|
Running slow
Yes, it will be my first marathon (if I get in). And I have been attempting to sort of base train since reading about it on RW and completing the Windsor half (where, BTW, I ran 8:30 minute miles).
I say 'sort of base training' because this has been somewhat erratic. I started off using the '180-age' formula bandied about on the 'Base Training' thread on the RW website and advocated by Phil Maffetone and Mark Allen as 'scientically based' (although they gave no indication on how this had been determined). I'm 34 so this worked out to 146 bpm. I found it totally impossible to keep my HR this low, particularly as it's fairly hilly where I live and at that HR I was having to walk up every hill, even a moderate incline. I allowed myself an extra 5 bpm (as I was training 4 times a week). I could just about cope with 151 bpm except on hills, where I let my HR creep up to about 155-160 so as not to walk. I stuck at this for about 2 weeks but my usual 8-8:30 minute miles were turning into 10+ minute miles, and I wasn't enjoying my running. For a start, I found that running so unnaturally slowly was putting more pressure on my knees and hips than my normal pace.
So I decided to experiment - and have been running 150-160 bpm for an easy run, 155-165 for a moderate run, and leaving the HRM at home for the faster runs! But since Windsor, and a week off then really slow training for 2-3 weeks, I've found that my previous comfortable pace of 8-8:30 minute miles feels quite hard - certainly much harder than it did before.
This may be because I'm now running more than the 4 sessions a week I used to do (before I'd generally have a recovery day in between each run, so always ran on 'fresh' legs) or it may be that I've now got used to the slow pace so anything faster automatically feels more difficult. I realise that if I'm training for a marathon it's going to be necessary to run longer and therefore slower (previously, apart from my long run which got to 12 miles at the furthest, none of my weekday runs exceeded 5.5 miles).
I guess the answer is to increase mileage on all my runs, doing this slowly, but work in a few tempo sessions here and there just to keep a bit of speed going. I guess I'll inevitably lose some speed but I'm just scared I won't be able to get it back! That said, I've also read that just doing more miles (all other things being equal) will lead to increased performance over shorter distances (well, it worked for Paula)!
Thoughts, anyone?
|
