We've all been there: watching the Olympics, someone's heading for a world record.
And all you're thinking is...
It's not that fast though, is it? I could do that.
Today, we're going to be taking a look at all of the different running paces,
what they mean,
how they fit into your training and ultimately what they look like for Sarah and
I on Zwift. So that means that a steady run for me could be Sarah going all out.
Whilst my easy run could just be a brisk walk for Andy.
We're going to take you through some common running terminology - steady,
tempo, intervals -
And what those mean to you, but stick around until the end,
because you're also going to get the chance to watch Sarah and I put our lives
and bodies on the line as we take on Eliud Kipchoge's sub two hour marathon
pace. Sounds pretty fun,
right? Well, in return,
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Now let's get stuck in and find out about those paces.
Paces are personal,
and they're going to look really different depending on who you are.
So we're going to talk you through exactly what the different paces mean,
how you can incorporate them into your training and what they should feel like.
And then Sarah and I are going to hop on the treadmill and find out exactly what
those paces look like for us. And because we're on the treadmill,
we're going to use Zwift to illustrate the different efforts with different
colours, corresponding to the different pace zones.
If you're looking for some workouts to take you through each of the different
pace zones that we're gonna be talking about today,
there are a selection of them in the training folder on Zwift.
So let's start off with the basics. Your watch,
a coach or a training plan asks you to do a 30 minute run at a slow,
easy or recovery pace, but how slow is slow? Well,
actually that's a little bit of a trick question because your easy pace is going
to be relative to your normal running speed, but to maintain that easy pace,
you should always be able to have a full conversation whilst running.
So think of it as a three or four,
or maybe at a push of five out of 10 in terms of efforts.
We've mentioned it in a few videos before,
but it's really important to treat your recovery runs as just as important as
your faster ones. Now,
they are less intense efforts that aren't going to set you any PBs,
but they're important to fill the gaps to space out your harder efforts.
It's important to listen to your body on these runs and not go to hard.
And ultimately this is when the adaptation happens to all of the hard training
that you've been doing.
Even then though, each person's recovery run will look very different.
So here's my recovery run pace.
And here is Andy's recovery run pace.
So notice how Andy is running faster, but we both look relaxed.
Neither of us is overreaching with our leading leg, nor are we leaning forward
like we've got places to be. However, if I try to catch up to what Andy was doing,
there's no way I'd be able to hold a conversation and I'd look a lot more forced
and I'd be going much faster.
The next rung up are steady runs, sometimes referred to as endurance runs.
Now, for those of you that have been grinding away at training plans,
something I am all too familiar with,
you've probably come across this term quite a lot.
Now, steady runs are roughly round about your marathon pace,
depending on who you listen to,
it's either slightly faster or slightly slower than your marathon pace.
But ultimately you're looking for an effort level of around five or six out of
10. Now it's important to know that sometimes that same level of exertion won't
allow you to run at the same pace that you might've been hitting on a run,
even if it was just the day before. That's totally normal.
It's important that you listen to your body and allow yourself the chance to run
the right pace and effort for you. So here's Sarah's steady pace.
And like she said, she's had quite a lot of chances to fine tune this during her marathon training.
And this is what my steady run pace looks like for comparison.
Now we're both operating at very different paces here,
but ultimately running at the same relative intensity or level of effort for us.
Sometimes the slowest paces, like the recovery or slower runs that we looked at
before, can look a little bit unnatural or uncomfortable because they're not
mechanically efficient for you. So you should find now,
as we step up through the paces starting with this steady run
pace that we start to look a little bit more natural and a little bit more
comfortable.
We're slowly getting faster. And now we're moving on to tempo runs.
Now tempo and threshold are often confused with each other and can sometimes be
used to mean the same thing.
We're going to make the distinction here that whilst both tempo and threshold
runs are faster than your easy or your steady pace runs, tempo
you can maintain for longer as you're further away from your anaerobic
threshold, which is where you're no longer able to work entirely aerobically
and your body starts to produce higher levels of lactate in your blood.
So tempo runs themselves are sustained efforts around 30 minutes up to about an
hour. And not only do they help to build physical endurance,
but they help with mental strength too.
