What’s my pace?
18 July 2016 - By Rachel Pearsons
Trying to judge what pace to run at is a lot harder than we think. Not only are we aiming to improve our speed and endurance, we need to balance this with nutrition, hydration, recovery, strength work and cross training. We need to change our trainers on a regular basis (Ooo!! How many of you have now just realised those trainers should have been changed months ago!!), see the physio and all of this to keep in tip top condition when chasing those sought after PB’s.
So, how is the best way to judge your pace? The simple way is to go with what feels right for you. If you are feeling tired, then don’t push yourself to do that tempo run. Just go for a nice and enjoyable run that won’t result in injury!
As with most things with running, there is no hard or fast rule. We are all individuals and our bodies respond differently. However, there is a guide for you all to help with choosing your pace.
Effort session – this is the pace you can only sustain for 6-10 minutes. Breathing is hard and heavy. You cannot speak a word. This pace should only be used when interval training.
Threshold pace – is around your race pace. Breathing is hard but controllable. You are able to maintain technique and maintain this pace for around 40-60 minutes before starting to feel fatigued.
Tempo run – this is moderately faster than your natural jogging pace. You should be able to hold a reasonable conversation. Breathing should be slightly challenging, but nothing too difficult.
Recovery/Long slow run – something that I’m sure isn’t done enough!! A very easy pace. Breathing is very comfortable and a full conversation can be held. You should finish this run feeling as though you’ve not made a conscious effort to run.
So for those among us who love statistics and figures, I’ve based some min/mile times for a runner who runs 5 miles in 40 minutes. Here’s the examples;
Effort session – no limit. Run as hard as you can.
Threshold pace – 8 min/mile
Tempo pace – 8:15 min/mile
Recovery/Long slow run – 9 min mile
Improving our speed is not about pushing ourselves to the limit on every run. Elite runners will spend around 80% of their runs at the recovery/long slow run pace. Recent studies carried out in 2014 (Salzburg http://bit.ly/2a2U4TV ) showed that those runners who used the 80/20 easy/hard split improved their ‘time to exhaustion’ by 17.4% and change in peak speed by 5.1% over a 9 week period. Building up an excellent aerobic base is the key to what you build everything else upon.
As always, please speak to any of the coaching team for advice and we will do what we can to help!! Happy Running!!
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Really informative – thank Rachel.