I was reading a great thread on the runningahead forums about impatience with running improvement and how important it is to SLOW DOWN and run a lot more miles over a lot of years to get a lot better. I was suprised to see people who run 1:30 half marathons say they run the majority of their weekly miles at a 10 minute pace. Proportionally that would be me running the majority of my miles at a 11:30 pace or even slower. I average about 25-27 miles a week running and I would love to bump that up. But to do that I would need to run “easy” miles, which means conversational pace… not “I…am…talking…(gasp)…in…bursts…as…I…run…(gasp)”. Truth is I really enjoy “easy” runs… I notice the scenery more, get my heart pumping, sweat going (eventually) and recover enough to do it all again the next day.
But the ego… the ego.. is embarrassed at posting 11:45 mpm pace times. It is so stupid because honestly no one cares how fast I run. Non-runners don’t understand paces and speeds and other runners really care about their own issues. So why do I care what people might think? I am not even sure that is the whole dynamic… If I don’t run fast today then I won’t know if I can run fast. or what my limits are, or if I’m improving, etc. blah.. its such a confusion for me. I think it is because running is important to me and I take it seriously, and I feel part of a community of runners (like on here) that feel the same. A 11:30 easy pace is what I used to run 2,450 miles ago, except that was my best pace. To start logging 40 miles a week at that pace seems… hard to take.