Been a confusing week of running for me. Just for some background, I have never been much of a runner and have never had great cardio. Last year I did a 2000+ mile hike and my cardio was insane. I started running when I got back from the hike and decided for 2020 to try and run 2 miles everyday.
Anyway, I have been running right over 2 miles and have consistently been in the 7:45 to 8:15 pace. Usually sub-8:00. Then earlier this week I finished my run and noticed I had averaged 7:15 miles. I was sort of stunned and the next day I pushed a little and ran 7:15 again. I decided to really focus on pushing and ran a 6:55 pace this morning.
I have noticed since the beginning I can’t really predict my pace until I look at strava at the end. Some days I feel fast and the time is average or slow. Some days I feel slow and the time is faster than average. But now, I feel like I just wasn’t pushing at all.
Should I keep trying to run faster speeds? Should I just run longer distances? Any advice from the long-time runners here.
What you are doing now, is honestly probably one of the bigger mistakes that I made as a newer runner. I was constantly trying to run faster and faster, every week, in frequent runs.
If your goal is to run 2 miles every day, that’s up to you, but I really think rest days are very important.
I’ve been a very firm believer in the 80/20 rule. 80% of your runs should be at around 70-75% of your max heart rate, or, at a pace that you could have a steady conversation without being too winded.. I find this to be about 2 mins/mile slower than my half marathon pace.
Each week, you shouldn’t increase your mileage by more than 10%, and for many newer runners, I’d say even 10% every other week. You could consider increasing mileage one week, then doing the same mileage the following week, but increasing pace a little.
One week may look like:
Sunday: 10 miles, easy, 9.5-10 min/mile pace
Tuesday: 5 miles, medium, 8.5 min/mile pace
Thursday: 5 miles, easy, 9.5 min/mile pace
Friday: 1 mile easy warmup then: 1 mile at 6:50, walk a few minutes, repeat for about 3 miles, then 1 mile easy warm down
That’s how many of my weeks are structured, depending where I’m at in mileage. After a race my mileage will drop as I recover and then increase back up. This week I was at 26 miles at a similar format to the above. Next week will be an easy 22 miles as I wind back, then ramp back up again and pretty soon will increase to 5 days/wk as the mileage increases, capping at around 35-40 miles before my next half later this spring.
For comparison, peaking before my last half marathon, one of my “hardest” runs was at about a 7:50 pace for 7 miles.. When I tapered down for my half a couple weeks later and was 100% rested, my 13.1 mile race pace ended up at 7:43.. I never ran that pace for half that distance during my training.