Running HELP!

[Blaire10]

I have been running about 2-3 miles 3-4 times/week these last few months, but have hit a MAJOR wall! Tried running 2 miles today and it felt like death. My running partner is getting faster so I tried keeping his pace and it did not work out in my favor lol. I need tips to increase my endurance and speed. 

I would consider myself fit, but have an extremely sedentary job. So the only time I move is when I get running and chores around the house. 

Any tips you've got, i'll take 🙂

[mtntopman]

I have to start my runs on the slow side to allow my heartrate and breathing to sync, I have much better results doing that. If I start out too fast, it seems I never really catch that deep breath I need. May just be me.

[t.parker]

@mtntopman this is usually a sign of running without a warm-up. A good warm-up before a run helps a lot. My warm-up contains squats, jumping jacks (elevate HR), high jumps, pistol squats, and a few other exercises and takes about 5 minutes. Then I can run faster from the very beginning.

[mtntopman]

@t.parkerI've did warmups and a lot of times walk the first mile but it takes jogging that first mile to get into second gear seems like . . . Guess we all a little different . . . 

[Heybales]

If the running up till now has always been pressing the upper limits of your ability, then your body has not been able to improve it's cardiovascular ability nearly as much as calmer training could.

So to increase intensity from an already at the limit pace is very difficult.

Your mitochondria improvements to deal with burning fat (endurance) and lactic acid (endurance) are built up during periods of easy running, not at the high limit side of the range.

You may have been running per HR zones - but those are calculated based on an estimated HRmax which may be no where near correct 220-age.

For a woman the bell curve is so wide you have a better chance of being outside an avg 10 bpm range than within it.

This is a case of needing to slow down to speed up.

Body needs to improve fat metabolism ability and then the speed can increase.

3 x weekly needs to be like that, maybe get by with 1 x at old levels.

http://www.drnicksrunningblog.com/how-mark-allen-improved-his-speed-by-slowing-down-with-a-heart-rat...

I have no idea if that site or person is a quack in other things - but his posting of the story from Mark Allen telling it himself is good enough.

While he is talking about much higher endurance levels - if you start out wrong you can get yourself into the same boat with much shorter workouts.

If the case is indeed running up around a limit normally, then this applies.

I took 3 weeks of slowing down to speed back up faster than before. Meaning my HR was the same but my pace went faster than it was prior.

Since you are at start of training - it could be that short for you too. But I always had pretty good aerobic changes so perhaps not a good comparison.