The Right Easy Pace for Your Biomechanics

Audio Transcript

Coach Dylan: Hey Runners Connect fans and friends. Welcome to another episode of Run to the Top Extra Kick podcast.

For many of you, this may be your first time meeting me. I’d like to take a quick minute to introduce myself formally, and give you guys a quick recap on my background and history in the sport.

I was a four-year team captain at the University of North Carolina Greensboro and I studied Kinesiology.

My highest point as an athlete was a 29 minute, 39 second 10K, in which I ran all the relays on the March of 2015.

I’d like to say that my college career went by as great as I wanted to go, but it certainly had its ups and downs but I certainly learned a lot from my experience.

While I made a lot of progression and enjoyed my stay, I learned a lot more in terms of my education and knowledge of the sport.

I grew to love it and my passion only increased as I further went along in my career.

I quickly realized that I wanted to take my running further and I wanted to become a coach. As soon as I graduated, I packed my bags and I moved to Flagstaff Arizona.

You may be asking why Flagstaff? Well, Flagstaff because that’s where everybody goes, that’s where all the professionals where, and that’s where the best coaches were.

That’s where everybody brings their athletes from all around the world and I wanted to be a part of that.

I immersed myself in the programs there and I trained with just about every major Olympian that you can think of, who came through Flagstaff and it was awesome.

I absorbed everything and anything that was thrown at me. I was able to join Team Run Flagstaff and Under Armor affiliate.

With T R F, I discovered the marathon and my passion for it. I love training and what it has done for me both mentally, physically, and spiritually.

I really enjoy coaching a lot more. It’s a lot more fulfilling and while in Flagstaff, I involved myself within the community and I helped them become better runners.

From the ages of 9 years old, all the way up to 70 and 80 years old and it was phenomenal. My passion and love for the sport has only grown.

I recently moved back to Greensboro North Carolina where I live with my girlfriend and my three cats and we live a very humble life.

I began coaching with Runners Connect last month and I had to say it has been dream thus far.

If you asked me four years ago what would be my dream job, I would tell you it would be doing just this.

Reaching out to as many people as I possibly can, and hearing their stories and benefiting them and getting fit in myself, both mentally and physically as well.

I hope I can provide insightful and knowledgeable information based on my education and my thorough passion for running.

Before I begin, I’d like to say thank you and I hope you enjoy it.

I look forward to answering all your submitted questions on anything training, racing, injury prevention, and everything else to help you get closer to reaching your goals.

Today we have a great question from Mike Pack.

Mike: Hi, I have a two-part question here. I’m a half marathoner. I run about an eight-minute pace over an hour forty-five minutes, and that’s a comfortable half marathon pace for me.

I want to venture into the marathon distance and the ultra-marathon distance this year.

In training to do so and slowing down my pace over my long runs, if I go and I do, say a 10 or a 13-mile run at a 45 or 9 minute pace, my legs feel more beat up at running that slower pace, than if I was running an eight-minute pace for 13 miles.

I’m not quite sure why that is now I feel comfortable running a 7.30, 7.45 at eight-minute pace on my long runs, but my heart rate during that time is around zone four.

Now, at age 44, I think I am well-conditioned and my resting heart rate is between 37 and 44 most days. Some days like today has been a very sedentary day and my resting heart rate was 33.

Second part of my question is, should I do my long runs on the trail that’s going to be similar to the environment I’m going to encounter in the ultra-marathon?

While I realize that the trail is going to provide a slower pace because of the terrain, my heart rate is also going to be zone four, for almost the entire duration if not a zone five.

Thank you in advance for answering my questions and I look forward to your answers.

Dylan: Mike, that is a couple of great questions and thank you for asking. There are a few things that can attribute to feeling more fatigued on the same distance of a run and the different pace in the run.

For your runs, you’re going eight plus minutes per mile in one run, still 13 miles, whereas you’re going 7.30 per mile, with the same 13 miles.

My first thought on why you may be feeling more fatigued, is the increased time you’re spending on your feet.

You’re adding nearly 10 minutes of time from running eight-minute pace to running 7.30 pace. Maybe the extra time you spend on your feet, really puts you past your energy threshold, which could leave you a bit more tired and fatigued as the day goes on; just having spent more time on your feet.

Also, I’d have to ask what kind of surfaces were these on?

Were these both on the same surface? The same terrain? Are they the same from week to week? These are all good questions to be asking yourself when comparing runs.

Was your week a bit more stressful than the week prior? Did you have to work a lot, the day and night before? Do you have to take care of your children?

These are all great questions and is the kind of questions that I ask myself when I’m preparing for a run or if I don’t have a run that goes as well.

I always like to look back and see why this run didn’t go particularly as well as another run.

