Find Your Pace – Hmm… I think (for any U2 fans) I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For 🤔

[Birdlady64]

The only time I could fit in a run today was at lunchtime. With little spare time I decided to try one of the shorter NRC guided runs. I opted for “Find Your Pace” - a 15 minute guided run to help you find out what 10k pace, 5k pace, mile pace and “best” pace means for you. Lots of interval workouts and tempo runs seem to talk about these, but I’ve no idea what that really means in practice, so why not?

The workout was as follows:

5:00 warm up , 2:00 @ 10k pace, 1:30 @ 5k pace, 1:00 @ mile pace , 0:30 @ best pace with 1 minute recovery intervals in-between.

So...

I set off on my warm up at what feels like a slow comfy pace. Then Coach Cory Wharton-Malcom tells me this should feel like an effort level of 3/10 where 1 is really no effort at all and 10 is flat out maximum. Whoa! I’m way too fast again then. Slow down Diane!

After 5 minutes I'm instructed to pause the workout and stretch etc. I press pause, but opt instead to continue on by walking for a couple of minutes.

I restart the workout and time for the 10k pace interval. I learn that this should be an effort level of 6/10. It feels about right for what I’m doing 👍.

After 2 minutes and another 60 second recovery interval I’m instructed to run the 5k pace at an effort level of 7/10 – really? That seems quite high.

After 90 seconds of running and another 60 seconds walking (this is starting to feel like the early weeks of c25k!) I’m told to run the mile pace interval at an effort level of 9/10. I give it nearly everything. This 60second interval feels long! 🥵

Another 60 seconds of walking and I try to go flat for 30 seconds – my best pace. Why oh why does this coincide with an uphill stretch? 🤬

The workout ends and I stop NRC and also pause my watch.

I did quite enjoy this run, but at only 15 minutes it feels like a bit of a cheat. After the workout I carried on around the block, at what I think is my comfy pace, for another 1.3km to reach home. I’ve no idea about the stats for this part as I didn’t record it on my watch as I forgot to restart it.🤦‍♀‍

I think this run completely confused my Garmin - unsurprisingly the laps/splits make no sense at all. On the other hand Garmin also liked this run - VO2 Max is unchanged but my fitness age has decreased by one year.

For the record, NRC recorded my pace for the running intervals as follows (Annoyingly its in minutes and seconds per mile so you have to convert it but hey ho!):-

Warmup7:49/km

10k pace7:52/km

5k pace8:01/km

Mile pace6:16/km

Best pace6:06/km

Hmm – somethings a bit odd there. My warm up is faster than both my 10k and 5k pace, and my 10k pace is faster than my 5k pace 😕. I think my school report would say “could do better”.

[Maz1103 Graduate10]

I did almost exactly the same today on NRC but it was called 3 2 1 go. Quite nice to speed up for a while

[Birdlady64 Graduate10 in reply to Maz1103]

I must try that one

[Maz1103 Graduate10 in reply to Birdlady64]

It sounds the same but with a different name to be honest. It's all I can cope with after work 😂

[Cantsoimgonna Graduate10 in reply to Birdlady64]

Sounds like a fun run. I opted for nrc rain run today!

[Hedgehogs123 Graduate10 in reply to Maz1103]

Must try that one, sounds a good one!😁🏃‍♀️

[RacingintheStreet Graduate10]

Well done 👍 it’s the kind of thing I feel I ought to try for the 15 min short runs .My pace confuses me at the best of times though 🙄 but I’d maybe ‘ learn by exploring’ 🤷🏼‍♀️

[Birdlady64 Graduate10 in reply to RacingintheStreet]

Yes that's what I thought.In hindsight I'm not sure if the intervals were long enough to actually get a proper "feel"

I expect it will come with time, after all I'm still a rookie runner

[Beatlesforever Graduate10]

Sounds like a good run! 👍👏👏 I'll give it a go this weekend, I think. I'm always confused when they talk about 1 mile pace, 5k pace, 10k pace etc. I only seem to have two paces: slow and even slower 🤣

[Birdlady64 Graduate10 in reply to Beatlesforever]

Yes well I am not convinced that I am any the wiser really having done it. 🥴But it was a fun run to try.The coach talks a lot in this one so I found it better without music so I could hear him properly. it's only a short run so I didn't miss it

[Beatlesforever Graduate10 in reply to Birdlady64]

Ah, thanks for the tip, I always run with music and get annoyed when the coach talks too much 😅 I've signed up for the HM challenge so I do want to try to become more aware of different paces. Being a short run it will work with my new Garmin training plan 👍

[Hedgehogs123 Graduate10 in reply to Beatlesforever]

Haha same as me, I have very slow, slow and a little bit quicker!! 😂😂🏃‍♀️

[Beatlesforever Graduate10 in reply to Hedgehogs123]

Haha yes, it's either 🐌 or 🐢 for me, maybe also either of those on caffeine (aka slightly faster)🤦‍♀️ 🤣🤣

[Hedgehogs123 Graduate10 in reply to Beatlesforever]

😂😂🦔🦔

[Hidden]

I'm staying out of this one 🤪 it's all a bit confusing for me! What I'd like to say though is you're giving everything a right good go so well done 😀😀 making time to run is so important and you're doing just that.

[Birdlady64 Graduate10 in reply to Hidden]

Ha ha! It was confusing for me too and I'm not sure if I am much the wiser afterwards. I just thought I'd give it a go. It was fun to try but not sure if I'd repeat this particular run. It's difficult when time isn't your friend but I wanted to run yesterday.

Thanks for the encouragement again!😁👍

[Roxdog Graduate10]

I missed this post! You really are running so consistently and nothing seems to stop you getting out there!This all sounds a bit technical, but we'll done - getting these experimental short runs in is a good idea I think.

[Birdlady64 Graduate10 in reply to Roxdog]

Thanks.I really wanted to get a run in yesterday and this one was interesting and fun to try.

It was short enough so I got back stretched and made lunch before getting back to work. However I did spend most of the afternoon still in my running kit. Thankfully no Zoom or MS Teams meetings 😂

[Roxdog Graduate10 in reply to Birdlady64]

A day full of Teams and Zoom meetings coming up for me! Suppose I might manage a few steps here and there! 😂

[Hedgehogs123 Graduate10]

Good post! I keep meaning to do the NRC Find my Pace, as I have no idea what my 1km or my 5km and 10km pace, it always depends on how I feel on the day of the run. Definitely getting stronger but feel I need two days rest after a 10km run, which I find annoying, but it's my hips that hurt, definitely need some strength training or more yoga!😁😁🏃‍♀️

[Birdlady64 Graduate10 in reply to Hedgehogs123]

Hmm yes well I think I am only fractionally wiser. I guess it comes with time. I've still only done one 10k so it's not much to judge by.I definitely need more rest between the longer runs and keep meaning to try yoga but as a total novice, with minimal flexibility, it's a little intimidating

[Hedgehogs123 Graduate10 in reply to Birdlady64]

I'm fairly new to yoga too, but I have arthritis in my lower spine and yoga really helps, so I only do gentle stretches. I've only done 2 x10km runs so, hence no ideas what my Pace is. I keep looking at the cadence of everyone on here and mine is better 161 - 180 so again I have no idea if that's good or bad! There's some great yoga stretches on YouTube which is my go to rather than classes particularly at the moment. Just go for a gentle beginner class, you'll be glad you did I'm sure.🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️