As you may know from my ritual of photographing the sunrise and posting these relentlessly repetitious photographs on this blog...
... I go out for a short run — it's 1.5 miles — every morning (that is, unless it's very cold, rainy, or dangerously windy). I've been doing this since September 2019, when I got the idea for this ritual, and I'm pleased with having kept it up. It's healthy and wholesome (and artistic and spiritual). I didn't think I was even able to run. I'd never been a runner, and I didn't even know how to breathe. I watched videos on how to breathe while running. I had to research what to wear.
But here's my question now. I'm not concerned with running a longer distance, but I would like to go faster. My iPhone records my speed. It shows a range of speed for any given run, and that varies, but it often goes as high as 4.9 mph. And yet it never hits 5. It's like the phone is toying with me. If I can do 4.9 on any given ordinary day, why do I never hit 5?
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79 comments:
Can you change the display so you only see whole numbers? That's what I'd do.
Long time runner here. Your question: " If I can do 4.9 on any given ordinary day, why do I never hit 5?"
My answer: because that is the habit you have fallen into. Nothing really wrong with that. You are doing a little over a 12 minute mile which really is a perfectly natural pace for your age and sex. But you might be surprised at how exact a running habit can be. When I go out to run my 3 miles this afternoon, without looking, I will be within 10 seconds per mile of the pace I always run if I don't look. That's just how it goes.
So, if you want to run faster, get a running watch (Apple Watch is great. Any Garmin is great.) and just run faster. But actually look at the watch and do it. Just a little bit. Try an 11:30 mile pace. After not too long, THAT will be your natural, "just go out and run" pace.
That’s interesting. 4.9mph puts you smack dab in the middle of the 4-6mph range considered an average jogging speed…
Not sure how your app is calculating. If for example it is using GPS and it loses your position in the woods it could be guessing on your true distance…
Is your path marked distance? Check your time with the stopwatch at the markers. If not maybe goto a trail that’s marked for distance to check…
If you throw your phone while running it will show 5 MPH.
A 12 minute mile is darn good for a 70 y/o. You should be happy you can do that.
I will say I abandoned GPS in the early days, but I was running around the Charles River basin where there are accurate distance markers for runners, even measured in smoots over the Harvard Bridge if you want em…
Second Harsh Pencil. Muscle memory is a powerful thing, as is your biological clock and all your other basic physical systems. If you run the same course at the same time every day, you will run the same pace unless you actively try to change it.
"get a running watch (Apple Watch is great. Any Garmin is great.) and just run faster."
exactly ..
To run faster, you need to run faster. That's not a tautology, you need your body to understand what running faster feels like. Try this: Run 100 yds at an obviously faster pace than you normally run. Not your maximum capability, just faster than normal. Then walk for a while until you feel comfortable again after that effort, then repeat that faster pace for 100 yards. Do that for the full 1.5 mile normal run. Over time, aim to increase the 100 yard sections and decrease the walking. Soon you will do the whole 1.5 mile run at a faster pace. This essentially is interval training.
There are plenty of YouTube videos that cover speed work. The essence is a dynamic warm-up with an emphasis on perfecting your form. If you look at the top Canyon distance runners there running style is not very different from Usain bolt.
Then growingly develop speed by doing power tens and twenties. I believe in running they call these fart licks.
See about stretching out your gait, even a little. IOW, slightly longer steps at the same rhythm. If you go from 28 inches to 28.5 inches you'll get your 5 mph.
Try cutting back the distance to say 1 mile and seeing whether you can get your average speed above 5 mph. Then start increasing the distance. In general, you don't get better or stronger doing the exact same thing every day. If you're concerned with maintaining your ritual, break it up into two runs, even if one run starts right after the other. You may very well be running, say, 5.1 mph for the first half and 4.7 mph for the second half. It would be nice for you to know that. This article is about rowing, but the principles are the same: http://journal.crossfit.com/2002/11/strategies-for-a-seven-minute-1.tpl
Agree with the other runners here. Pick a small landmark on your regular run that is about 100 yards from your current location and then sprint to that landmark. Then run the rest of your route as usual. Once you get used to that one sprint, add another and then another. You'll notice that your overall pace will decrease even if you stop your sprint.
Are you stretched out, warmed up and hydrated before you start?
Overstriding is a common amateur mistake. Just like rowing and swimming you need to hit the catch. This is where the pawing drill comes in handy. With an elongated stride it's like putting the brakes on and it's bad for your joints.
