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Running slow
Greetings fellow runners! I've been "lurking" around this forum from time to time since I met Andy at the 2002 Chicago Marathon. Living in the US I enjoy a different perspective and hearing about the different races in this forum from time to time. The eloquence of many of the race reports is amazing! I almost forget I'm reading about someone running a race. Unfortunately, I'm lucky if I keep my spelling errors to a reasonable level.
As for the "slow running," I think it really depends on what you're trying to accomplish. If you're training for a marathon, slower runs are very important. They enable you to run more miles without getting injured and they teach your body to endure longer periods of running. If you're training for a 5k or 10k the slower runs are far less important. As Debbie stated, the more slow running you do the more difficult it becomes to go fast. I ran 4 marathons this year so I spent a lot of time running slowly. It worked fine for the marathons but if I were to try to run a 5k right now my time would be disappointing to say the least. Between this year's marathons I ran an 80 mile 8 person relay in April and a 100k 5 person relay in September. The legs of each relay were about the same distance - approximately 5k to 10k each. My times from the April relay were about 1:00-1:15/mile faster than the September relay. I attribute most of that decline to a summer spent running longer, slower distances in preparation for marathons. That being said, slower running has it's place but the amount of time spent on slower runs needs to be based on what your ultimate goal is. Now that I'm hanging up the marathon shoes for a while I plan to spend the winter trying to regain the speed I lost. For non-elites such as ourselves, to train for endurance and speed at the same time is very difficult. Speed usually comes at the price of endurance and edurance comes at the price of speed.
Thanks again for the refreshing views you all provide! I'll slither back into the shadows now.
Cheers,
Rick
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