supercity88
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 9 Aug 2009
- Messages
- 12,254
No I tend to do either - like you Said theres nothing better than a 6am summer morning when there’s no one about on the canal.
I think if I was to do this more than twice a week I’d have to really learn to slow down as I don’t think my body could cope with the load the way I currently run.
ive just got back from a 12km and wanted to stay slow and keep my heart rate in the 130isg zone but I find it really tough to just trot slowly. I don’t know if it’s just boredom or habit!
It is quite hard to do, but the benefits are huge. When I was building up to the marathon distance I found the long easy runs felt harder because it was so much time on the legs and running more slowly felt unnatural. But when it came to doing half marathon races in the build up, I just felt so much quicker. There is a lot of evidence to say running slowly makes you quicker, it helps you burn fat as an energy source for example, and it strengthens the slow twitch muscle fibres which helps prevent injuries. You could always just throw a few tempo miles in there so you feel like you've done some quicker running, but keep the majority in the easy category.