Speed up or round up
But don’t count your warm-up
When you get up to speed
You’ll see five indeed
The way to get faster as a cyclist is to ride with faster cyclists. I know adding fast, shorter group rides significantly reduced my solo long distance ride times.
Following that idea, find a running partner and do sprints on some days instead of your run. Or sprints during your run if you can push yourself harder for a short time. Your average pace on those days should be lower but your speed on your non interval days should go up.
Again, from my experience as a cyclist, not a runner.
Two suggestions:
-Check your cadence (how many strides a minute you take). It should be around 180 steps per minute, or 90 if you only count one foot. There is some recent research that suggests it's a little more complicated than that, but the simple answer is still similar. I know my knee problems cleared up when I shortened my stride (by increasing my cadence). You spend less time in the air and thus have a softer impact. You will almost certainly run faster with a faster cadence.
- Interval training. This can get very complicated, but the short Mayo article is a good place to start. Interval training will make your movements more efficient and increase your blood oxygen level. Interval training is the standard route to getting faster.
A good book on running (Jack Daniels' is a classic) will give you much more detail.
Only run downhill.
rehajm said...
there are accurate distance markers for runners, even measured in smoots over the Harvard Bridge
Serious Question, involving Physics and Relativity...
As the Universe ages, should a smoot shink in size?
I mean,
i used to be nearly 6' (5'11.5") back when i was in my twenties; now at 60, i'm barely 5'11"
My dad used to BE 6 foot tall; but before he died he was only 5' 10".. And Now he's 6 feet under
So, to repeat.. Shouldn't a smoot shink, as the universe ages?
Ann asked, "If I can do 4.9 on any given ordinary day, why do I never hit 5?"
At your current pace you are completing your 1.5 mile run in 18 minutes and 22 seconds. To hit 5.0 mph you have to complete your run in 18 minutes flat. I suggest concentrating on sprinting the last bit in an effort to beat 18 minutes rather than trying to maintain a slightly faster pace for the whole run.
Finish Fast!
Unless you're training for a race, it's not as complicated as some here make it seem. While you're out on your morning run, push yourself a little more. Don't over do it, just try to relax into a quicker stride. You already know how to run faster; especially if, like most runners, you pick up the pace as you approach the finish.
What anonymous J and others said, interval training once or twice a week. However, this video presents some additional options.'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m71wcSRg-1k
oh oh ! i know!
Since you just want that tenth of a mph, start sprinting the home stretch, Start with the last 20 yards, then the next day the last 25..
Won't be long before you've got your 5mph, plus it will feel fun
"And There Goes Althouse, she's pulling ahead down the home stretch, she's heading to the wire..
And. it's ALTHOUSE! by a nose!!!
I second the call for an Apple Watch (since you're already invested in the Apple ecosystem. That way, you can see exactly how much progress you're making and if you want to go a little faster, just try to dig in a bit more at the end.
The other good thing about the watch is it will measure your heart rate. It won't matter much over the course of the last quarter or half a mile, but you'll be able to see the difference going faster makes, and get a good baseline of where you're at.
Shouldn't a smoot shink, as the universe ages?
I’ll resist breaking out into the Dead Parrott Sketch but a shrunken Smoot is not a Smoot.
Pilates might help, though…
Funny how you all assume she’s not running faster. I’ll give her more credit until presented with evidence to the contrary…
I wouldn't trust any speedometer. Besides, there are variables such as stride length.
Measure your distance, mark your time from start to finish, then do the math. That's the only accurate way to determine actual speed.
Fartlek: Swedish for "speed play." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fartlek
If you run the same route everyday, then don't depend on the GPS tracker to record anything- focus on the amount of time it takes with a timer. I stopped running a number of years ago, but I would do my 6 mile route in about the same amount of time every day, give or take a minute once I got adjusted to the distance and route, unless it were very warm and humid. When I wanted to increase the pace over the normal, I had to make a conscious decision to do so, with a stop watch to mark the intervals.
There's a Spinal Tap joke here somewhere...
It sounds like you graduate from Air Basic training by exceeding the minimum 1.5 mile run time of 22:30. That is for 18 year olds!
And yet it never hits 5. It's like the phone is toying with me. If I can do 4.9 on any given ordinary day, why do I never hit 5?
Over an 18 minute span you are in aerobic activity levels. You want to focus on 2 systems in your body to improve your running speed over distance: Your capillary bed density and your body's nervous system specifically the glial sheaths.
