Run Speed Question

The saying goes 'slow down to run faster'.  It works.  You slow down your pace to enable yourself to run more, more being an extra day per week or longer on your long run of the week, etc.  This will enable you to gain a lot more fitness (aerobic) and your pace at the same RPE (effort) will start to decrease.

I was the same way when I started running in 2001/2.  For some reason I can't recall I felt like 8:00 was the slowest pace I had to run and would end up with various lower leg issues and plateaued.  Fast forward to '04 when I found BT and learned that that is not how to train.  90% of your runs should be at an "easy" pace.  This allows for a good recovery and hopefully no soft tissue problems.  I'm sure others will chime in too.

First, if you want to run by pace and have a 5k or a timed distance you can do use this run calculator to give you an idea what your runs paces should be.

There are articles on BT that reference what RPE is and also for HR monitor training.  Each is a method that can work.  In '06 I used HR monitor to train for a HIM, that enabled be to really learn my RPE, and guess what, when I used the run calculator the paces lined up for both the HRM and RPE.  Today I run by RPE and pace.

Good luck in your training and ask away!

Thanks for posting that link. That calculator is interesting...