How to Measure Running Progress When Your Pace Isn’t Improving | Slay Stronger Runner | Episode 188
SLAYShow Notes
You’ve been training for weeks. You’re running further. You’re lifting weights. You’re fueling properly. You’re recovering better. So why aren’t you getting faster every week? And if your pace hasn’t changed… is your training actually working? In Episode 10 of the SLAY Stronger Runner Series, Olympian, coach and SLAY founder Louise Hazel explains why pace is only one measure of running progress, and why you could be becoming a significantly better runner without seeing a dramatic change on your watch.
In this episode, you'll learn: • Why running progress is never perfectly linear • Why the same pace can represent completely different levels of fitness • The SLAY Performance Triangle: Pace, Effort & Recovery • How to use heart rate without becoming obsessed with it • What Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) can tell you • Why your easy runs can reveal improvements in aerobic fitness• How running economy improves • Why being able to run further is progress • Why recovering faster is a performance improvement • Why accumulated fatigue can temporarily hide your fitness • Why constantly testing yourself can actually interfere with training • The six metrics in the SLAY Progress Scorecard
This week's challenge: Repeat. Don't race. Repeat an easy run you've completed previously at a similar perceived effort and compare how it feels. Not just how fast you ran. Because your watch can measure your pace. It can't measure the entire athlete you're becoming.
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