While jogging you are commanding your muscles through central pattern generators in your nervous system that form the connection between brain and muscles. The neurons you have connecting your brain to your muscles are set in number for the most part. But they are sheathed by Glial cells that feed the neurons and help them keep firing.
Many people do not run out of muscle energy. They run out of brain and neuron energy and can no longer tell their muscles to keep contracting. In order to build these glial sheaths you want to do something anaerobic. Once a day is enough. This means pushing yourself until you cannot really talk comfortably or at all. It doesn't have to be for long or particularly intense.
When you push yourself into anaerobic exertion levels your body releases lactate which acts as fuel for your muscles. But once it is in the blood stream it also acts as a hormone that tells your body to rebuild and strengthen the glial network that feeds your upper motor cortex(brain) and your lower motor cortex(nervous system).
People who run out of muscle energy need to build their capillary bed density. Your body sends nourishment for your muscles out in the blood and the efficiency of delivery of glucose and lipids to the muscles is governed by how many and how small the capillaries are in your muscles.
The best way to build capillary density has been shown to be 1 to 1 aerobic interval training. If you want to train for a 1.5 mile run what you would do is run half a mile at your aerobic maximum. Say it takes 5 minutes. Then rest for 5 minutes. Then run the next half mile in 5 minutes and rest 5 minutes etc.
"Try this: Run 100 yds at an obviously faster pace than you normally run. Not your maximum capability, just faster than normal. Then walk for a while until you feel comfortable again after that effort, then repeat that faster pace for 100 yards. Do that for the full 1.5 mile normal run. Over time, aim to increase the 100 yard sections and decrease the walking. Soon you will do the whole 1.5 mile run at a faster pace. This essentially is interval training."
That's similar to the method I followed getting to being able to run in the first place. I ran with the idea of stopping and walking whenever I wanted, and within about a week, I was able to run the entire distance. Once I did that, however, I didn't let myself switch to just walking, because I'd proven to myself that I could do it.
And I have done intervals of fast and slow... but only while running/jogging the whole time, not switching to walking. Anyway, I do attempt to run faster at times, and iPhone shows the range of speeds, so I would think that this would sometimes work to get me to 5. It's always just 4.9.
As for muscle memory, most of the time I'm not at 4.9. My standard is probably more like 4 and often even lower. Basically, Meade can keep up with me just fine by only walking.
"At your current pace you are completing your 1.5 mile run in 18 minutes and 22 seconds. To hit 5.0 mph you have to complete your run in 18 minutes flat. I suggest concentrating on sprinting the last bit in an effort to beat 18 minutes rather than trying to maintain a slightly faster pace for the whole run."
Can't quite do that because I stop to do photographs. I could try that on the second half of the run though. Good idea.
You get more fun out of running is you don't time it.
Get a running watch (a cheap Garmin is better than an Apple watch for running), and look to up your cadence just a bit. It will feel uncomfortable at first, but it will improve your speed with very little additional effort. Howard is right when he cautions against over-striding.
This reminds me that I need to face the music and get back on the roads. I was running 80 miles per week in January until I got the damned Covid. After 3 weeks off sick I started running again and my fitness was just gone. I was struggling with 10 minute pace where I had been running an easy 8:30 pace on my long runs and finishing sub 7 pace. It was so disheartening that I just stopped and started concentrating on lifting again. Covid REALLY set me back! If I wasn't a runner I wouldn't even have been aware of the change. I'm tired a lot more and fall asleep in the afternoon now, but the objective change in my running fitness is shocking. Feckin' Chinese.
Do you listen to music while you run? If so, ‘Radar Love’ will give you the extra 0.1 mph.
One thing to keep in mind is 1 pound adds 6 seconds per mile.
This is more if you put that weight on your feet.
"You get more fun out of running is you don't time it."
I don't time it. I just look at the iPhone data later and speed is one of the things it shows.
There's also "walking asymmetry," where I am at 0.1%, step length, double support time...
"Shouldn't a smoot shink, as the universe ages?"
a) Smoot is capitalized.
b) The original Smoot has no doubt shrunk quite a bit, but the unit is standardized. I don't know why you are dragging the Universe into this. Cosmic expansion?
"Do you listen to music while you run? If so, ‘Radar Love’ will give you the extra 0.1 mph."
Ha ha. I do listen to music sometimes, but it's usually not speedy. This morning it didn't get faster than "Peace Train" by Cat Stevens.
