Run Run Run

i know that some days i've got it, and some days i don't. usually the days that i don't, if i think about it, i can figure out what my body is trying to tell me to rest or recover from.

anything come to mind...?

I think that I have a hard time running with patience. Somedays my first mile is slow and other days it's fast. I'm hard on myself when I see that the first mile run was 7:45 or 8:00. Even though I'm logging low miles I need to understand that eventually my running will evolve and the small stuff won't bug me anymore.

Basically I need to pull on the reigns a little concerning my fixation with time.

nevs, give him the speech about your 16 minute miles...

everyone has to warm up. from my experience, you would do better to run 1 or 2 miles warm up at a slower pace and then kick it into gear for a few miles before doing a cool down. but, what do i know?

You're right KP. Whenever I start slower I always have a more enjoyable run.

There is no way Nevels ran a 16 min mile? Can you even walk a 16 min mile?

i apologize in advance for this somwhate long-winded rambling post...

i guess my first suggestion would be to not wear a watch on your easy runs (we runners tend to be a bit addicted, i know... yet another reason i'm somewhat opposed to garmins and other gadgetry...)

in all honesty, my first mile is often much much much slower than my average pace for any given run. usually, my first mile falls somewhere in between 7:45 and 8:30, sometimes a little faster or slower, and my overall average pace for a standard easy mileage day is usually anywhere between 6:45 and 7:30.

i'm an engineer, so let's play with the numbers a bit... i'm fairly confident that with a solid effort i can drop a 16:30 5k, which averages out to a 5:19/mile. if i run an 8:15 first mile for a training run (which happens quite often), it amounts to a 176 second slowdown per mile, or a 55.17% slowdown for the first mile. using the same logic, assuming that you can run a 21:00 5k (6:46/mile avg), adding 55% for the first mile would be 10:30. don't sweat a 7:45 or 8:00 first mile. truth be told, when i run my little 5-mile morning shakeout run, i have averaged right at 8/mile several times.

a little more practically speaking, my run today was 9.1 miles in 1:06:08, which averages to 7:16/mile, which is still a 37% slowdown from my projected 5k race pace for the average (as opposed to the first mile calculation from above). extending the same calculation to your projected race pace, your average pace might be 9:16. the way things often work out for me is that i start slow, as kp mentioned, generally running the first 1 or 2 (or 5 or 6) miles slower than the average pace, and let my body warm up on its own and find its own pace. i typically don't consciously pick up the pace in an easy mileage run, but my pace keeps dropping the farther i go. sometimes it takes a mile for the pace to start dropping and i'm flying at 30 seconds/mile under my avg pace by the two mile marker, and sometimes it takes 6 or 7 miles for me to really get into a rhythm. let your body find where it needs to be based on the effort exerted; it's pretty good at it...

recalling my xc training in high school (ironically enough, most of which was done on roads or an asphalt track...), the training program was entirely pace driven, so we were VERY anal about hitting our paces. one year my pr was a 22:58, and most of my easy mileage was done at a 9:00-9:30 pace. the next year (after i had developed a little better base of mileage), i was always shooting for easy runs averaging 8:00/mile, maxed out at 50-55 miles/week over the summer base-building period, and i managed to hit an 18:40 5k. granted, i did speed workouts and enjoyed doing them (still do, to some degree...), but the bulk of my mileage was long and slow. the next summer, i was running 7:00/mile (which, in retrospect, was probably too fast for base mileage, but live and learn, i guess...), maxed out at 72 miles/week, and managed a 16:57 5k.

so take all that for whatever it's worth (probably not all too much; there are folks on this blog much smarter than me...), but my best advice, and what has probably freed my training (and improved my ability to race well), is to not focus on the time. if it keeps bugging you, as i mentioned before, leave the watch at home. i have plenty of times.

one more note is that recovery is the most overlooked and ignored aspect of training. we runners always feel like we have to get out and pound the pavement and think that we'll lose whatever we've gained by sitting out for a day. trust me when i say that recovery (in one form or another) is where the benefits of training occur, and if you never let your body recover, all that ends up happening is the gradual breakdown of various bits, pieces, and giblets inside of you that will eventually lead to an overuse injury, which i can definitely say from firsthand experience, suck. (case in point, notice that i only mentioned 3 years of high school pr's. i got a stress fracture a month or so after that 16:57 which took me out for 2 months and caused my senior year to be slower than my junior year...)

and for the infamous 16min/miles... within the last year, i have run a race where my average pace was 16:35/mile, and i can assure you that there were points in the race where i was unable to maintain 20 minute miles...

again, sorry about the long post...

Thanks Nevels! Good stuff. Have a great weekend.