Thursday, February 26, 2009

Mid-week Pacing Question

Four miles easy was on the schedule and that's basically what I did (included in the mileage is a half mile warm-up at the beginning and a half mile cool down at the end). I'm very happy to report that hammy wasn't much of a bother today.

Also, after talking with the technical support people, I figured out how to strong arm my Garmin into place on my existing cradle so that I could get it charged for my run. Therefore, I have a graph to show my splits (broken down by half mile). Basically, the w/u and c/d was at about 11:30min/mi and the rest of the run was centered around a 10:45 min/mi pace.



Here's where the audience participation comes into play. MacMillan calls 10:45 my steady-state pace. However, I'm not exactly sure what that means! And to be honest, I wasn't targetting any specific pace, this is just what natually occurred when I ran today.

If anyone wants to clue me in on what steady-state pace is, please do so. Is this what I should have run? Or should I have run faster or slower today? McMillan does give paces for easy runs, tempo runs, etc. I know that my long runs on the weekend should be easy pace, but for the shorter runs during the week days I really have no idea what pace to choose.

15 comments:

  1. glad you got Sir Garmin to charge for ya again. The training schedule that I'm using describes the steady run as : Steady run is a run below targeted race pace.Run at comfortable speed; if in doubt, go slow. I guess it's not marathon pace, but not an LSD run either. Safe to assume somewhere in between? hope that helps.

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  2. I have a bunch of pacing questions that I'm planning to bring up on my blog too. For steady state I say conversational. So not quite as fast as a tempo run, but faster than a long run. Hope that helps.

    My problem is that all of my paces seem too close. So either my slow runs are to fast or fast runs are too slow when compared to McMillian or Runners World.

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  3. I have no idea but let's guess... Steadt state pace - something you can keep doing over and over. You r easy run pace.

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  4. I'd say steady state would be a comfortable pace, maybe not quite as slow as a LSD pace. Of course, lately, my pace seems to be all over the place, so I'm probably not the best judge of where to try to be...

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  5. Hey are you memeber of the NM Outlaws?? I know a few of those guys and gals..!! great people!

    rockon`

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  6. Google says: It is the pace or intensity that corresponds to no significant rise in blood lactate concentration over a long time period, specifically <1.0 mmol/L increase during the exercise period. Now you know. LOL

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  7. I was stalking the comments to get a sense of what "steady state" means, cuz I have no idea!

    Glad to hear you were able to show your Garmin who's boss!

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  8. I'm still confused over many of the 'pace' terminiologies... some of the answers above sound about right, though.

    Nice job on the run and glad to hear hammy kept quiet.

    Have a nice weekend!

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  9. Oooh! Me! Steady state is the pace you run at when you are not doing a tempo run or a long run, but one in between in time and distance. :-) LOL...

    From McMillan itself


    Steady-State Runs

    Steady-state runs were once a staple in the training programs of U.S. distance runners but somehow fell out of favor. Runners now seem to have only two speeds, slow and fast - no in-between. But the steady-state run is one of the most beneficial types of workouts especially as you complete your base training and during the initial parts of your Stamina phase (see Lecture 5). The appropriate pace range for steady-state runs is between your 30K and half-marathon race pace. Your heart rate will likely be between 83 and 87% of maximum and the runs should last at least 25 minutes and can go as long as an hour and 15 minutes.

    These are pretty tough efforts not because of the pace but because of the duration of running so be prepared to increase your concentration to stay on pace and to take a good recovery day afterwards in order to reap the full benefits. Begin with shorter steady-state runs of 25 minutes at 30K race pace and build to one hour runs at 30K pace with shorter (25- to 45-minute) steady-state runs at half-marathon pace.

    Unlike the three Endurance workouts discussed above, steady-state runs are the first workouts that require a warm-up. For all the remaining workouts, you should begin the run with 10 to 20 minutes at an easy pace. Following this warm-up (which may also include stretching and faster "strides"), you can proceed into the continuous steady-state run.

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  10. thank goodness for wes because the rest of us are clueless

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  11. Apparently I was wrong about this because I was going to say I thought "what naturally occurs when I run" is a perfect steady-state pace. :) Gotta brush up on my McMillan.

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  12. I'm glad you got your Garmin to charge. Regarding pacing: I have so much to learn!!

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  13. Yahoo Wes! Even better Yahoo, the "G" is working!

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  14. I think shorter run paces depend on their purpose. There are some short runs that are meant to be recovery runs, hence run at an easy pace. There are some that are meant to increase your LT, speed and power. Any shorter run that is not a recovery run should include a warm-up, cool-down run at a slower pace.

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