How to improve your running by better pacing (yourself)
Learning how to pace yourself is one of the most critical skills a runner can develop.
The pace we move at is an individual process. It varies from person to person and is dependant on one’s physiological parameters i.e. heart rate, VO2 max, lactate threshold.
Note that what we mean by pace isn’t just the fastest speed you can run, or the natural pace you do your day-to-day runs at, we mean all types of running paces, and there are lots of them.
Think of your pace as the effort or intensity you are exerting in your run. The effort you exert is not always the same across each training session, or at least, it shouldn’t be. To maximise your performance, you need to incorporate lots of different running intensities into your training so that you can build endurance, improve your physiological parameters and build up your aerobic and anaerobic capacities.
Finding the rhythm of each of your paces will take time before they become intuitive but we are here to help you. In this article, we want to share the different types of running paces, how you can practice them, and why they will bring you to the next level. Are you ready? Let’s go!
The different types of running paces
Jogging is used in warm-ups, cool-downs and recovery runs.
Jogging Pace (warm-up, cool down, recovery):
This is a slow and comfortable pace that helps to build endurance without causing a significant rise in heart rate or putting strain on the body. It is a level up from a fast walk and level below an easy running pace. Jogging is used in warm-ups, cool-downs and recovery runs.
Easy Pace (conversational, comfortable, base pace):
This is a comfortable pace that a runner should be able to maintain without strain and while still being able to hold a conversation. If you cannot talk or maintain a steady breathing rhythm then you are likely going beyond your easy pace and should slow down. Easy pace is the level up from jogging and is often called our ‘base pace’ because it is the foundation for our running training.
Tempo Pace (Steady, cruise pace)
Tempo pace is a pace that is sustained, steady, and moderately hard. A good way to think of this is that it is an effort that ranges from medium to medium-hard and that the effort should not leave you breathless. If you start to lose your breathing rhythm completely, then you have likely pushed into your threshold or hard pace and should slow down just a little.
Threshold Pace (intensity controlled, lactate threshold):
Threshold pace is an effort level that is a challenge but is not all out for the distance you are running and is maintainable over a reasonable running distance e.g. 20 minutes. Threshold pace, is pretty challenging and ranges on the boundary between your aerobic and anaerobic effort. By training at this boundary level, you are at a place where your lactate does not accumulate significantly in the blood during a workout, but rather stays at a constant level. By training at this pace more often, over time you can improve your lactate threshold and allows yourself to train harder more often, with faster recovery between sessions.
Hard pace would be considered close to your race or personal best pace for a distance.
Hard Pace (fast, hard, interval):
This is a pace that is near sprinting. It is typically 85-90% of total effort and is fuelled by your anaerobic fitness rather than aerobic fitness. Hard pace is something you should almost always only enter into for short intervals as it depletes the oxygen store in the muscles (glycogen) and therefore is not sustainable over longer segments. Hard pace comes into play in interval training which we will talk about later in this article.
Pacing in practice
So these are our main effort groups in pacing. All of which have a role to play in your training but how can you practice them and what will they add to your performance?
To get a feeling for how each intensity feels like for you, the best thing to do is use the guidance of their definitions to start trying them out. It is natural for this to involve some trial and error. These paces will feel different depending on your experience level and your physiological parameters but with practice, you can build an intuitive understanding of what they feel like for you - your cadence, your stride length, your breathing, your heart rate for each intensity zone.
By having a knowledge of what each pace feels like for your physiological self, rather than comparing yourself to others, you can gain huge benefits. Evidence suggests establishing exercise workloads or intensities based on your individual physiological events allows you to minimize injury and fatigue risks, but above all to enhance individual adaptations and respond to the demands of your training plan (Scharhag-Rosenberger et al., 2012; Mann et al., 2014; Wolpern et al., 2015).
When you have this understanding, you can start to incorporate varying paces into your training sessions to improve your endurance, speed, and ultimately, your enjoyment of running.
The different types of training runs
Here are some important training types that you can incorporate into your plan and make the most of these different running paces:
Recovery Runs:
Recovery runs are taken at your jogging pace and are shorter and less intense than your other training sessions. They are usually done after an intense training session as a way to actively recover. Recovery runs allow runners to build endurance while not making any new demands on their bodies. In these slower sessions, you provide huge benefits for yourself that can help you in our other, faster training sessions. When you do recovery runs, your body learns to burn fat more efficiently and also to use your muscle and cardiovascular systems more effectively (Ghazarian, 2021).
Training Runs:
A Training Run is the most common type of run. It is the default workout and is taken at your easy or base pace. Training runs are great opportunities to add to your mileage and to focus on your running form, allowing it to come more naturally in more intense sessions and races.
Long runs help to improve your bodies efficiency of fat burning
Long Runs:
A long run is a longer version of your training run and is usually taken at your easy pace but for a distance that could be 20-30% of your weekly mileage. Long runs are great to include in your training because they help to improve your bodies efficiency of fat burning and improve the strength of your heart, reducing your resting heart rate (Middaugh, 2021).
Progression Runs:
Progression runs are continuous runs that start slow and finish fast. After a jogged warm-up, Runners begin with an easy pace for a set duration or distance, getting incrementally faster, and finishing the run at a more intense pace. This type of session gives you the opportunity to progress from a jog, through to your easy pace, your tempo pace, your threshold pace, and eventually your hard pace (Not always). They are great ways to improve your anaerobic fitness through steady miles, while incorporating some speed work at the same time. If you would like to try a guided progression run, check out this Lupa guided ‘5k in progression’.
Tempo Runs:
A tempo run utilises your thempo pace throughout. This is a run where you will be pushing yourself from start to finish but in a way that is controlled and sustainable. Tempo runs are a great way to improve your anaerobic or lactate threshold levels. These are things that over time will help you to run faster, for longer, and with better recovery between runs.
Interval Runs:
Intervals are sessions that intermittently shift between threshold or hard pace and jogging or easy pace over set periods of time or distance e.g. stride for 30 seconds, recovery jog for 1 minute, repeated 10 times. This type of training helps to increase your maximum aerobic capacity and work more muscle fibers than you do in your normal recovery or training runs.
In summary
By varying your training and incorporating these different types of sessions, you can bring your running to a different level.
Pacing is the essential element to getting to this level. By taking the time to practice running at different speeds and understanding how your body, breath, and heart rate feel in different effort zones, you will eventually be able to intuitively move between running paces and bring them to your training at the right moments. This is what will increase your VO2 Max, reduce your resting heart rate, optimise your muscle strength, and maximise your enjoyment of running.
Sounds pretty good eh?
If you need help with your pacing, check out @LupaRun on Instagram on January 11ath at 12pm GMT. Something big is coming.
Until then, please reach out if you have any questions and continue to enjoy your running!