Stride length and muscle twitch are preset for you at 4.9 mph. To beat it you must lengthen stride. Increasing muscle twitch (faster strides) isn’t gonna happen.
So lengthen the stride and concentrate on that throughout. Then report back.
When I complain to my young son (who crushes a golf ball) that I want to hit my drives farther, he just says 'Swing faster.'
But here's something that might help: Aren't there apps that allow you to program a pace? And then turn that pace into an audio sound like a metronome?
I would think that you could calculate your stride and then program in a pace that you could hear while you run (headphones or not).
In theory, if you could keep up with that pace, you would be running at that speed.
'This morning it didn't get faster than "Peace Train" by Cat Stevens.'
Weird. Whenever I listen to 'Peace Train' I just want to kill infidels...
Ann Althouse said...
I'm seeing a lot of articles like this that say you shouldn't try to run faster, and that if you think you should, you ought to make a point of running more slowly.
But that seems to be about people who want to go a longer distance. Lots of stress on maintaining the ability to carry on a comfortable conversation.
This is the same thing as the "body positivity" movement.
There are people who just don't want to work hard and want to reinforce their decision.
Music with a 180 bpm beat really does help with cadence. My favorite is Turning Japanese by The Vapors. I don't tend to run with music, but if I want to work on cadence, I have a whole list. "Dancing with myself" by Billy Idol also a favorite.
Imagine there's a bear behind you.
It may not be you.
I'm no techie, but I seem to recall that the iPhone (and other device?) data collection for location, speed and distance is dependent on gps satellites and/or cell tower location or some such, and the accuracy of the data may vary depending on the method for the phone's data point collection.
For all you know, you may actually be exceeding that 5 mph goal, but the math fails to accurately account for that variance in location identification.
I'm sure someone here with greater familiarity can (and should) correct or elaborate on that?
'My favorite is Turning Japanese by The Vapors.'
Pretty damned racist.
You are hereby canceled!
Oh, wait, they're not considered BiPOCs.
Carry on : )
Can't add to what others have suggested, my knees were abused by too much running in my 20s and 30s. You're fortunate not to have done that. For what it's worth, I used to sprint my last half lap around the park, for the runner's high as much as anything else.
Owen said...
Imagine there's a bear behind you.
I was thinking maybe Meade could release a hungry cheetah about a minute and a half after she starts off.
Excactly. In the woods over rocks roots mud water snow and ice. Spidy sense. Pilotage, not ded reckoning.
Blogger rhhardin said...
You get more fun out of running is you don't time it.
The quest for a faster pace seems like a "can't see the forest for the trees" moment. The runs always seemed to simply be the means to "see" and capture the moment in a beautiful picture of the sunrise. A screenshot of your running app wouldn't do that.
I greatly increased my running speed and distance by doing weekly group runs and 5K/10K races. Trying to keep up with the young kids turned into the young kids trying to keep up with the old fart. Group runs are great for making new friends and encouragement. Races are just pure fun with big crowds. Sometimes you might actually win in your age group and get a medal!
I've got no idea how to get you that extra .1mph, but I will dispute your characterization of the sunrise pictures as relentlessly repetitious. I find them fascinating and everyone is different. I hope you keep it up for a long time. I did something similar once, taking a picture of my house from the same vantage point every Saturday morning for a year. I still look back on them occasionally and enjoy the ever changing yet never changing aspects of it.
Yeah, the technique for running longer is different than running faster. Sprints or fartleks are the only way to get faster.
The option is to run farther and then go back to 1.5 miles. You'll run at a faster pace naturally if you think about it.
I'm a slow runner, 11min/mile but I usually go 5 miles. If I run 3, I can run a 10:30 without really trying.
a fun movie bout run slower to get faster
Remember the Goal
There are some great 90-ish bpm (i.e. half of 180) James Brown songs; "Make It Funky" or "Funky Drummer" for instance.
I don’t trust that 4.9 and one way you can check it is to time the whole run and see if in fact you do the run in 18 minutes or less and see if it is still insisting you’re at 4.9.
Interval training (the “run hard then walk” system) will get you there but be careful, it’s easier to pull or tear something, especially as we age. The specifics can vary and most suggestions above seem sensible, but you want to only do it 1-2x week.
As an alternative you could pick the same 1-2 days per week and run the last 5-20% of your normal run at a noticeably faster pace, just bordering on uncomfortable. This is probably less risky injury-wise.
