Here’s the bottom line. Training smart trumps training stupid. Obviously. Yet, the biggest mistake made over and over again is training at the wrong pace given one’s current fitness.

A perfect example is someone who races a 5K at 8 minutes/mile and trains at a nearly similar pace all week. No wonder they a) probably hate running and b) aren’t making any progress.

Proper training means training at a wide variety of paces, but mostly easy.

If you’re running a few seconds per mile slower than your 5K pace, that’s NOT easy. 1:30-2:00min/mile slower than 5K pace is more like it.

There are a few ways to determine your correct training paces, but one of the best (and simplest) is an all-out effort over a measured course or track.

For the motivation alone it’s hard to beat the atmosphere of a race, but let’s face it, sometimes races are just inconvenient and expensive.

Enter the time trial – a low key, inexpensive way to assess your current fitness accurately.

Remember, to get to Point B, you must establish Point A.

Attempting to just wing it and train ‘intuitively’ doesn’t work – unless you’ve got years and years of experience. Why waste your time and effort?

Join Us!

Oh hey – this Thursday night (3/14) at Run Club we will run a 1 mile time trial. Either meet at lululemon at 6pm sharp or at Penn Park at 6:15pm.

You get all the benefits of a time trial – establishing your point A and learning how to pace yourself – plus a positive group atmosphere which will help your motivation to push yourself. And let me re-iterate that you MUST push yourself hard for this to work.

Best part is that everyone who shows up will have they’re unique training paces emailed to them after the run. NO MORE GUESSING!

See you there?