Running about 50km a week, target easy pace should be somewhere near 6:20 based on my recent 10K. Every single easy run I start at 6:15 and by kilometre three I look down and I am at 5:35 without feeling like I sped up. Heart rate ends up around 160 for a run that is supposed to be conversational. I have tried starting slower and it just delays it. Is this a discipline problem or something else?
Check your terrain and your route. I had exactly this and it turned out my "flat" loop had a gentle 2 percent descent for the middle three kilometres. Drift in one direction only is usually a hill you cannot feel.
Same, plus wind. Running out into a headwind and back with it makes the second half feel identical at 40 seconds per km quicker.
Also worth asking whether 6:20 is really your easy pace or a formula's opinion of it. Zones from a 10K time are a starting estimate. If 6:00 genuinely lets you hold a conversation and recover fine, the number was wrong, not you. Track how you feel on the next hard session rather than trusting the calculator.
Fair. Though my legs are definitely heavier on quality days than they should be, which suggests the calculator is closer than I want it to be.
Something practical: run easy runs with someone slower, or on a treadmill at a set speed, once a week. Externalising the pace decision breaks the habit faster than willpower does.
One last thing: heavy legs on quality days is the actual symptom to fix. Easy pace is not a virtue test, it is what pays for the hard sessions.
@dartfit_dana · 3mo ago · 3 replies
Mostly a feedback problem rather than a discipline problem. Watching pace on the watch means you correct after you have already drifted, and by then the effort feels normal so you defend it. Two things fixed it for me. First, run the whole easy run without looking at the watch at all, and instead hold a rule: you must be able to say a full sentence out loud without a breath break. Second, accept that easy running feels stupidly slow for about three weeks and then stops feeling slow because your aerobic base actually improves. The people who look effortless at 6:20 got there by being willing to look silly first.
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@mobility_moss · 3mo ago
The talk test is where I fall down, honestly. At 5:35 I can still talk, just in short sentences.
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@dartfit_dana · 3mo ago
Short sentences is the definition of too fast. The bar is boring, uninterrupted, slightly rambling speech. If you find yourself pausing to breathe mid-sentence you are running moderate, which is the pace that gets you tired without getting you fitter.
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