wphamilton

I'll admit that it was kind of funny and weirdly satisfying to hear people gassing out, who'd bunched up in front at the start or sprinted out, while I was dogging it. There were 1364 runners there, so that part was objectively meaningless

But the "cross-training" is back on track with a trouble-free long run yesterday so I count it as a success.

wphamilton

Some more questions please, since all this advice has been spot on. AFAIK. I have followed the recommendations here and kept it up consistently, about 20-24 miles per week. My "long runs" are 8 or 10 miles, depending on how I feel. I am totally lost on the appropriate pace for the long run. Internet gurus advise everything from recovery pace to near threshold.

A few weeks ago my 10-mile run was 9:15 pace, which I think was pushing it for me at that distance. Several internet articles convinced me that I was doing it wrong, so this week I kept it at a low HR, ~150bpm, which was considerably slower and maybe wasted time. The problem is, my lung capacity is I suspect poor because I don't feel any lactate accumulation at any pace that doesn't get me winded quickly, which makes it difficult to decide on a lactate threshold.

I know that around 170bpm I'll get short of breath, and below that I can sustain it, so I want to use that as "aerobic capacity" and define thresholds around that. Makes sense? And given that, and my particular challenge, where to peg the HR range for the "long run"?

ddub

Not wasted time on a slow long run. We train the aerobic system with the long slow runs. The pace should be easy to maintain and shouldn't worry about heart rate, it's a poor predictor of training effort. The exception being maybe if you're at the pointy end of the elite runners. That said, your long runs teach your systems how to adjust to running for long periods, not how fast your going (walk breaks are even ok). Simply stated, the long runs make you stronger the shorter harder make you faster. Glad your running is back on track. Way to go.

StanSeven

As you mentioned, internet gurus (and just about every source you’ll find) are all over the place with training programs and schedules. I’ve tried just about everything out there and what I’ve found is success is largely personal - what works for some, works for many...but not everybody.

What has worked for me is one weekly long run at a comfortable talking pace (I ignore HR for this), a couple moderately paced tempo runs, and two speed days. If your goal is a 10K, the speed days consist of half mile intervals 15-20 seconds per mile faster than race pace goal. If your goal is a half marathon, the interval distance is a mile. Start with four intervals and increase depending on your motivation to 6-8. The other days are rest or easy rest like walking, swimming, or easy jogging.

wphamilton

That leaves a lot of leeway for do it the way you want! I bought a GPS watch mainly to keep a steady pace on long runs, but unfortunately the GPS doesn't work well in my forest path so - HR corresponds pretty well to pace on a given day.

wphamilton

Just thought I'd say, a year later from starting this, and I've been following all this advice, I did hit my 8-minute goal on this year's race. Well, technically not quite but grade adjusted pace was 8:03 so close enough. Any excuse to celebrate! Plus everything strengthened up enough to hold together. Now I feel like I can start training for better speed.

ddub

Well done! Throw in a speed day once a week or enter some short races. You'll learn what is tolerable and works for you. Again congrats.

wphamilton

Thanks. I'd rather do intervals than anything, strange as that sounds.