@thisisme123 Adding to the chorus of run slower. If you’re trying to run for a long time, slower is better. It will feel PAINFULLY slow, but over time as your endurance build your easy pace will become faster, which also means the top of your range will become faster, too.
Check out r/running for a few days, or some of the runner-influencers (I like runtothefinish, running explained, running_fitness_dude, corcor_the_herbivore, and a bunch of others that show up on my feed). Consistently they talk about keeping the easy, easy, and the hard, hard, and spending about 80% of your time in easy—as in, so easy you can comfortably hold a conversation without being winded. To get there, you have to slow TF down. (Another metric is to maintain your HR in zone2, but that’s harder to measure accurately without a test in a lab or some high intensity—and longer than 0.5mi—running with HR data. The rule of thumb of 60-70% of 220 minus your age may understate your zone 2 range, but you really cant be too slow if you’re working toward endurance)
I’ve only been doing this for about a year. My “easy” pace a year ago was about 14:00 (4.2) and that had my HR averaging 163 and peaked at 175 for 30 minutes. I did a recovery run the other day, same time but about 13:30 (4.4), and my HR averaged 143 peaking at 150 (my zones are a little higher, but I have the data to back it up and it matches my conversational pace). I got there by slowing down and making sure either my HR was in the right range or I could hold a conversation. I have only hit 6.2 and higher when I’ve been doing speed work and then only for a short time (like 400 repeats or something, almost never more than a half mile at a time). And I know I’m not done improving—it just takes time and consistency. I went from barely being able to run more than a mile to regularly running 5+ miles (slowly
) to getting ready to train for my first half marathon in that time.
I also want to suggest that it will probably take a while to go far and fast. Start with a structured program and just keep showing up. The gains will come eventually. You’ve already taken the first step, just keep showing up.