How in the name of God can I do the same pace every time

pug_

Right. Here's my problem. I'm going out 3-4 times a week now doing roughly 3 miles each time, but I just can't get the same pace two days in a row. Sometimes I start off too fast and spend half the time walking due to knackering myself too early, the other half I go too slow and I don't feel like I've accomplished anything by the time I get home. Only every so often do I get the right balance and set out at a pace that keeps my heart rate up without feeling like I've just attempted hari kiri after 10 minutes or so.

Is there some knack to it, or is it just a case of keep at it and eventually I'll figure out what I should be doing?

I've considered getting one of them fancy looking forerunner watches, and even though they look like the bees knees for analysing your performance after a run I can't see if there's anything that'll tell me I'm going too fast or slow while I'm actually running.

Funkyzeit

pug_ wrote: »

Right. Here's my problem. I'm going out 3-4 times a week now doing roughly 3 miles each time, but I just can't get the same pace two days in a row. Sometimes I start off too fast and spend half the time walking due to knackering myself too early, the other half I go too slow and I don't feel like I've accomplished anything by the time I get home. Only every so often do I get the right balance and set out at a pace that keeps my heart rate up without feeling like I've just attempted hari kiri after 10 minutes or so.

Is there some knack to it, or is it just a case of keep at it and eventually I'll figure out what I should be doing?

I've considered getting one of them fancy looking forerunner watches, and even though they look like the bees knees for analysing your performance after a run I can't see if there's anything that'll tell me I'm going too fast or slow while I'm actually running.

Are you monitoring your HR ? If so what zones are you running in ? Also if you have an Ipod Nano the Nike+ is a handy way of tracking your pace.

kingQuez

Hi pug, when I started running my times were all over the place. I took to bringing no watch with me and instead aimed to run at a pace where I wasn't totally out of breath and could maintain that pace for whatever distance I was aiming at (2 or 3miles). Often it ended up with me having to walk because I was going too fast or ending a run feeling that I could have gone faster (like you describe)... but it eventually panned out and I got the balance right. For longer runs I found one of those nike+ipod attachments for my nano really handy; it wasnt calibrated quite right but it did give me an idea of if i was speeding up or slowing down, which helped with trying to keep the pace the same. Good luck with it

pug_

I don't monitor anything, I just go by how knackered I feel and every so often I'll have a feel of my pulse to see if it's pounding or not. Not very scientific I know.

I don't have an ipod either. I enjoy runs nice and quiet because with two small children I need a break from noise every so often

Maybe I should just get some kind of gadget to help me out until I get better at judging for myself.

--amadeus--

I don't think you need gadgets yet...

I'm reading Daniels Running Formula at the minute and one of the things he stresses over and over again is the importance of knowing exactly *why* you are doing each session, picking the point and adapting your pace and effort to suit.

As you get fitter (I'm assuming you're fairly new?) and start running races you'll do more specialist sessions that will involve greater or lesser effort and so faster or slower speeds. Some runners really struggle with this and find it hard to move out of a steady pace - I don't know about now but HM used to be like that; half or full marathons, flat or hilly, on or off road her pace was broadly the same (which was a great strength when she moved up the distances and into Ultras).

At the moment if you are running to build fitness my advice would be to do two runs at "conversational" pace. Hold teh effort at a point where you would easily enough be able to have a chat if you were running with someone. It'll probably feel quite slow but that's fine. Hold at that for a few weeks and gradually your speed will pick up. I wouldn't even bother timing these sessions at the moment.

Your third run I would work harder on, maybe drop the distance to 2 miles for a month or so and go out and push as hard as you can. Again I wouldn't time every single one of these but maybe one every other week. You should see improvements over time in your speed.

Then slowly build distance, add extra sessions, enter races, join Boards AC, run a marathon, do a tri, then an ultra and sign up for the MdS. Easy

RJC

If you want a cheap way to get a handle on your heart rate (and as such your effort) you could do what I did - go down to one of the German big discount shops and pick up a watch with a heart rate monitor for about €20. - I thought Aldi had them recently. For the information you need now - time, heart rate and calories burned - it will be perfect. I only went over to garmin last Christmas after 3 years with a Lidl watch.



In terms of effort - I'd start off doing slow runs. The feeling of running out of steam from running too fast can be off putting to say the least as you can't get a feeling for how well your doing.

tunney

Just get out and run, leave the pace calculators, the heart rate monitors and even the stopwatches at home. If you are only starting to run get out and relax and enjoy it!

--amadeus--

tunney wrote: »

Just get out and run, leave the pace calculators, the heart rate monitors and even the stopwatches at home. If you are only starting to run get out and relax and enjoy it!

Careful Tunney, that's 2 threads now where you've broadly agreed with me :P

Esroh

tunney wrote: »

Just get out and run, leave the pace calculators, the heart rate monitors and even the stopwatches at home. If you are only starting to run get out and relax and enjoy it!

+1
Go at a pace to begin with where you could chat to a training partner if ya had one.If you can talk your not puffed out;).After a few days you'll have a good idea of your basic trime for the route.As ya get fitter you can get faster.

plodder

I agree with the previous posts. Why worry about pace? It's much easier to decide on a certain level of effort ...