Quote:
Originally Posted by BWillie
Nice result Rainmakerman. It appears you have quite a bit of running experience as Marcellus and some others. I have a question for you runners about HOW to run slow.
I'm attempting to run 20 mpw and doing almost all of it an easy pace. Yes I HAVE to monitor it with my heartrate or I will simply run too fast and I wont be able to run as often due to lactic acid soreness. Ive tried it. I have to be super cognizant of it on my easy runs. Anyway...the issue I have is when I run easy at 135 bpm to 150 bpm I have to run so slowly that it annihilates my knees. If I run with correct form with a higher leg kick my heart rate gets too high and I have to walk but my knees feel great.
So I don't know what to do. If I run slowly my knees are ****ed. If I run too fast my legs/ankle/shins are ****ed from lactic acid. Wondering if I can just go to the gym and do stationary bike or rows or something and get the same aerobic benefit as jogging. My only goal is to run 5k as fast as possible and I have only been working on my aerobic base for a month. Ive seen huge gains to my 5k time by this zone 2 or lower heartbeat training but the pain in my knees while running slow wears on me.
|
I may be aided by the fact that I didn't get into running until my late 40s, so I'm naturally pretty slow.
One thing I've noticed is that my heart rate gets over 150 any time I run. I can't run slow enough to keep it below that. So I just run at a speed where I feel comfortable.
It's weird to say this, but there's a lot of nuance that you can use to go faster or slower. I find that if I don't pay attention, I slow down my cadence, which is not good. I have to think about keeping my cadence up constantly.
Another thing I've been trying recently is to have more of a forward lean. If you lean forward to where you're about to fall on your face, then it's supposedly easier on your legs to move forward. In other words, you can get a faster pace with less effort (and a lower heart rate, presumably). I've been trying to do it a bit, but you really have to concentrate on doing it or you'll naturally lean back. It doesn't feel very natural, but it does increase one's speed.
The bottom line is that you should just do what feels right.