May 30 2023 37 mins 5
Every coach I had, from high school to professional was a stickler for pace. That’s not to say that we weren’t monitoring other variables, but the pace was what we focused on. It’s safe to say that over the years, I became pretty good at judging effort and correlating that closely to paces. To say it’s a skill is an understatement, and from the feedback I get from athletes, is that it’s not a skill that can be learned quickly enough. So, hopefully, we can get you on the right path if you find yourself struggling. The biggest issues I see with runners are: * Looking at their watch all the time!
* Overcorrect
* Rely on all the data except how it feelsWhat you will see, is a runner takes off, looks at their watch and it’s too fast (or too slow) and overcorrected. They then look after another 20-30 seconds and it becomes a game of too fast and too slow, but never settling into the rhythm of the night. Oops, I mean the rhythm of the pace. What else I will see is a runner has to be exact on the pace. So, if their tempo says 6 miles at 8:00 pace, then dangit, they are going to hit 8:00 pace! The problem ultimately goes back to whether they have a hard time finding the rhythm or just finding themselves aiming for perfection in an unperfect world. The third thing I will see is that the runner tries to absorb and react to all the data at once. I don’t see it a lot with power. I feel like those who run with power, just look at that. However, if they are using heart rate and pace, it can create issues. Ultimately, what happens in some capacity is that the runner can’t find the right rhythm, over-corrects, and something hidden in what we are saying, they forget to correlate how they are feeling into the equation. Does any of this sound like you? I don’t want to make it sound like it’s not a big deal to fix this, but there are things we can do that, over time, will make you a much better pacer at all speeds. There are a lot of things we can put into practice, but there are two things that you have to accept before we discuss. The first is that it takes time! And despite the age of having everything now, this will take time to develop. Definitely more than a month. More than likely, more than one training segment. It’s a skill that takes practice, so don’t get frustrated if after two workouts you don’t see any improvement. Give yourself some grace. It’s like I tell my kid in softball, I don’t care if you strike out every time as long as you get the bat off your shoulders! The second thing is something from my days at Hanson’s where we really dug down on nailing pace. That is, don’t overcorrect. If you overcorrect, you aren’t accomplishing anything! For example, if your prescribed tempo pace is 8:00/mile, but you come ripping through in 7:45, the goal isn’t then to still come through the second mile in 16:00, it’s now 15:45. But, Luke, that’s fast! You said to get on pace!? That’s right, but the pace is 8:00, so if you come through at 16:00, then that means that you ran the second mile at 8:15, too slow! So now you have two miles that aren’t on pace and nothing has really been accomplished. Again, it just goes to experience and learning how that feels, so give it time and take comfort in knowing that even if you aren’t perfect, you are improving! With that said, let’s jump into some things you can do to accelerate the rate of learning pace through feel. Things I do and teach: The first is having setpoints. This could be laps on the tracks, or a mailbox on a loop you run, or a mile marker on the bike path. This goes to what we discussed at the beginning of the post today. A person looks at their watch within the first few seconds of the repeat, it’s too fast or too slow, they overcorrect and then are on the other side of where they wanted to be. Let’s think about what’s going on, when you go from either standing or light jog to running hard so the pace is usual...
* Overcorrect
* Rely on all the data except how it feelsWhat you will see, is a runner takes off, looks at their watch and it’s too fast (or too slow) and overcorrected. They then look after another 20-30 seconds and it becomes a game of too fast and too slow, but never settling into the rhythm of the night. Oops, I mean the rhythm of the pace. What else I will see is a runner has to be exact on the pace. So, if their tempo says 6 miles at 8:00 pace, then dangit, they are going to hit 8:00 pace! The problem ultimately goes back to whether they have a hard time finding the rhythm or just finding themselves aiming for perfection in an unperfect world. The third thing I will see is that the runner tries to absorb and react to all the data at once. I don’t see it a lot with power. I feel like those who run with power, just look at that. However, if they are using heart rate and pace, it can create issues. Ultimately, what happens in some capacity is that the runner can’t find the right rhythm, over-corrects, and something hidden in what we are saying, they forget to correlate how they are feeling into the equation. Does any of this sound like you? I don’t want to make it sound like it’s not a big deal to fix this, but there are things we can do that, over time, will make you a much better pacer at all speeds. There are a lot of things we can put into practice, but there are two things that you have to accept before we discuss. The first is that it takes time! And despite the age of having everything now, this will take time to develop. Definitely more than a month. More than likely, more than one training segment. It’s a skill that takes practice, so don’t get frustrated if after two workouts you don’t see any improvement. Give yourself some grace. It’s like I tell my kid in softball, I don’t care if you strike out every time as long as you get the bat off your shoulders! The second thing is something from my days at Hanson’s where we really dug down on nailing pace. That is, don’t overcorrect. If you overcorrect, you aren’t accomplishing anything! For example, if your prescribed tempo pace is 8:00/mile, but you come ripping through in 7:45, the goal isn’t then to still come through the second mile in 16:00, it’s now 15:45. But, Luke, that’s fast! You said to get on pace!? That’s right, but the pace is 8:00, so if you come through at 16:00, then that means that you ran the second mile at 8:15, too slow! So now you have two miles that aren’t on pace and nothing has really been accomplished. Again, it just goes to experience and learning how that feels, so give it time and take comfort in knowing that even if you aren’t perfect, you are improving! With that said, let’s jump into some things you can do to accelerate the rate of learning pace through feel. Things I do and teach: The first is having setpoints. This could be laps on the tracks, or a mailbox on a loop you run, or a mile marker on the bike path. This goes to what we discussed at the beginning of the post today. A person looks at their watch within the first few seconds of the repeat, it’s too fast or too slow, they overcorrect and then are on the other side of where they wanted to be. Let’s think about what’s going on, when you go from either standing or light jog to running hard so the pace is usual...
