Pace question

[faineant]

After miserably failing my week 6 run 3, I've got to ask if anyone else is having problems with their pace.

It seems like my 'natural' running speed - the pace at which my body feels most comfortable running - is a lot faster than I can handle for these distance runs. It becomes really difficult for me to keep it going past 5-10 minutes.

However, when I try to slow it down, I get incredible pain in my legs, especially my ankles, which also makes it incredibly hard to keep going. Could it still be a shoe problem, even though I don't feel any pain running at a higher speed?

I really don't know how to solve this problem, and I'm feeling very defeated at the moment - especially after giving up on today's run after 12 and a half minutes. Does anyone have any words of wisdom?

[Hidden]

Do you know I was about to ask a very similar "how the 4andhalf do you slow down?"

I've struggled trying to keep it slow enough to match my stamina, I too find that belting along is easier than jogging just that I don't have the stamina to keep up yet.

The only bit of solace I can offer you is that with time, and by doing more of the longer runs, your stamina does build & you will find you can go the whole distance.... one thing which helped me was getting a stitch so had to really focus on breathing deep & running intime with the breathing.

good luck

[faineant in reply to Hidden]

Thanks! It's good to know that at least I'm not the only one. I've been wanting to ask for a while, but it feels a bit like a non-problem, doesn't it? "How do I run more slowly?" - shouldn't be as hard as it is!

I did work out after entering my distance into runkeeper that I ran significantly faster today than I did during my 20min run last week, so I'll just try again on Wednesday and try to replicate my W5R3 speed

[Ally-d Graduate]

Yeh, I'd agree with that, my 'natural' pace is slow, I mean verrrry slow but I run with my daughter who ( bless her) tries to support me but when going at my pace aches more and feels pain in her legs, in the early weeks she stopped before I did even though she had travelled nearly 3 times as far, now we are nearly at the end she has built stamina and can keep going for the required time, sadly she still can't run slowly!

[faineant in reply to Ally-d]

What a coincidence! I run with my mother, too, and while her pace is much slower than mine, she did manage to complete her 25 minute run today! I tried to keep pace with her once during the earlier weeks, and when I was done my legs hurt so much I almost couldn't walk, haha.