Another thing I may see, from why this is causing me to feel a bit more fatigued, is that you might be a little bit more biomechanically efficient 7.30 mile pace rather than eight-minute pace.

I recommend you check your cadence and your cadence levels throughout the runs, and see if you’re a bit higher on those 7.30 runs in comparison to your eight.

It’s good to manage your ground contact time because as you’re running eight-minute pace, your foot might be spending more time on the ground, and the more time you’re going to be spending more on the ground, the more force you’re going to be absorbing into you.

This applies to cadence as well, so if you find yourself running at a 1.60 cadence minute pace versus 1.70 on a 7.30 pace, maybe you should be more cognizant on your eight-minute pace runs to make sure you’re getting that turnover, and making sure that you’re being efficient and your landing heels and your hips.

Adding to this, what I had stated a little bit previously was your energy threshold.

An hour and thirty verse an hour and forty-minute run, or an hour and thirty versus an hour and forty-five-minute run, could have you surpassed your energy threshold.

Meaning that maybe you required more hydration and nutrition leading up to that run. Maybe once you reach the hour mark, you could use a gel or you could use an extra four to six ounces of water every three to four miles.

An extra 15 minutes can really add up and can enhance that level of fatigue during the run, and without proper and adequate refueling after your run, you can certainly feel more fatigued.

Keep this in mind when tracking your runs and a detailed log and make sure that you’re monitoring all your symptoms and how you’re feeling on those days.

That way, you can get a better idea of how you’re feeling over a week, a month, or a training cycle.

A quick and easy recommendation I may have for you, on these days where you’re feeling quite sluggish and you’re running a bit slower, is to add an active isolated stretching prior and after your runs.

This could help loosen up things and how you’d be firing off a bit better in the middle of your runs.

Also, I like to implement strides in my runs whenever I start to feel a bit tired and whenever my legs are feeling a little hung over; a little lazy, dragging along.

Usually, if I open it up and add some strides in the day prior even in the middle of that long run, I tend to feel better moving forward.

The implementation of strides and drills, prior to your runs, can make runs go by much smoother and have you clicking off much more efficiently.

Mike, I just want to say thank you for submitting your question. It’s incredibly practical as we all go through these sorts of days, where we don’t feel better than another day.

Instead of comparing our days from days it’s good to make a log or think about how we can change up those runs where we’re going a bit slower or going a bit faster.

This helps to ensure that we’re getting great recovery and proper nutrition after our runs.

Now, moving on to your next question today.

As you’re training for a trail race I certainly believe it would be great to practice on a surface that is like what you’re going to be racing on.

However, many trail races can be quite technical – rooty, hilly, and this can beat up the body. If you’ve been training on roads or softer surfaces that don’t have a lot of hills, or a lot of climbing or descending, I would take it very easy when building into it.

It’s good to start adding a few days a week on these trails just to get your body accumulated.

But as you build up, making those long runs on the trail is going to be a great benefit to your training, and a great benefit to your future racing.

By training on a surface that is like your race course, you’re going to be more prepared and ready to tackle everything that comes up and you’re not going to falter when things go bad.

Having better confidence going into race day, will certainly benefit your training, and allow you to run better and faster on race day.

I always believe to expect the worst so if you can train harder and faster, and more technical than what you may experience, that’s great.

Aim for that but let’s make sure we do it smart. There’s a time for running hard and there’s a time for running easy.

When you have easy days, take them easy. When it’s time to work it, practice the similar conditions that you may face.

I would much rather show up to race day overprepared, than underprepared. Keep that in mind.

I also believe that adding in the soft surfaces, you also get less impact so this is going to create more variation in your footsteps.

What I mean by that is each footstep is going to be a little bit different, whereas if you’re running on the road, every footstep is relatively the same and that’s kind of how we get overuse injuries.

By running on softer surfaces, we’re going to have less impact on our body and our foot strike is going to have a lot less impact and stay less injury prone.

It’s also going to help increase your confidence on race day. It’s still good to maintain good weight training routines and ancillary work, when it comes to trail racing.

Because the trail is softer and it might be easier on your body, it could also be the reverse.

It can also be harsher on your body, with all the ups and downs and technical turns. You’re going to be working your body in ways which you haven’t worked it on the roads.

It’s very important to make sure that you’re staying up with working every major muscle group and doing the little things so they can add up in the end.

Mike, thank you for submitting your questions today. I absolutely love them and I think everyone in it will enjoy them and get great benefit from them moving forwards.

These are the kind of questions I love to answer as they’re very practical to everybody who is tuning in.

We can all use a little bit of help and information moving forwards so thank you for asking.

For those of you listening that want to have your question answered by one of the runners connect coaches, head over to runnersconnect.net/daily and click the record button to send your question.

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