One of the most important skills to help you run better
is learning to pace your running by feel alone.
Pacing is critical to your running performance.
Whether it's a race or training run. Set off too quickly
and you're doomed to struggle later in the run.
We've all been there, right?
With running watches giving us instant feedback on pace
and heart rate, it's all too easy to get reliant on this data
and disconnected from the intrinsic awareness of what running at an
8 minute mile feels like compared to running at 9:30 minutes per mile.
Don't get me wrong, watches and the real time data they provide
are a fantastic training tool, but learning to judge your pace accurately
based on feel alone is an important skill for any runner to learn.
With better pacing comes more effective training and more consistent mile (or KM) splits.
on race day, helping you on your way to your next personal best.
There's a simple test you can do to see how good you are
judging different running paces:
All you need is a looped running course.
About quarter mile is perfect for this.
The exact distance isn't really critical.
You can use an athletics track or any flat looped route. After a proper warm up
the first part of this test is to run one lap of the course at your long run pace.
Now, if you're not sure what your long run pace should be, I'll leave a link
to a video that will help you with that down in the description.
Use your watch to help you monitor pace or heart rate
on this first repetition of the loop so that you can run it at the correct pace.
So in the first loop, you're still using the feedback.
Now, if you don't have a watch, I'll leave a link
to my favorite entry level running watch in the description.
Take note of how long it takes you to complete that first lap, with the watch
assisting you with pacing.
Then walk for 30 seconds.
(Not that you should need the recovery at this point!)
Once 30 seconds is up set off on the next lap
without looking at your watch,
so you get no real time feedback as you run this lap of the loop.
Your goal is to run at exactly the same pace for the second lap
as you did the first lap... based on feel alone.
Take note of the time that you took to run that second lap
and see if you've paced it faster or slower than first time.
Most runners really struggle with this and end up running the second lap too fast.
Take another 30 seconds to walk and get your head straight
for the next lap, where you even need to slow it down or speed it up,
depending on how successful you were with that second lap.
Again, the goal is to accurately reproduce the pace you ran on the first lap.
You can keep doing this as many times as you like to really dial in.
Your long run pace should feel like. While you're running,
pay close attention to what your breathing rate feels like,
as this will really help
you gauge your effort as you get better at judging pace.
Of course,
you can also use this simple pacing test to get better at judging faster paces.
Just pick a pace like a target, 10K pace or target half marathon pace
and try to reproduce itlap after lap, only using your watch for real time
feedback every third lap or so for anything faster than race paces
though, I tend to prefer to incorporate pace feedback into structured
interval sessions rather than doing this type of pacing exercise separately.
While we're talking about pacing, there's actually a second test
that I like to use with runners who have a tendency to push too hard.
This one is less about time or heart rate and more about effort and breathing rate.
The test is super simple.
All you need is to incorporate a moderately steep hill
into one of your easy runs a hill that would normally take you two
or three minutes to run up and leave you breathless.
Your goal should be to run up the hill slowly with such control
of your pace that you don't even get out of breath.
Focus on making short, quick strides with a high cadence and running tall.
Obviously, your pace will slow down as you tackle the hill,
but your effort
should remain under control as if you are barely running uphill at all.
Ideally, you should arrive at the top of the hill
ready to push on with the run rather than feeling exhausted.
Far too many runners simply power uphill and leave themselves
unable to control their heart rate for the next mile or two as they recover.
Put in a race context:
This kind of control of effort will help you on your way to your next
personal best rather than letting a hill mess up your race plan.
Keep aware of your running technique as you practice these two pacing exercises.
As one of the biggest mistakes runners make,
while they're keeping their pace easy for long runs,
is that they allow their running form to begin to get sloppy,
putting more stress on their knees, their shins and other areas of their body.
I'll put a link in the description
to a video with a bunch of helpful tips to help you maintain proper running form
whilst running slowly, keeping you running stronger for longer.