Go like the wind, Althouse!
Its the Chinese chips in the phone, doncha even know?
Oh, you think the sunrises are monotonous? I always thought the Midwest was known for their sunrises. And, I always find something new in the patterns. Some are like a Rohrshach. Mostly, it's like scrambled eggs, they never quite scramble in the same place.
I'm lucky to live near a hillside, so I kind of do a slow hike uphill, taking large steps, then I can pick up speed and do a faster more running-type pace downhill. I don't know the topography of the Midwest, I always imagine it as more flat terrain, but shallow hills, or even stairs, can help with speed training.
Have you ever considered running on an Escher course?
Everything is downhill...
So far, no reference to "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner."
So ... here it is.
"If I can do 4.9 on any given ordinary day, why do I never hit 5?"
Bill Gates, or the NSA may know why.
I've been running for coming up on 20 years and started when I was 40. I was more-or-less the same speed for the first 15 of these years, but about 5 years ago I hit a new, slower plateau. At my age, which is about 12 years less than that of our dear hostess; I don't dare to sprint until I've run 2-3 miles,-for fear that I will pull or break something. Perhaps Althouse is less decrepit than I and could sprint without fear of injury. If so, try sprinting the last 50 yards on day 1. Then, if no injuries appear, start a little earlier each day and see if your phone gives you a pace faster than 5 MPH for that last bit.
A couple of additional notes: I use a Garmin watch and I absolutely don't trust its instantaneous speed readings. I am pretty certain that my pace doesn't vary by more than 30 seconds/mile for a given run and yet it shows my pace ranging from 13 minutes/mile to 5 minutes/mile on every run. So, I guess what I'm getting at, is that there may be a technology problem at play. But technology can solve such problems too: Use a mapping app like Map my run and identify a 220 yard span. Then simply time yourself in this distance. If you do it in under 90 seconds, you have broken 5 MPH!
You have to do it like the Marines, when you run, shout loudly for all to hear:
Mama and Papa were a lyin in bed
Mama spoke up this is what she said
Gimme Some, Gimme some,
PT, PT, Good for you, good for me.
Ho Chi Min is a son of a b*tch...
Please, what is this 'running' of which you speak? The practice is not known among my people.
When I was still a Y member, I would walk 4.6 mph on their treadmills without breathing very hard. Grow some legs, Althouse.
I'd be more worried about preserving your knees than your speed.
I've read that for cardio health, the length of time (>20min) with an elevated heart rate is more important than how high the rate goes. Over 35 minutes for weight loss.
Joe Smith said...
Have you ever considered running on an Escher course?
Everything is downhill...
That will shift stress to your joints.
I'm always amazed at how you find different aspects in the pictures, helped along by changing seasons but "the mind's eye" is at work there. For instance, there was the look of a freezing lake and then the frozen lake and then the look of a lake unfreezing. That one with flowing water was really interesting. Then the sunrises. It's really a great sequence. There was a philistine commenter awhile back who said they all looked the same and I thought that really showed his mental poverty - that he would see all these different pictures as the same. I believe he was arguing that you should talk about politics all the time and from an extremist angle (I forget which). Ironic, because that kind of politics really is the same all the time.
I have recently started a new running program. Once a week I do Aerobic intervals. I run a mile at aerobic maximum and continue the effort with some burpee jogs and rows for 10 minutes. I go do some other lifting exercises for 10 minutes then I do another set at aerobic max: Breathing hard but able to talk.
Three times a week I do Anaerobic Intervals. These are started with a thousand meter row or a half mile run then into some sprints or tire flips or bag work. Each round lasts 5 minutes.
When I started 3 months ago I had trouble with quarter miles at 1:45. Today I hit a half mile on the treadmill at 2.43 and 2.41. At the start I was running ~6:50 miles. I hit 3 sub 6 minute miles in my last aerobic rotation.
There are limits. I have found out what Rhabdomyolosis is.
I think you could do 50% of my workouts and get 80% of the benefits.
If a runner leaves New York City going 1.9 miles per hour and another runner leaves Chicago running 4.9 miles per hour, where would they meet and do you really care?
This is your retirement 'glass ceiling'. We all have one.
ColoComment - The navigation information on your phone is far more accurate than you might guess. A modern cell phone uses all the satellite navigation constellations (not just the US GPS system), cellular triangulation and every commercial WiFi and Bluetooth signal that has a fixed location. Stick all that into an algorithm and the result is pretty good.
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