I listened to you and it paid off!

[Decker]

First of all thank you to everyone who replied to my last post titled mental blocks. I got a lot of great advice mostly to slow down my pace to allow for distance. I took the advice and used a 150 BPM slower playlist and just ran to that with no timer. And guess what? I was able to runfor almost 42 minutes this way without even realizing it! The music kept me from speeding up which I wanted to do a number of times. Though I feel good now, I'm going to take a couple of days off as that was quite a long run for me. I'm so pleased and thankful to be part of such a great group of people.

[Sandraj39 Graduate10]

Brilliant, Decker! Really pleased for you😀

[Decker in reply to Sandraj39]

Thanks Sandra. The advice on this board is gold!!

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate10]

Very, very well done you!! Love those longer runs

[Decker in reply to Oldfloss]

Thanks Floss!

[Cliff_H Graduate10]

Well done, works doesn't it

[Decker in reply to Cliff_H]

It really does.

[Decker in reply to Cliff_H]

I hope to someday get to 10 like you did! Never would have thought any of this was possible last year this time.

[IannodaTruffe Graduate10]

Well done. The lessons keep on coming, for all of us.

Have a look at this Decker. runnersworld.co.uk/rws-trai...! You are probably doing what most new runners do..........running much too fast most of the time. There is a place for fast runs, but you will develop more roundly as a runner if you keep your pace down for the biggest proportion of your runs.

You won't lose the speed.

[antet in reply to IannodaTruffe]

Wow the calculator is an eye opener! My easy run pace should be much slower - thanks for sharing this. Food for thought as my run today felt like I was running too fast.

[Decker]

Thanks Iannoda - yes it started when I started running without the podcast, I gravitated to running too fast. This is a great resource, thank you!

[damienair Administrator]

Well done. I'm about to start upping my runs now. I have spent the last couple of months of 5K consolidation and some interval training. Last night I ran a timed 1mile on the track and did it in 8:51. I'm now ready to start increasing my distance. I'm going to relax my pace now and concentrate on distance over the next 2 months. I'll be following you.

[Decker]

Thank you Damien! Yes it sounds like you are ready to move on to the longer distances. That's a great time! The hardest thing for me is slowing down. The 150 bpm music really is helping to keep me in that zone. I'll be following you as well. Maybe we can keep each other motivated!

[damienair Administrator in reply to Decker]

Sounds like a plan.

[misswobble Graduate10]

Yay! Well done 🙂💪👍🏃✔️

[Decker in reply to misswobble]

Thanks to your wise advice!

[Anniemurph Graduate10]

Excellent! Pleased for you, well done

[Decker in reply to Anniemurph]

Thanks Annie! Your idea to forget the time and run an adjusted route really helped. I left the timer at home and just tagged a different longer section onto the front end of the run, then did my regular route after that and it worked for me with the slower pace.

[Anniemurph Graduate10 in reply to Decker]

Brilliant! Glad it worked for you. Once you've conquered the gremlins once, they never get quite the same grip again

[Irishprincess Graduate10]

Fab to read. Well done 🙂

[Decker in reply to Irishprincess]

Thanks Irishprincess! Slowing down really made the difference.

[mrrun Graduate10]

Ha! Told you, the slower you go the further you get

I also manage to avoid another potential chore, I call it 'a drummer's foot'. I never, ever follow the beat of the music that I'm listening to when running. I carefully choose the albums, I match the songs with the mood, the weather and the environment but I simply refuse to follow the drummer Sometimes he's slowing you down, at times he's speeding you up, and depending on how you feel that can be a lung busting, thigh burning issue. I simply use my music to colour the overall vibe and had some of the faster runs by listening to Miles Davis (forgive me, Miles, wherever you are Also, by simply letting the sounds fill me in, long distances aren't that long any more and yesterday's 70 minutes over 10k felt like a very pleasant gig. Enjoy!

[Decker in reply to mrrun]

Haha yes you and everyone else were right! 😀 Maybe I'm too wired to music, but if it's a tune I am into, then I slowly start to run to it. If I don't, its like swimming upstream and drives me mad. That's why I had to find a 150 bpm playlist. Its fun though. I do zone out to the right music too.

[Hidden]

Wow- that's great, well done

I aspire to running your slowed down pace. only little legs though....

[Decker in reply to Hidden]

Thank you though Im learning slowly that pace doesn't matter for distance running!

[Hidden in reply to Decker]

Today I took a page from your book, turned it round and looked at it askance.... so instead of my usual very slow pace, I put on some banging tunes and ran 4K in 30 minutes which, for me, is fab! So thank you Decker 😊

The best thing about this forum is that we can learn from each other 👍😊🏃‍♀️

[Decker in reply to Hidden]

Boom 💥 there you go. Amazing! Nice job Helen! Music makes the difference doesn't it?

[Hidden in reply to Decker]

It has its place!!!!!