Morning. Well today I did my slowest 5k but my body and mind thanked me for it!
After my 8k last week I was feeling rather fragile. For the first time my hips ached and my ankle was still a little sore.
Whilst reading through the many posts I was reminded of the slow jogging so took another look at the video.
Today I headed out and deliberately went slower and I can honestly say it was easier and more pleasurable. 5.05k in 35.21. To be fair my fastest is only 32.31 but I think with the slower pace this weeks 8k will be easier.
JaoJao may well be right when she says the shorter runs will soon become like a walk in the park, particularly if you are running at a walking pace 😂.
Yes we are all so different which is great and I take comfort knowing I’m not alone. It’s odd but I really felt I was hardly running at all but clearly I am 😀. It’s definitely the way forward.
I know you always hear people on here say slow down and slow down some more but I didn’t think I could actually go any slower.
Anyway I’m not now dreading my longer runs as I feel they are more achievable.
It’s exactly how I manage my long runs too. It makes them achievable as (for me) it reduces the effort - my legs tire eventually, but my breathing and heart rate are completely fine. I recover almost instantaneously which feels fantastic! 😀
Your 5k time would be a dream for me, even the slower one! I've been running since April , never thought I'd manage 5k at all but it's quite close to easy now. My time has come down from 46 minutes to 40 minutes but I'm still slow! But still running....
Hi. I don’t have a tracker that does heart rate I just use my phone but thanks for the tip.
It’s so interesting hearing what everyone says about speed as I honestly didn’t think I could go slower and still be running. I know we are all different / height, leg length etc and that all plays a part in our speed as well.
Just don’t rush things, enjoy the run and forget speed. In time speed will come, when I started C25K I thought I ran slower than I walked. The main thing is enjoying the run👍🏻
I love this post!!! I too am enjoying the new found delights of a slow run .... It’s a running revelation!! How slow can you go? Should be my running t shirt! I actually look forward to a run now! 😂
Since I got my Garmin watch a few weeks ago it made me realise how much my heart rate was in zone 5 (90-100% of maximum heart rate!) during a run. Looking at recent runs I was spending around 60% of the run in zone 5. So I've done a bit of research and are now slowing down with the aim of most of my run being in zone 4 (80-90% of maximum heart rate). In the short time I've been doing this I've found that I can keep running (jogging) for longer, as I'm not getting out of puff as quickly because I'm slowly down before that happens. Ok my pace has got slower but apparently in time my pace should improve and I should still be able to keep my heart rate lower. Fingers crossed 🤞
Fantastic, well done and a really good thing to be able to monitor. I really should think about getting one as I remember when I was a member of a gym some years ago the red light was often flashing in heart rate section!!
I very highly recommend getting one. I have only been running since the end of February and had been using Strava via my phone to monitor my runs/pace etc. Something weird happened in the summer and as much as I tried all the fixes I could find, the GPS was inaccurate for one run after another. So I bit the bullet and got a watch and love it! Mine is the Forerunner 35 which is one of the more basic Garmins but it does everything I need it to. It has its own App which updates within seconds of finishing a run but also updates to Strava and a few other popular apps too.
That's my nice comfortable 5K pace too, for those days when you just want to take it easy and enjoy the run. Also, I never have any aches and pains after a 7min/K run 😀
Sounds great. Not sure I’m at the enjoy running stage yet although I remember a 7k a few weeks ago before I was ill and had a sore ankle and I did enjoy that so it know I will feel it again one day 🤣
Yep I find there’s a huge difference between 32 and 35 in terms of what it takes out of me. I can’t always manage 32, even though my PB is below 31. But as long as it’s a flat route I can always manage 35 and feel I have something left. Sometimes if I want a challenge but know I shouldn’t be pushing it I just practice pacing as close to 35 as possible. My watch can display average pace for the run so far, and I just try to keep that as close to 7’00” as possible.
That sounds like a great idea and as lots of people say it is better to go slowly. Maybe one day we will get faster and maybe we won’t but it’s getting out there and doing it that’s important.
There is a time and a place for going fast if you want to. However, if you look at race training plans, without exception they specify that the majority of runs are done much slower than racing pace. If you want to get faster, then one run a week (the shortest one, usually) should include interval training or something like that, but the other two should still be slow. Running uphill (even if slowly) also helps speed on the flat.
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One week, three runs, 🥇5k, 🥈5k, + 🥇my first 10k!! 📣😁🦌🏃🏼♀️
5k & 8k 
Slowish 5k today
MY OLYMPIC CONTRIBUTION....
I’ve found my running legs!
