PACING AND TYPES OF RUNS/WORKOUTS
One word that a runner always hears is
"pace."
This is simply how fast you are running at any given time. The most important time this comes into play is race day. You want to make sure you are running the correct pace in order to reach your goal time. If you go out running too fast, then you will run out of energy before you finish. If you go out too slow, you will feel like you have too much energy left at the end.
Your pace of everyday runs is very important as well. If you run every day at race pace, you will find that after a few weeks you will be too tired to run and unable to train. Your everyday runs should be at a comfortable pace; about 1
-
2 minutes per mile slower than what you want to run the race in. If you don
'
t know what that is, then your everyday runs should be at a pace at which you are able to have a conversation with someone who is running with you. You should be b
reathing hard, but not hard enough that you can't speak.
Other workouts during the week (tempo runs, speed workouts, etc.) will either be at race pace or faster. These are important runs to do because they will strengthen your body and increase your efficiency at that cadence. In these workouts, there will be times when you will be breathing too hard to say more than a few words at a time.
The TeamQuest training program will allow you to gradually increase your volume of running so that you
will be running four to five days by the end of the training cycle. In addition, you will be comfortable running for long periods of time, and you will feel ready and confident as you take the line on race day. The training consists of varying distances and paces of running. You will have some hilly runs, tempo runs, long slow distance runs, and some faster running.
Check out the Training section of the Athlete Handbook for more tips!
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