Counting Pace

Still on the topic of running speed, decided to do my own little unscientific experiment to find out my different running paces.

No cheemology type of run with HRM or GPS for me, just my own unscientific method based on gut feel and breathing.

For distance of more than 10km and during weekend long runs, I usually run around 6:00min/km to 6:30 min/km pace. Just nice and comfortable for me. So this will be the base pace from which I measure the other pace run. I call this my training pace run. And this will be the baseline to measure the other paces.

So to determine the other paces, I decided to do 4 laps of 2.8km around the estate starting with a slow run as a sort of warm up. Time taken: 19:01m which works out to around 6:48min/km. Not exactly very slow but good enough. This one I will call jogging pace run.

2nd round was the Chiong pace run. The type of run where with each step you grasp for breath. Completed it in 14:55m which was like 5:20min/km. Okay not exactly very fast but the best that this old man can muster although I think if I push harder a bit, I maybe can do a slightly faster 5min pace. I figure at this speed, I can probably go up to max 5km.

Slowed down a tad for the final round finishing in 15:22mins. That not very different from the previous round but this pace was more manageable and more like the pace I do for races. I will call this race pace run.

Final round? Yeah supposed to do 1 more Vomit pace run but I know if I do it, it will probably and literally be a vomit run. Anyway, I was running out of time and have to stop (excuses excuses). But what exactly is a vomit run? A vomit run is by my definition the type of run where go all out, the lungs feel like bursting, the heart pounds like nobody business and the breakfast, lunch and teas or what not threaten to do a merlion. This type of pace I think I can only do up to 1km.

So there 5 different paces. Very unscientific but that's how I normally run. And actually after going through some websites, discovered my unscientifc definition has a scientific equivalent as in:

Jogging = Easy
Training = LSD
Chiong = Tempo
Vomit = Interval and
Race = Race