The other day I suggested to a friend to go running with her.
Three guesses what I got as an answer:
You are much faster than me!
Quite apart from the fact that the condition or the pace – i.e. the running speed – plays no role at all here.
Who should determine what fast and what slow is?
Who says you have to run 5 kilometers in 25 minutes and 10 kilometers in under an hour to get a good To be a runner?
And who the hell determines what pace the Correct is?!
Here there is simply no right and no wrong.
You alone define your own running speed.
Don’t be blinded by the pace boasts of other runners.
Everyone as he likes and above all everyone as he can.
And since there is still some confusion about pace, this article clears up any doubts about running speed.
What does the pace say?
I used to think running was easy.
Lace up your shoes and hit the road.
Of course, this still works, but the deeper you delve into the subject, the more technical terms pop up.
At the same time the pace is nothing else than your speed while running.
Calculated by the quotient of time walked and distance traveled.
If you run 10 kilometers in 47 minutes, then you had an average running speed of 4:42 min/km over this distance.
Expressed as a formula:
47 minutes / 10 kilometers = 4,7 min
And 0,7 minutes x 60 seconds = 42 seconds (result in 4:42 min/km)
It’s not wrong to know how to measure your running speed, but nowadays all running watches and apps record your pace.
What is a good average while running?
This is a pace of 2:50 min/km.
Kipchoge ran at an average speed of 21.2 km/h.
There is no doubt: this pace is superhuman and for most hobby athletes not even runable at 100 meters.
This pace is even faster than some people cycle on their bikes.
To run a marathon in under 3 hours, you need to maintain a pace of 4:15 min/km.
And if you break the 3-hour barrier in a marathon, you can count yourself in the upper third of runner society.
What this means for a training effort and how difficult it is, you can read in my Breaking3 project.
But which pace is good now?
There can only be one answer to this.
The pace is individual for everyone and of course depends on the experience, age, fitness level and talent of the runner.
When I started running after my active soccer career, my average pace was 6:30 min/km.
But with regular running and varied workouts, your pace will improve very quickly.
Overview of the targeted race times and the resulting pace for the slow endurance run
How can I improve my pace?
After a shin fracture in 2011 I gave up my career as a soccer player.
Nevertheless I wanted to stay active.
That’s why I bought my first real running shoes and invested in a Nike sensor to track my running route and performance.
At my very first run over 1.61 kilometers I had an average pace of 9:22 min/km.
One year later I needed only 30 minutes for 5 kilometers.
And again one year later I ran the 10 kilometers in 50 minutes.
As you can see, you increase your speed almost automatically when you run.
You achieve your successes in jogging relatively quickly.
As soon as you are in good shape, you can try interval training.
This will not only make you faster, you will also optimize your running economy at the same time.
By the way, you can also improve your pace with regular strength and stabilization training.
Only with strong muscles can you maintain your running technique over a longer period of time.
Strength training not only strengthens your muscles, but also improves your running economy
This is not the way to get faster
They are supposed to exist.
People who want to have it all and, above all, must have it all.
Best without much effort and already yesterday.
With such an attitude you won’t get far in life.
And such an attitude is pure poison when it comes to endurance sports.
When running really no If you want to make progress, then you should not make the following mistakes in running training!
Run as fast as you can
They are the hardliners of running.
They run past you huffing and puffing with their heads up high.
According to the motto: The faster, the better.
This way, the training was completed faster, but fast running is not efficient in the long run.
Because the optimal development of fitness plays a fundamental role in endurance training, as it is the basis of all performance-determining abilities.
A runner without a well-developed basic endurance can do an infinite amount of tempo training – but it will not make him significantly faster.
So the better you have worked on your foundation, the more successful you can be in further training with your speed.
Besides, your body has to get used to the stress of running.
While your cardiovascular system adapts after a few days, your tendons and muscles need much longer to be able to take the strain.
Let it therefore slowly go.
Run as much as you can
Much helps much.
Another misconception in endurance sports.
It might be a lot of fun to extend your running streak day by day.
From a sports medicine point of view, however, this running trend is complete nonsense:
- through continuous exercise you weaken your immune system
- without sufficient regeneration you will not achieve any performance development
- there is a risk of overload damage to your musculoskeletal system
Of course, streak running can also increase motivation.
However, there are much better reasons to motivate you to run.
For a beginner runner 2-3 training sessions per week are sufficient for now.
The running distances should not be increased more than 10 percent per week, in order to prevent overload damage.
If you have trained long enough in the basic endurance range, you can also start with interval training.
Do not run regularly
As with any other sport, you will only get better at running if you train continuously.
The stimulus must be applied regularly and over a longer period of time to achieve an increase in performance.
Similar or the same stimuli have to act on your body again and again in the right time intervals.
If this is not the case, there is either no adaptation at all or a negative adaptation.
Then there is the threat of performance losses.
Because if regular and continuous load stimuli are missing, your body will regress again.
A period of 4-6 weeks with regular training loads is required for lasting adaptation.
You alone determine the right pace
How fast does a good jogger run?
How long do you run at 5 kilometers?
And what is a good average for running?
These are all questions that cannot be answered in a general way.
Because the pace is as different as the runners themselves.
And what seems slow to one may already be a brisk pace to another.
However, you should not let yourself be distracted or impressed by this.
While some runners train hard for increased performance, other athletes have been blessed with running talent.
But as long as you enjoy running, the running pace should be secondary.
You are faster at any time than those who stayed with their butts on the couch!
4 comments on "Improve pace: 3 great tips to run faster"
Hi Robin,
I wanted to ask because your table with the 10km times irritated me. what do you mean by endurance run? at 40min for 10km it is a 4 average and not greater than 5:30min/km. You have to explain this to me again or I am making a stupid mistake in thinking ?
I always keep the sentence with Kipchoge in mind and am always fascinated that this person has a higher average pace when running than I have when cycling. There I make myself always clear which for an enormous achievement that was and/or. is.
Hello Christian,
Shame on me – this caption slipped through my fingers during my correction. I have adapted it directly.
The table relates the target race time (left column) to the training pace for the slow endurance run (right column). That means, to run 10 kilometers in 40 minutes, you run of course with an average of 4 kilometers. But you should be able to run 5:30 min/km in a relaxed way to train for this goal – in general the slow endurance runs should be run between 60-90 seconds slower than the targeted competition pace.
And as far as Kipchoge is concerned: The guy is simply a machine. Of course, who had the support, running shoes and track food. Despite everything, however, he still had to run the 42.195 kilometers himself&
When I think about the fact that I run my intervals at 3:30 or 3:15 min/km and Kipchoge can run an entire marathon another 25 seconds faster, then I also become aware of this inhuman performance again and again!
Best regards
Robin from runnersfinest.de
Ah ok, I have never heard of that. But maybe good to know. Everyone talks about the "slow! Endurance run, I have always wondered how slow a slow endurance run actually is. But I have to admit, when I run slowly, depending on my physical condition, I sometimes find it more exhausting than running faster. I once heard that for an ultra, for example, you have to learn to run slowly and for a long time. That would be partly as difficult as running fast all the time.
Then perhaps the question would be. How long should this slow endurance run be then? Is there then also a reference value?
Hi Christian,
Sure, such a slow endurance run can be quite exhausting. Especially since you slow down the longer you run (dehydration, exhaustion, etc.).) – so if you run strictly by heart rate, you have to accept a reduced pace at the end of your unit.
How long an endurance run should be depends on your objective.
For a track runner 90 minutes is already long. For a marathon runner, the endurance run is just getting started.
But as a guideline you can already define between 90-180 minutes&