You don’t have to run fast while training, to run faster when it matters. 

One of the things that my coach preaches, is the importance of running slowly.  Logging lots of miles at an easy pace, builds up your running endurance and it pays off when you want to run fast. 

I have been helping my wife get back into running.  Back in the middle of November, she ran a 5K Time Trial, to set a base line for a 12 week training block.  She ran that Time Trial at an 11:28 minutes/mile pace.

Her training block consisted of running 6 times a week, at a very easy pace.  Throughout those 12 weeks, she never ran faster than a 12:30 minutes/ mile pace.  What she did do, was to actually run pretty much all of her scheduled runs, averaging 5-6 runs a week.

Today, I got to watch her do her second 5K Time Trial (on the same route as the first one).  The weather was not ideal, with temperatures in the mid 30′ and a cold wind blowing.  As I watched her run, I could tell she was on track to easily beat her November time.  That she did.  She ran at a 10:34 minutes/ mile pace this time.  That’s a 54 second per mile improvement, in just 12 weeks.

She was somewhat shocked at her time today, when she saw what it was.  I wasn’t.  This running slowly approach just works.  Consistency and avoiding the ‘beat yesterday’ mentality is the key.