Little Miss Runner Pants

DATE: 5:47 PM
OK, right about now, after reading your post and the previous comment I'm thinking that you've got all your questions answered, right?VO2 threshhold? VO2 max? HR monitor? Max HR?OK, so moving right along. You have to ask yourself one question, and one question only, "do I want to run faster?"If you answered no, then forget about all the fancy schmancy words. If you do want to run faster, then you need to start running faster. Got it? Good. So how much faster should you be running and when should you be doing it? That's where all that other junk comes in. The vast majority of all the runs you've done up to this point should be considered "easy runs." They should be your standard, heah I can even talk a bit without gasping for air runs. "Recovery" runs are a weird animal. Some people actually believe that the best way to "recover" from a long, hard run is to . . wait for it . . . RUN! So recovery runs are runs that you run to recover from the run that you already ran.Forget about 'em. Replace the word "recovery" with "easy" or "slow."As for the rest, here they are in speed order beginning with the one you already know:Easy - tempo - race paceYou should run faster in races than you do in training, and if you're doing a tempo run, you're running faster than is normally comfortable, but not as fast as you would in a race. Got it?All the rest of the stuff you might read or hear is basically all kinds of different ways to judge what might or might not be fast for you, and it's all kind of repetitious and boring. Go run. And if you want to get faster, run faster. And if you run hard and get too tired, run slower. There are a million ways of making it all more complicated, but it boils down to pretty simple stuff.

DATE: 4:51 PM
Here's a site that helps with some of that. It's basically calculates your VO2 threshold from a previous race pace:http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/rp.phpAnd you can plug your VO2 Max into this page:http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/tp.phpto get your training times. Or if you have a HR monitor, you can figure out some of your training times based on percentage of Max HR.Hope that helps. There's some other interesting stuff on there too.

DATE: 5:02 AM
Indeed: Great question, and good synopsis from Drew. Don't be shy on trying to understand what each zone really represents, however. I know it's confusing at first when people start throwing all the terms around (LT, VO2 Max, etc.) but once you do understand it all, it makes your training (actually, it makes your planning to train) much more productive.Have fun!

DATE: 2:46 AM
Thanks for asking the question! I was wrestling with the same questions. And thanks all for the great answers!

DATE: 8:51 PM
I spy a runner who is getting smarter and will get faster.Drew did a great job in his explanation. I believe to run faster you need to run smarter, and that is where those words like "recovery" and "tempo" etc. come in to play. My bottom line is that you need to remember to enjoy yourself out there.

DATE: 7:50 PM
I swear to God, I was going to write this exact post!! Thanks for beating me to it. I understand intervals. and now, thanks to you, hills. but the rest of that stuff is like greek. VO...5? Isn't that shampoo? Thanks Drew for spelling it all out!

DATE: 8:25 AM
You sound like you run like I do. I don't even like wearing a watch on my runs. Normally I only have a vague idea as to how far it is or how long I ran. Days that I'm tired, I run shorter distances. When I feel good, I run longer or faster. It's worked for me so far. I'm not the fastest person in the world, but over the past 3 years of running my 5k time has dropped from 36 minutes to around 22ish. I used to run with a watch, but I'm pretty competitive and I wanted every run to be faster then the last one. After a while I was hurting even at the beginning of my short runs. Of course I haven't been able to run a marathon yet(stupid deployment) so maybe my advice isn't the best, but I've enjoyed my time running. And that's all I really started it for, just for the fun of it.

DATE: 7:51 AM
Run Forrest run.... that's the way I look at it. Keep it simple and have fun.

DATE: 7:15 AM
Great responses, all I can add, always always make sure you are having fun. I like you having fun.

DATE: 7:08 AM
I run all my shorter runs (2-4 miles) faster than is completely comfortable, my medium (6-7 miles) at a comfortable-ish pace, and my longer runs slow and steady. I don't use a HR monitor, and just go on how I feel.It seems to be a good system. For example: My half-marathon race-pace is about 9:00 miles. When training for my last one, I did my short runs at an 8:30-9:00 pace, my medium runs at a 9:00-9:30 pace, and my long runs at a 9:30-10:00 pace. Of course, this sometimes changed based on how much time I had, how I felt, what the weather was like, and what music was on my MP3 player! :)The most important aspect of a training plan is variety -- so you don't get injured and you don't get bored.

DATE: 6:02 AM
I agree with Drew. Unless your a really competitive runner keep it simple and keep it focused. Speed work is speed work and you can do it in a variety of ways. Recovery is an active run where you run slower and allow the legs to recover and lactic acid to disipate. There are a ton of sites and books on it but basically Drew summed it up nicely.Remember if you want to get faster you need a good solid mileage base and you have to do speed work and hills!

DATE: 2:49 PM
Excellent questions and great answers. I tried using Yasso 800s in my last marathon training but I didn't do them correctly. This time I am going to do them as advertised and then I will have a real goal time based on prior performance. Other than that I agree with the run fast when you run short distance and run slower when you run mid-distance and run even slower when you run long distance. Just run.

DATE: 9:45 AM
Good questions! To which, I have no answers. I feel like a goon--I just want to run, finish it and not injure myself. Is that bad? I don't know if I'll ever have a head for the technical stuff and terminology.

DATE: 4:21 PM
thanks for asking!!

DATE: 2:13 PM
A.MariaThere is a great website - http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/ - that answers most of those questions. And has a calculator to tell you what those speeds should be based off your best race time. I use it as an integral part of my training. I don't usually make my time goals...but at least I know what I'm shooting for. It really helped me. There are a bunch of articles here too. He explains, tempo, recovery, long, intervals etc. He's trying to get you to use him as a training coach...but he provides a ton of useful information.Hope you find it helpful. But as mentioned above...sometimes all the info can be overwhelming...jsut enjoy running!

DATE: 1:16 PM
Looks like it's all covered. Until you want to start adding Fartleks...http://www.coolrunning.com.au/expert/1997c002.shtmlAnd Yasso 800s! http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,5033,s6-51-0-0-624,00.html

DATE: 9:43 AM
yes, thanks for asking this question.drew said, "You should run faster in races than you do in training." um, i...don't know how to do this. doesn't this mean that i will just blow up doing the actual event?

DATE: 9:13 AM
there's something about this in runner's world this month (page 40).it's in an article on taking off your watch. so you can run at different speeds by being low tech, and just seeing how your body responds.

DATE: 9:46 AM
Lots of good comments. Here are a few more. Recovery runs should be easy, and you need to remember it is a RECOVERY. No silly running fast because you feel okay.One part of the equation to answer "how fast should I run" is run distance. Your long run (Sunday?) should not have the word tempo associated with it. And words like tempo, interval, speed, etc should probably only be on one run (shorter one) each week.In general, if you're doing 5 days a week running, 3 should be shorter and easier (Tuesday and Thursday). Wednesday is easy, but a bit longer than Tuesday/Thursday. Saturday is a medium run, slightly faster than race pace. Long runs are slower than race pace.