As a companion piece to Instructor57 's excellent post on Setting the Pace (*nods respectfully in the direction of Tim (RIP) IannodaTruffe) ... have a watch and VERY careful listen of this. It's a vlog from Stephen Scullion, Irish Olympic 2h:09 marathoner who is currently trying to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Don't let his pace, his warm-ups, or his technial jargon ("Low end threshold", "LT1, "lactate" etc) scare or intimidate you or let you think it's not relevant to 'Week 1' you or 'Week 3' you or 'Week 7' you ... please ... no.
Instead, focus on what he's saying - listen really really carefully to his message - it applies to all of us. Running *is* hard ... that's why so many of us, particularly beginners, pick up injuries.
And common questions here are:
- can I run on successive days? This feels so good and so easy!
- why am I so slow?
- I've only doing 3km in 30 mins, will I ever reach 5k?
Have a listen to what Stephen says ... the take home message is this: rest and recovery are vital as a runner ... and that applies especially to NEW runners and to all Couch to 5kers.
Enjoy (CAUTION - strong language from the start!)
PS - don't even think that he is an example of what your 'running' should look like - NO! Remember, a nice, easy, slow jog, during which you can easily hold a conversation is your aim.
"It's harder to hold yourself back." I think that's the sentence from the video I want to take with me the most. I've struggled to accept my "how slow can I go" challenge to myself because "it doesn't look good on Strava" as Steven Scullian put it (or in my case on NRC). Yea, I cringed this morning when I saw I had run at a 7'49" average pace. I've run at 7'00"! What's wrong?!? Instead, I will (try to) celebrate that I managed to go at a very comfortable pace! It's harder to hold myself back.
Similarly, holding to a low heart rate or a slower pace can feel impossible.
My natural "slow" pace is about 6'30", but when I'm getting to the end of a long run (eg. 10 miles plus) I do end up going much slower than that. However, my body wants to start each run about the 5'00" pace.
Curbing the tendency to start off quickly is something you have to learn how to do to be able to do longer distances.
A very interesting video. He seems like a very lovely, genuine, emotional guy. Heart broken for him when he teared up over the Olympics. Just as an aside...at the start he was dressed in long leggings. His physique was so incredibly lean, he looked like a puff of wind would blow him over. However, later, dressed in shorts, it was obvious his legs were a powerhouse of strong muscle. Wow.
I'm still on my weight loss journey, currently down from a BMI of 35 to 31. Getting excited about tipping into the overweight category soon. I won't finish up looking like him, but his physique was a timely reminder for me, of the benefits of running and proper nutrition. Thank you John. 😊
Stephen is a genuinely lovely man. (I knew him before he became famous 😊). Well worth a listen, and I have to remind myself to run slow. Strava is a good thing for measuring progress, but I switch it off from time to time and just run for the joy of it. Stopping to take pictures or talk to people I meet on the roads. (Rural area where everyone knows everyone).
Thanks for posting John, a great (and timely) reminder.
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(CAUTION - strong language from the start!)
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