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Regular_Zombie t1_itleu73 wrote

Reply to comment by Snooberrey in [OC] Visualising 12 months of running with Strava by detalbruh

I appreciate that running longer distances is going to result in slower average pace, but there is only a small uptick in distances in January before falling back in February, yet by March the average pace is 45s/km slower than it was in October.

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PMurSSN t1_itlgsii wrote

There's also greater variation in pace as the race approaches. Probably due to the varying distances ran in the higher volume weeks. In September, there's 1 run that is below the 4:30 pace which is presumable a short run focused on pace vs the ~5:45 pace run in the same month which was likely a much longer run.

In the beginning (October) it seems that all runs are cluster around the ~4:40 pace, so they were likely more consistent in effort/distance and much shorter.

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Fango925 t1_itmoabf wrote

I'm a cyclist but I imagine it's similar in all endurance cardio sports - a lot of time training is spent in a lower heart rate deliberately. Somewhere like 80% of your training should be spent ~120-140bpm (obviously varies depending on the person.) Could be that they're slowing down to deliberately lower their heart rate in order to have better endurance/faster paces over time rather than a faster first KM

It's not always productive to be running as fast as you can

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detalbruh OP t1_itn4smz wrote

Yeah these comments and bang on - I researched / talked to some running friends and was not going to be effective to continue running at 4:30-4:40 if I wanted to build endurance and form to run a marathon.

The variation in runs is also correct - that was part of the mara training program. I guess what I found interesting was that my interval/fast runs in late 2022 were at a lower HR than late 2021, meaning at a rudimentary level my fitness had improved.

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theshaqattack t1_itpahpy wrote

I run marathons.

A generally accepted training methodology involves slow runs being the bulk of your weekly mileage. Most plans involve three key workouts. A speed day, a threshold day, and a long run day. The first two are faster efforts while the long run can be uptempo if you want but also slowed to ensure adaptation is occurring over the build.

Looking at OP’s cumulative weekly km’s, I feel they’re not exactly running a lot during the week relatively to a typical marathon plan. But imagine these three sessions take up 20k in a week, the remaining 40km being slower would reduce the average pace overall.

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