Does anyone else have a problem with running slowly?
I'm just about to complete Week 8, and I am enjoying my runs, but I have yet to find this 'conversational pace'. I don't feel like I am pushing particularly hard, and I am certainly not fast, but I doubt I would be able to do much talking while running. I have tried slowing down even more but when I do it just feels harder, and unnatural. It feels like it actually takes more work, so I have to speed up a bit to re-find a rhythm.
Finding an easy pace is one of the most important lessons for all runners to learn and for most it doesn't come easy.
An easy conversational pace equates to approximately 75% of your maximum heart rate, which is the perfect zone to build the solid aerobic base required to run faster and further, which is why it is the pace at which elite athletes spend up to 80% of their training time.
Say this sentence out loud to yourself "Am I going slow enough to enable me to speak this sentence in one out breath?" If you cannot, you are going too fast.
This post was written in an attempt to explain the reasoning behind slower running healthunlocked.com/couchto5...
I can sympathise with that. For me a very slow pace can be harder work than the "natural" rhythm.
I still had no difficulty proclaiming "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree" (Coleridge) in today's run, even though my HR had ventured well over 75% max of what the watch said. It probably means that my max HR is higher than the watch thinks it should be.
I did start at much too fast a pace, though, which probably didn't help.
I had the same problem- it took me until weeks 8 and 9 to get in shape enough to find a conversational pace that felt natural and rhythmic. Until then, it helped to pretend I wasn’t jogging, instead jumping or shuffling. I sought a conversational shuffling or trotting pace. The kind of pace and gait that a 300 lb US football lineman might take when “running” off the field at halftime.
It's worth having a look at Phil Maffetone ref pace and HR training. I completed C25K and then stumbled on him. That conversational pace has a good underpinning evidence
The training method has been a real game changer for me ...it was frustrating in the beginning but it works
I found the answer was in learning to cut my stride length - I need a brisk cadence to feel comfortable, so cutting the stride was the only way to go slower. As one of my regular routes is quite steep in places, I had learned to take very small steps there just to keep going, and I transferred this to the whole run.
I think a lot find it difficult to do as they tend to try and keep the same stride length and cadence.Generally you will need to try and increase cadence but reduce stride length
Pace. How to go slower?
How do you pace yourself?
Interval training - how to keep HR down without running at a snail's pace
How do you pace yourself? 
How do you set your pace when running outside?
