website | @BrandonMarshTX | RokaSports | 1stEndurance | ATC Bikeshop |

Ah, ok. Yes, I understand that.

Oftentimes, I feel like my cooldowns are the hardest laps in the pool (today was one of those days). Sometimes relaxing, slowing everything down, and staying balanced seems like the hardest of things. Other days, I get that nice "flow" and synchronized rhythm, and things just click. On those days, I come back to the wall feeling fresh, and the time is "surprising" for the slow/relaxed effort. Its funny, that seems to happen most often on speed-work days.

That's a coincidence... I did 8x800 yesterday, but in a warm room on a treadmill with a nice flat 1% incline.

Low 5s. 7s = 7:00-7:59

Anyway to break down the data to show who's runs have the largest variance in speed? I think I might be able to win that contest, ha

So 50% more time per mile than 5:15 ("low 5s") is 7:52:30/mile. IOW, they're running most of their miles easy too, it's just faster for them because they run more and longer because it's all they do. Triathletes racing in the 6-minute range training in the 8-minute range seems appropriate, and older/ more time-crunched ones training in the 9s is also right in line with that race-pace/ training-pace split.

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The point is, ladies and gentleman, that speed, for lack of a better word, is good. Speed is right, Speed works. Speed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Im glad you mentioned that!
With a 1.0% incline - treadmill running "effort" feels way fast compared to what my HR shows. Like 7.0 speed on the treadmill "feels" like an 8.0-8.5 on the real pavement.

Always thought this was just me being a super wuss

Treadmills can be quite inaccurate, too. I use a footpod, and have made a decent effort to calibrate my road pace / effort / HR and my treadmill pace / effort / HR. I adjust the incline on the treadmill to get the expected HR for the indicated pace from my footpod (eg 151 bpm = 8:30s). For my treadmill that's a 2-2.5* incline.

My treadmill pace indication is off by ~1 mpm. It reads 9:35 when I'm running 8:35.

I forgot to thank you for providing the information. As I mentioned earlier, it would be interesting to see how things progress as time goes on.

Two important factors to keep in mind are vertical ascent and temperature.

While I am primarily running slower to prevent injury, a number of my runs include a fair amount of elevation. Obviously this tends to slow things down. I am quite certain that this applies to many people participating in the challenge.

Second, for those of us a little farther north in the northern hemisphere, temperatures also contribute to slower times. Near or below freezing makes breathing deeply less than pleasant.

Anyway, I hope you continue post further information as the challenge progresses.

Ciao