[radiat]

hi,
this might be an odd question but when running, say 10km, should you aim to run at the same pace for the length of the run, or push yourself more at the start or end.

I always prefer to push myself on the second half, if i take it relatively easy at the start i know how hard i can go from about the 1/2 way mark. If that makes any sense.

[JohnnyCrash]

Originally Posted by radiat

hi,
this might be an odd question but when running, say 10km, should you aim to run at the same pace for the length of the run, or push yourself more at the start or end.

I always prefer to push myself on the second half, if i take it relatively easy at the start i know how hard i can go from about the 1/2 way mark. If that makes any sense.

Makes perfect sense If you go out too fast at the start,theres always the chance that you wont sustain it and blow up.

[macinalli]

It makes sense, but it's a conservative race strategy. To really get the best out of yourself you need to be pushing from the 1st km, but it takes time and racing experience to learn your limits and how to do this. If you go too easy for the 1st 5k then you're leaving time out on the course. If you go too hard then you can blow up and that's not pleasant. I think the you just need to race often to get a feel for this - no easy answer!

[RayCun]

Originally Posted by radiat

hi,
this might be an odd question but when running, say 10km, should you aim to run at the same pace for the length of the run, or push yourself more at the start or end.

Is this a race or a training run?
In a training run, most of the time you shouldn't be pushing yourself at all. Take it easy from start to finish.
If it's a race, you should be pushing yourself from the start, but as macinalli says you need to learn how far to go.

In both cases, you should be running at around the same pace throughout.

[Pisco Sour]

Originally Posted by RayCun

In a training run, most of the time you shouldn't be pushing yourself at all. Take it easy from start to finish.

Really? Surprised by this. How can somebody really get the most out of him/herself and make big improvements if he/she takes it easy in training the vast majority of the time?

[RayCun]

Originally Posted by 04072511

Really? Surprised by this. How can somebody really get the most out of him/herself and make big improvements if he/she takes it easy in training the vast majority of the time?

ecoli just posted about this yesterday

The old saying of practice makes perfect is true even in running. The best way to get better at something is to do it over and over. Some people use this approach when they start running. They go out 2-3 days a week and do X distance as hard as they can and in fairness they see rapid improvement. You will also hear people sometimes us the terms “racing will bring you on leaps and bounds” or elites talking about “racing themselves into shape” this is because races are the best training and the quickest way to improve.

So why is it that we don’t all go out and give it 110% in every run/session like so many football/rugby players etc are told day in day out at all levels of sport. The difference being that running is a condition based sport unlike many skills based ones such as football etc. This means that people can spend hours upon hours developing a skill to get better without taxing the body to the point of breaking down so skills can improve without putting stress on the body (or at least very minimal)

If you look to condition based sports you see that the improvement for the most part is predominantly physically based - i.e you get fitter/stronger/faster. The only way that this can be achieved is as a two part process – Stress and recover/Adapt. We need to work the body hard so that we can break down the muscle, which creates huge amounts of physiological changes in the body (muscle micro tears, change of PH balance in the blood etc). Once this happens in order to improve we must give the body sufficient time and fuel to recover.

If you think of it in terms of Weight lifting you don’t just start off lifting huge weights you build up. Your muscles are broken down through training and when you recover the muscles repair themselves and build back stronger (known as “supercompensation”) you body adapts to be able to take on a greater load the next time.

Without proper balance of training and recovery you cannot improve. If you don’t have adequate recovery the body will eventually breakdown (can be seen as injury or illness which are often associated with over training). Because of this we cannot race every run so we must break training down in order to give the body the same stimulus of a race with sustainable recoveries. This is where coaching comes into playing as each person reacts differently to different forms of training and recoveries which is why there is no one size fits all super training plan which all Elites use however there are some common elements of training which are known benefit the body in certain ways. This is where paces and recoveries come into play

From the sound of it, the OP is fairly new to running. The temptation at that stage is to try to do too much too soon - to run faster or further than they're really able for. You can do that for a while, but the fatigue builds up, you get injury-prone, you lose motivation. You go from running quite hard 3 times a week to not running at all. Much better to do some of your runs a little too easy, and still make steady gains, than to go a little too hard. The old adage about it being better to be 10% undertrained than 2% overtrained.

The more you run, the better you get at listening to your body, to know when you can push it and when you have to back off. The easy/hard alternation doesn't change, but you get better at knowing how easy to go, and still do the hard session right. In the meantime, 'too many' easy runs will still see the OP improve.

[TFBubendorfer]

Originally Posted by 04072511

Really? Surprised by this. How can somebody really get the most out of him/herself and make big improvements if he/she takes it easy in training the vast majority of the time?

If you don't then you might completely embarrass yourself if you try a marathon

[radiat]

thanks for the feedback all

[poskantor]

Originally Posted by RayCun

ecoli just posted about this yesterday

@RayCun - I think you've misunderstood the point he's making, he's not suggesting 'taking it easy' is a good strategy for improving your running, rather that getting the balance between high intensity and moderate/low intensity training is a good strategy - there's a big difference. Running will improve by putting stress on the body and then allowing it to recover.

[Pisco Sour]

Originally Posted by poskantor

@RayCun - I think you've misunderstood the point he's making, he's not suggesting 'taking it easy' is a good strategy for improving your running, rather that getting the balance between high intensity and moderate/low intensity training is a good strategy - there's a big difference. Running will improve by putting stress on the body and then allowing it to recover.

Agreed. I can't imagine how taking it easy the whole time, as quoted by Ray above, can possibly be beneficial to performance improvement. You need the hard sessions (as well as the easy ones) to really get the most out of yourself.

[robinph]

Originally Posted by 04072511

Agreed. I can't imagine how taking it easy the whole time, as quoted by Ray above, can possibly be beneficial to performance improvement. You need the hard sessions (as well as the easy ones) to really get the most out of yourself.

All depends what level you are talking about. For a begginner there is more to be gained by taking it easy all the time than there is by running hard all the time.

Best option is to mix things up a bit, but the newer to running that you are then the less use running a hard session will be. Taking it easy all the time is much better advice for the level we are on about here, when they come back with a question about how to knock 10 seconds off their time in order to get a sub 30 minute 10k time then you can tell them about doing some more harder sessions.

[RayCun]

Originally Posted by poskantor

@RayCun - I think you've misunderstood the point he's making, he's not suggesting 'taking it easy' is a good strategy for improving your running, rather that getting the balance between high intensity and moderate/low intensity training is a good strategy - there's a big difference. Running will improve by putting stress on the body and then allowing it to recover.

A lot of his post was about why you shouldn't run a 5k pace session at mile pace, that kind of thing, I agree. But the section I quoted was about why you shouldn't go out hard in every session, which is the point I was making.

I didn't say that every run should be easy, I said in a training run, most of the time you should be taking it easy. We could argue about 'how easy is easy', but a very common problem for beginners is that they run every run too hard, so I stress the easy bit.