I've been seduced - and I am trying to break it off!!

[Bazza1234]

I have studied many running plans and many training pace calculators. Most of the calculators ( eg Jack Daniels runsmartproject.com/calcula... and McMillans mcmillanrunning.com/ give you a pace for easy, long, tempo and fast intervals dependent on a current race time. The only training pace that exceeds race pace are the fast intervals.

Whenever I go to parkrun, most people are attempting to break or at least equal their PB's - and over the past 2 years , I have also gotten a bit seduced into this aspect of parkrun. But this year, I am intending to do some long events - certainly a HM , but I am also eyeing off a 35K and a full marathon. Most of my training therefore will involve easy running at easy pace, some marathon/half marathon race pace days and some tempo runs -- very few fast intervals , if any! So - logically I should be running 5k parkruns at my easy pace which is around 8 minutes perK (for a 30-33 minute past 5K PB - not that I am really capable of even that at the moment in summer!!) ) . So yesterday, I did a double parkrun - with a slow 37 minute first event and an even slower 43 minute 5K ( after I befriended a lady who was "struggling" and stuck with her, walking a fair bit of the way ( this is still "good" for me though!! ))

Anyway - my point is -- it was quite difficult to run at this slow pace when everybody else "zoomed off" - and I am sure that most there are thinking "What's the matter with Barry??" - but my running future will definitely revolve around slow long distance running ( run/walking) so I am sort of finding parkrun to be a little "incompatible' with this.

[turnturtle]

I am off to do a slow 13K run today as part of my Galloway half marathon plan Barry. He advocates 14minutes20 seconds per mile for me, which will embarrass me when it appears on my Strava log but as Jeff has slightly more experience than me of this running malarkey, I am going to go with it , swallow my pride and ignore the lack of trophies on my Strava run report!

[Bazza1234 Graduate10 in reply to turnturtle]

I think that Galloway is super-conservative with his long run paces. I believe that his plans are really aimed at total non-runners who are starting from scratch. So - using run/walk of 30/30 , I mostly did my longruns up to 20K at around 13 minutes per mile. At that pace and run/walk ratio I really didn't need to go any slower. I would recommend that you do a very slow pace at a low run/walk ratio that allows you to run "comfortably" with reasonably good form and manipulate your walking pace and period to give you an overall pace that you want to do and feel as though you could go forever. Even then at that very sustainable effort, you will get very tired as the distances build up. I was VERY tired at the end of my one and only HM (using 60/30 for the race itself)

[turnturtle in reply to Bazza1234]

Just got back after running 13K at 8.35 minutes per mile at 60:30. That's equivalent to 13.min 40 per mile, which is still faster than he advised me to go, but what the heck? I was comfortable at that and could have carried on running another few K. I did start having niggly hip pains about halfway through which is a bit concerning. I may revert to trail running rather than sealed road for a bit to lessen concussion.

This 13.40 is not the race pace he is suggesting though. That is supposed to be 12.20- much quicker than the training pace. How I am meant to bridge that gap I haven't found out yet. Maybe I should read through the entire plan...

[Bazza1234 Graduate10 in reply to turnturtle]

I think you mean 8:45 mins per K?? What race time are you working on to get his estimated race pace???

[turnturtle in reply to Bazza1234]

Agreed . Edited! I am aiming to finish the half marathon in 2 hours 30 mins. That means a pace of 7. 10 mins per K to be within spitting distance of it. I am working very hard on hills during the week. I will do this!

[Bazza1234 Graduate10 in reply to turnturtle]

But where have you got this idea of a 7:10 mins per K HM??? You shouldn't be plucking a goal race pace just out of thin air What have your best 5 & 10K times been?? They will point the way towards a "possible" HM race pace.

[turnturtle in reply to Bazza1234]

Not plucking anything out of thin air! My coach has looked at my race times and magic mile times and we have worked out these paces based on them .i simply convert to Miniutes per K because that is what I have always worked and think in. Excuse the typos. Lost my specs .

[Bazza1234 Graduate10 in reply to turnturtle]

OK - didn't know you had a personal coach So anyway - my recommended training pace based on a 5K time was very slow around 14-15 minutes per mile. I actually trained quite easily at around 13 minutes per mile and finished the race at less than 12 minutes per mile ( 2 hours 36 mins) - So don't worry about the difference between the slow training pace and your goal race pace - you will be OK if you have received good advice regarding a realistic goal time. Galloways training paces are around 2-3 minutes per mile slower than goal race pace.

[turnturtle]

My 'personal coach' is a a bit of a disappointment. It's supposed to be a six month personalised online Galloway coaching system for a half marathon, but in reality it just seems to be a computerised printout based on my weight age height and PB's for various distances. I have asked a few questions of 'Chris', my robotic coach but so far have had no response. I suppose you get what you pay for!

[Bazza1234 Graduate10 in reply to turnturtle]

OH well - it doesn't matter much anyway!! You can work it out for yourself really My personal philosophy is - how many days per week do I want to train?? Answer - 4 . Therefore I need one long run per week, plus two short easy runs plus one short speed run ( alternating between tempo paces one week and speed paces the next week) -- Longruns every week except after a certain time when they will only be every second week.

Longruns can be at any pace - provided I finish the run. Short Easy runs are a couple of minutes per klm slower than my fastest 5K race pace. The speed day is to be HARD - tempo pace for longer distances like Klm repeats - flat out for short distances like 30 seconds or 1 minute !!

At the end of the day, my only goal is to finish in the upright position!!