Chasing Dopey
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2016
Question: At this point my (looooong term) goal is to increase distance to finish a half. While I understand that it is possible to differentiate tempo run, long run, etc, I seem to run at varying paces all the time (should you have children who watch the Lion Guard it is closer to Kanguay than Fuli). Is it reasonable to just keep adding total mileage? It is probably not helpful that I do not run anywhere that is flat- garmin told me I had climbed 10 flights of stairs on this morning's run.
Regarding pacing, I am not consistent. I will need to be on a treadmill to do that, and I am going to prefer outdoors if AM temps stay below 75*. Any ideas on how to improve consistent pacing? Even trying to consider a training plan with a targeted pace seems foolish to me.
Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.
If all you run is hilly, then don't worry about keeping your pace consistent. It's just not gonna happen, and to be honest it's not really what you want over hills. The best approach (and this is by no means easy) is to try to keep your effort consistent. So you'll slow down up hill and speed up down hill, but you're trying to keep your breathing and heart rate about the same. And it's tough to get over how silly you feel taking what feels like little baby steps while going up hill. BuckeyeBama is right about trying to keep your cadence steady, and your stride should be kept on a sliding scale. Like I said, this is NOT EASY. But very beneficial.
Now, if you want to spend the money and are willing to do some serious reading/research, there is technology to help with this: power meters. I have the Stryd foot pod, and I'm still learning to use it. What these do is translate your effort into a value measured in watts. It's similar to monitoring your heart rate, but it's a more immediate measurement, while your heart rate lags behind changes in effort. The basic idea is to help you maintain a consistent effort, which is more important than a consistent pace. But, like I said, still not easy. I also run in a hilly neighborhood, and if I want flat (or flatter) I have a nearby park I go to.