So if you're training for an event like a half marathon or a full marathon,
then these are the type of runs that are ultimately going to help with that
mental resilience as it comes to the end of those longer runs.
So this is me running at a tempo pace,
definitely a bit more challenging than a steady run. And here's Andy,
during a tempo run. As you start to increase your pace,
it's important not to overstride where you might reach out in front of you.
You can see both of our foot contacts and now a bit quicker and we're spending
less time on the ground.
Moving on now to threshold pace. Now this one is a little bit more scientific,
but that does mean it's more clearly defined.
So a threshold pace run is one where you're running just below the point where if
you pushed a little bit harder,
lactate would start to build up significantly in your body. Now,
if you are an experienced runner,
you can get to the point where you can feel this either through your breathing,
or if you go a little bit too fast,
you should feel the heaviness in your legs as the lactate starts to build up.
So you should be able to run for 20 to 30 minutes at this pace and find it
challenging yet manageable. And in terms of effort,
it's a seven or maybe an eight out of 10.
And now we're looking at Sarah running at her threshold pace on Zwift.
And now we're looking at me as well.
Now heart rate is a great way to ensure that you can get this effort, right?
Cause they'll definitely be some days when you don't feel so good and the pace
itself will be tougher. So if you're going on pace alone,
you could be running at the wrong intensity for your body.
So heart rate is a really good gauge. There's no conversation here.
Maybe just the ability to say a short sentence.
Threshold running will feel tough and it's by definition
a hard aerobic workout. So your breathing is really key.
So it's important to relax your arms and shoulders and not hunch over to make
sure you can breathe as easily as possible.
Onto the hardest one now - interval training. Once you're
running at a pace faster than your half marathon pace,
then you'll be running at an intensity where there's some degree of anaerobic
energy production. So that could be in a race like a five or a 10 K,
or it could be shorter efforts as part of an interval session.
You'll likely want to space these sessions out.
And you should definitely try to avoid doing back to back days of hard efforts.
We're talking a nine or a 10 out of 10 in terms of effort.
Here's a clip of me running pretty much as fast as I can.
And here's Andy doing the same thing. There's a reason he was in the Olympics.
Andy says these faster paces are where he feels most mechanically efficient and
effective,
but that you'll fatigue much quicker and therefore any imbalances in the way
that you run can become more exaggerated and potentially lead to injury.
I'm at my steady pace, but for some reason,
we've now agreed to take it up to Kipchoge's marathon pace, sub two hours,
21.1 kph. Madness. Let's get stuck in.
Okay. Quite a big jump. Let's go.
21.1. Oh my god. Obviously I used to be able to do this.
Not for a marathon,
Thankfully I'm not too tired already.
So it's crazy, doing this for two hours,
I think I've probably got four or five minutes, one mile,
one and a half K, that's how long I can do this for.
So we're 20 seconds in now. It really hurts already.
This is what we do for you, the Running Channel audience, but now,
now I think it's Sarah's turn, don't you?
So I'm at a steady pace,
which for me is 12 on the treadmill and I need to put it up to 21.1.
Oh dear. Right.
I'm going to go slow and steady up to 14
oh my goodness, up to 16
up to 17
up to 18
19
20
21. How does he do this for 2 hours?
No. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's a no from me.
That was quite tough, wasn't it Andy?
No, not really. Pretty straightforward. Just kidding. That was really tough. Now,
if you'd like to get a flavour for the different paces that we've talked about
today, then we've put together a selection of different workouts for you to try,
and you could start with the broken tempo session on Zwift,
which takes chunks of tempo running and breaks it up with easier recoveries or
even better, you could try the Running Channel's own challenge on swift,
which is a ramp session that takes you through all the different paces in one
really tough progressive run to see how you stack up against us.
Oh, there are lots of guided interval sessions as well,
which completely takes away all of the thinking.
You can try the up and down ladder or the cutdown ladder from the
Zwift academy run program.
So how do you think you'd fare at the running paces?
Have you reached running pace Nirvana or how would you fare at Kipchoge's
1:59 marathon pace.
Share your thoughts with us in the comments below,
and we'll see you next time on The Running Channel.