Newbie question about pace/distance (help!)

julianniebananie

Hi everyone!

I've recently started running, within the past month. Last week my boyfriend came to visit, who is a seasoned runner, and really pushed me on our runs together. With him, I could run for a solid five minutes straight before having to walk to catch my breath, although we'd probably walk for equally that long before starting running again. However, now that I'm running by myself and trying to follow a beginner run/walk program, I find that I can't get beyond the 1:30 run interval. (1:30 running followed by 1:30 walking, ten times) I've tried doing 2 minutes running followed by 1:30 walking, but after a few sets I always run out of breath or just burn out.

I'm a fan of fast running-- I find running slowly painful in a mental/non-literal/figurative sense-- but during our runs together, my boyfriend always monitored my pace for me ("Whoah there, speed racer!"). Is it possible that I'm running too fast for my own level of fitness? How do I win if I don't enjoy running slower...?

Thanks.

MobyCarp

If you could run 5 minutes with a pace leader, but can only run a minute and a half on your own, you're running too fast on your own. I'd even suspect that if you're out of breath after 5 minutes, your boyfriend is setting a pace that's a bit too fast for you though not as bad as the pace you set for yourself.

The standard advice to advance to that 2 minute running interval is, run slower. Run enough slower so that you can complete 2 minutes running, and recover sufficiently in your 1:30 walking to run 2 minutes again. Maybe you can't do 10 sets of run 2, walk 1:30 at first. That's okay. Start with 8, or 6, or 4, whatever you can do. Do that for a week, then increase the number of sets. Maybe it takes you three weeks to build up to 10 sets of run 2, walk 1:30. That's okay. You're trying to both develop your conditioning, and learn to control your pace.

As to *why* you learn to control your pace . . . because if you don't, you won't be able to develop your conditioning. You'll burn out, or get injured, or both. I've been there. I got through the walk/run intervals, got through the first 5K, got through the first 10K, and ran myself into injury trying to get to the first half marathon. Twice. I had to learn to control my pace in order to develop as a distance runner. You're simply running into that hard fact earlier than I did.

TavistockToad

Yep, you're running too fast

julianniebananie

MobyCarp wrote: »

If you could run 5 minutes with a pace leader, but can only run a minute and a half on your own, you're running too fast on your own. I'd even suspect that if you're out of breath after 5 minutes, your boyfriend is setting a pace that's a bit too fast for you though not as bad as the pace you set for yourself.

The standard advice to advance to that 2 minute running interval is, run slower. Run enough slower so that you can complete 2 minutes running, and recover sufficiently in your 1:30 walking to run 2 minutes again. Maybe you can't do 10 sets of run 2, walk 1:30 at first. That's okay. Start with 8, or 6, or 4, whatever you can do. Do that for a week, then increase the number of sets. Maybe it takes you three weeks to build up to 10 sets of run 2, walk 1:30. That's okay. You're trying to both develop your conditioning, and learn to control your pace.

As to *why* you learn to control your pace . . . because if you don't, you won't be able to develop your conditioning. You'll burn out, or get injured, or both. I've been there. I got through the walk/run intervals, got through the first 5K, got through the first 10K, and ran myself into injury trying to get to the first half marathon. Twice. I had to learn to control my pace in order to develop as a distance runner. You're simply running into that hard fact earlier than I did.

Thanks so much for this response, all of this was suuuper helpful! (And if you'd like an update, I ran slower today and did all 10 sets of 2 minutes running! Even though I ran a mostly level route. That really was the key. Thanks!)