One of the most common type of questions I get are related to my easy/recovery run paces, and from reading blogs of elite/sub-elite runners I have seen a lot of them getting similar questions too. I read a message board thread on letsrun earlier this week where someone was questioning Alan Culpepper's suggestions on easy run paces and Robert Johnson, one of the site owners chimed in with a story from his coach about how "the last thing we'll worry about in training is the pace of the easy runs". I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment, nonetheless the questions still keep coming so I'll post a couple of my sample weeks (and trust me, these are NOT outlier weeks) from this past cycle to drive this point home:
Week starting 3/30 - 110 miles (the day after the Shamrock Shuffle 8K)
Monday AM - recovery run with my wife. 10 miles @ 9 min/mi.
Tuesday AM - 10 mi @ 7:27
Tuesday PM - 6 mi @ 7:30
Wednesday AM - 10 mi @ 7:33
Wednesday PM - 6 mi @ 7:20
Thursday AM - 10 mi @ 7:48
Thursday PM - 6 mi @ 7:10
Friday AM - 10 mi @ 7:03 (poor excuse, but I had to finish running by 9 to take a conference call, so I picked it up the last couple of miles)
Friday PM - 7 mi @ 7:12
Saturday AM - 3mi, 2mi, 1mi workout on treadmill: (13 miles total)
Warmup = 4 mi @ 7:20
Workout = 3mi @ 5:15, 2:22 rest, 2 mi @ 5:13, 2:21 rest, 1 mi @ 5:09
Cooldown = 3 mi @ 7:30
Saturday PM - 6 mi @ 7:20
Sunday AM - 16 mi @ 7:16
Week starting 4/06 - 124 miles
Monday AM - 10 mi @ 7:17. Last mile in 6:43.
Monday PM - 7 mi @ 7:50. Slightly hillier / more trails than usual, but not by much.
Tuesday AM - 10 mi @ 7:42
Tuesday PM - 6 mi @ 7:20
Wednesday AM - (12 total) -
4 mi warmup @ 7:20, 5 mi tempo @ 5:14, 2:20 rest, 1 mi @ 5:07, 2 mi easy @ 7:15
(workout was 5mi tempo + 1 mi fast with a 2:20 rest on treadmill)
Wednesday PM - 6 mi @ 6:35. Felt really good on this run so I wore some lightweight flats and by mile 3 I still felt pretty good so I threw in 2 miles @ 5:11.5/mi average. I occasionally do this, but never planned. (a very short 2nd workout like a short tempo or fartlek on the afternoon of a planned workout)
Thursday AM - 11 mi @ 7:20
Thursday PM - 6 mi @ 7:20
Friday AM - 10 mi @ 7:22
Friday PM - 6 mi @ 7:15 (started around 7:40s and finished around 7:00)
Saturday AM - 14 mi w/ 6.5 @ tempo.
Warmup - 4 mi @ 7:25
Treadmill tempo - 6.5 mi @ 5:14.3 average
Cooldown - 3.5 @ 7:22
Saturday PM - 6 mi @ 7:20
Sunday AM - 15 mi @ 8:40s - very hilly trail run. I tried to do this while waiting for Maureen to do a trail race and I am a terrible trail runner (as well as being very sore from yesterday)
Sunday PM - 5 mi @ 9:00 - another shakeout run on the trails in Palmer Park. Again very hilly but even if I did this on flat roads or on my treadmill I doubt this would have been much faster than 8:00/mi.
Week starting 4/13 - 117 miles
Monday AM - 9 mi @ 7:23
Monday PM - 6 mi @ 7:06
Tuesday AM - 10 mi @ 7:24
Tuesday PM - 6 mi @ 7:10
Wednesday AM - Workout of 4-3-1.5-3x0.5 (Total = 16 miles)
Warmup = 3 mi @ 7:30
Treadmill Workout = 4 @ 5:17.7 (4min rest) 3 @ 5:14.3 (3 min rest) 1.5 @ 5:14.8 (60s rest) 3x800 @ 2:30 (60s rest).
Cooldown = 3 mi @ 7:36
Wednesday PM - 6 mi @ 7:10
Thursday AM - 10.5 mi @ 7:05
Thursday PM - 6 mi @ 7:14
Friday AM - 10 mi @ 7:08
Friday PM - 6 mi @ 7:07
Saturday AM - 10 mi @ 7:05
Saturday PM - 6 mi @ 7:06
Sunday AM - 16 mi @ 7:40
Week starting 4/20 - 69 miles (week of Country Music Half-Marathon, including a "0" on Sunday)
Monday AM - Tune-up workout (9.5mi total with 4 mi progression/tempo)
3.5 easy @ 7:25
4 mi progression - 5:15, 5:12, 5:10, 5:06. (on treadmill)
2 mi easy @ 7:00
Monday PM - 6 mi @ 7:20
Tuesday AM - 10 mi @ 7:22
Tuesday PM - 5.5 mi @ 7:13
Wednesday AM - 9 mi @ 7:12 (with 5x1mi pickups @ 4:55-4:57 average)
Wednesday PM - 5 mi @ 7:04 (last mile in 6:35, felt smooth)
Thursday PM - 5 mi @ 7:03 (not bad after getting 2 hours or so of sleep during the 18 hour car trip from Colorado to Nashville)
Friday AM - 5 mi @ 8:30 (shakeout with Maureen)
Saturday AM - 13.5-14 mi (Finally parked 40 minutes before race started and spent another 10-15 walking to the start line, managed to get about 2-3 minutes of jogging beforehand). Country Music HM in 68:54. Then I jogged around for a few minutes afterwards, didn't really track anything since I was just trying to find the parking garage with our car.
Sunday - OFF (was going to run but just felt tight and awful when I got home after another 18 hour drive)
I will admit though, that my easy pace runs have steadily gotten a little faster as I have gotten in better shape these past couple of years. 2-3 years ago when I was a 70-72min half-marathoner I was doing runs around 7:30 average at sea level, and most of last year I was averaging 7:30-7:40 on my easy runs. Now lately it seems to be in the 7:00-7:15 range. However, I am running my easy runs at the same effort as I have been the past couple of years.
I have also been starting my runs around 7:45-8:00/mi and ending around 6:40-7:00/mi. Again, the increase in pace isn't forced at all, just a result of my legs loosening and warming up after 2-3 miles and slowly getting going.
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