jack daniels “easy” pace always feels a bit hard to me.
Agreed. If I tried to do all of my easy days at that pace, I’d be a wreck on race day
One of the best things I’ve done for my running is get rid of the GPS and train mostly by feel – this certainly includes easy runs and even most intense sessions (at mile, 3K, 5K pace, etc.). I’ll use the GPS or do a track workout every so often and I race often enough to have a good sense of where my fitness is and what I need to do to move towards a certain goal (peak for a race, etc.).
I would highly recommend doing at least easy runs by feel, making sure that they really feel easy.
This is the kind of post that makes me wish this forum had a “Like” button
He did slow E/L pace down in the second edition of Running Formula.
I was recently advised to slow down my longer runs to about a 9min/mi because what I was doing (7:50-8) was too fast although it feels effortless. Well I did a few runs at this pace which was difficult and painful. I found myself going up and down in my stride more than forward. I also had a nice flair up of my ITbS. So back to what felt easy tonight and all is well.
Most people do their easy runs waaaay too fast. 7:15-7:30 is my usual casual run pace (90% of my run mileage is done at this pace). I ran a 1:12:59 half marathon a few months ago, FWIW.
Especially in running, you should make your easy days really easy and your hard days really hard.
THIS!!!
I’ve done some running with a 14.30 5k guy (happens to be a triathlete too) his easy runs are 5-5.10min K’s. Rule number 1 of easy runs, DONT look at pace. If I don’t have efforts, all that is on my garmin is time/distance. I have a lap counter set at 1k, just to make sure I am not going to fast.
Most people do their easy runs waaaay too fast. 7:15-7:30 is my usual casual run pace (90% of my run mileage is done at this pace). I ran a 1:12:59 half marathon a few months ago, FWIW.
Especially in running, you should make your easy days really easy and your hard days really hard.
This is definitely me. Bad habit of making my long runs always around 5:00min/km or faster with vdot calculator suggesting I should be around 5:18min/km
I dont normally get back from a long run without feeling that I worked pretty hard - silly training I guess. Trying to change by focusing more on “Is this pace easy?”
My easy runs? First off they are never easy they hurt. Plus I can’t make them stop and not being more than 20 feet from a toilet is in itself hard.
My easy runs? First off they are never easy they hurt. Plus I can’t make them stop and not being more than 20 feet from a toilet is in itself hard.
I just needed to quote this before you edited it.
So for my easy / recovery runs, an indicator I use is breathing. Generally when relaxed or doing basic tasks, we breath through our nose. When your body starts to demand more and more air, we start to breath through our mouth. I run to the point where I can still breath through my nose. Oh and breathing from the diaphragm and not the chest.
Are people ( or OP) in this post equating an easy run to a long run? My long runs are not at an " easy" pace ( although it feels that way at the beginning ) but I also have recovery runs that are at an easy pace.