As I mentioned in a previous post I did very little running in the last 6 months of last year due one injury after another. This year too I have had a few persistent niggles which while not stopping me run have made progress a bit slower than I would have liked.
Today I was determined to do a 5k, a bit of a milestone I thought. I did it but at a fraction over 7 mins per km, my normal and natural pace is about 6.5 but I have say 7 was a lot easier today for my first 5 for quite a while.
So to my question, particularly to us 'oldies' (I am 66) - What is your normal pace?
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orangeguy
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I’m not sure how meaningful the answers you’ll get will be. If I’m running by effort, my easy pace varies wildly with where I’m running, how far I’m running, where I am in my run, what the weather is like, if I’ve slept well, what time of day it is, what and when I’ve eaten etc etc…. A chilled 5k can take me anywhere between roughly 28 and 38 minutes. Those numbers don’t matter to me at all though and I hope nobody else really cares.
It’s taken a while, but I’ve really made peace with the thinking that every run has a purpose. That means some of them are simply to spend time on my feet, some of them are just to run a specific distance, and some of them are speedier ones with more specific goals. It’s worth really thinking about what you wanted from your run today. If it was purely to cover 5km, how do you feel about letting your pace on that sort of run matter a bit less to you?
Congratulations on your 5k milestone-that’s always such a satisfying one to hit, especially after injury niggles.
Today was more to cover 5k as it was a bit of a milestone getting back to fitness I felt. I've always struggled in the past to maintain a slower pace I seem to naturally revert to my normal 6.5 pace but I made an effort today and it certainly went easier.
Congrats on getting back to 5k without further injury - you must be so pleased and relieved.
I’m sort of on the same page as MissUnderstanding . I’m 65 and my normal pace is slower than you but that doesn’t make me feel sad and I’m sure it doesn’t affect you one way or the other 😀
Some of my runs are longer than others and some are faster and there are so many outside factors that can affect this but I do what I can and enjoy what I do and that for me is the main thing.
I'm definitely an oldie and my natural pace is between 7 and 7.5 minutes per km. I can run faster but I find it a bit gruelling unless it's just for a short spurt. I often do a sprint towards the end of a run just to prove to myself that there's something left in the tank!
Yes I've found my normal natural 6.5 pace a bit hard going recently, I'm not sure if thats because I've lost some fitness or I'm just getting on a bit now 😁
Well I think 6.5 pace is brilliant! Re the age thing, I'm the fittest I've ever been in my life. I understand the advice for oldies is to keep exercising for as long as possible, so that's my intention.
Sounds to me as though you're making progress - maybe not as fast as you would like, but I bet you regain the fitness as you run more. Best of luck! 👍
My time is going up for 5k I've noticed, it was 35 mins the other day, used to 32 and a couple of years ago just managed to get a fraction under 30, that was best.
Normal pace is something I struggle with. I went out to do a slow flat 5.5k last Friday and ran 7:09 per kilometre - I felt quite tired at the end. Yesterday I did 7k with some ups and downs and ran 6:33per kilometre and felt great. I’d say that the 7k was nearer my typical pace, but like all the other comments said, so many external factors can affect how we run. Pleased you’re back running after time off. Continue to enjoy your runs - that’s all that matters ! Best wishes Chris (64.5😂)
I'm 63 and fwiw don't remotely consider myself an oldie. My "normal" pace depends on the mood I'm in, how far I'm going, the weather and the terrain I'm running. Without that context my pace stats are meaningless. I generally ignore pace and run by effort, which works far better for me.
Maybe it is best to ignore pace as you say, I am probably quite conscious of it at moment having lost some fitness over the past months. Its so tempting to check and make comparisons particularly with a Garmin 🤔
My normal pace varies a lot. If I'm doing a shorter run, it might be between 5'00" and 5'30"/km. A longer run is likely to be closer to 6 min/km. By the end of a really long run I might be struggling to sustain 7 min/km.
Sometimes I do a little sprint and that feels OK at about 4 min/km.
My fast walking pace is about 9-10 min/km.
I know a guy who is in his late 60s who regularly races and is very much faster than me.
Not everybody but generally I think we tend to get slower as we get older. I would certainly like to maintain my pace but I guess the most important is to keep running and remain injury free.
The question of speed is always there but it's really important to be comparing like with like. Generalising hugely, men are faster than women, younger faster than older, height matters, weight matters, terrain matters...hugely. I'm a little bit younger than you (less than a year) and 7 mins/km would be a PB for me BUT I'm female, short, a bit overweight etc (yeah I know, excuses excuses lol). When I look at my speed in the abstract it tells me nothing except that I need other reasons to run (of which I have plenty).
Having said which, you might find this table interesting, I certainly did (even if speed doesn't matter 😂)
That table is interesting, it would seem I'm somewhere between a beginner and a novice too 😂😂 A friend recently told me only 6% of the world’s population run, as far as I know there are no figures for the amount of us over 60 runners. I console myself sometimes with the fact that there’s not that many of us so I’m doing well just to get out there 😂😂
I'm between beginner and novice too according to my most recent 5k times. They are all around 42-43 minutes. I've deliberately slowed down a lot in recent months though my Parkrun average puts me as novice to intermediate (38.53, mostly ran those sorts of times a couple of years ago).
Maybe I should try running a bit quicker next time and see if I can get sub-40 minutes again, just for the fun of it
Two years ago I was running 5k at 5.3 and 10k at around 5.7 mins per km and was fairly comfortable at that pace. Now at 70 I'm now doing 5k at around 7, sometimes slower. Time and injury and other things take their toll but I am still enjoying running. I do put on the odd spurt to prove I can hit a 6 min km but I can't keep it up for long. The best thing is to get comfortable running 5k and hopefully you pace will improve. Good luck with your running.
Thank you, you are right . . . I think if I had to choose I would prefer longer runs and a slow pace, thinking about it. I would like to get back to 10k again, we will see how it goes 🤞🙂
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