Transcript
0:01 Why do so many people suck at pacing? I'm going to tell you and let you know why it is impacting not only your workouts and development, but also your performance. Now, it seems like such a simple thing, right? We get told, "You've got to run this pace or even pace. We even have watches that scream at us that we're running at a certain pace and give us that immediate feedback." Well, what happens is this is pacing absolutely matters from a performance standpoint it matters because we know a relatively even depending on the race distribution of energy is easier and simpler and small variations especially when you're pushing the edge of performance can make or break a race. This is why in Elite Performance, if you've watched any track and field lately, they have pacing lights, the wave lights now that in addition to a external pacer or rabbit who is setting the pace for the first half of the race, they have pacing lights so that they can dial in from the get-go. And that's important because generally if you look at especially 1500 meter races is because of the start and looking for positioning often athletes get out a little bit too fast and that small difference causes them to utilize a little bit more we'll call it quote unquote anorobic energy because their aerobic system hasn't revved up fully. they dip into the well and then when it comes time to go to kick at the end to maintain they can't they don't have that little bit extra that they use. So, it's this smooth distribution of energy. Even when it comes to our workouts, it matters because if you go around and if you look at people posting, especially amateur or novice runners, God bless them on YouTube and they post a workout and the pacing is god awful. Especially if you look at non-runners doing like Tabata intervals, it's all almost always like this. the first and second interval are like super fast for that athlete or that person and then you just watch them slowly die and get slower and slower and slower over the workout. Now, what's happening during that? You're losing the entire point of the workout. Why?
2:24 because you're not providing the right intensity stimulus because fatigue has gotten in the way. So much so that by the end, yes, you are tired, but you are running at a very slow aerobic pace, not in this intensity zone that's going to give you any benefit. and instead you just got that for the first couple repeats and now fatigue is getting in the way and you're just feeling like crap, running like crap and slow, you've missed the point.
2:56 We call it in high school coaching, we'd call it the JV runner phenomenon, which was this out really fast the first rep or first lap of a race, slump, slow down because you're in over your head, and then come back with the infamous JV kick, which is like looks like a fresh sprint the last bit because like you didn't pace it well. All right, so it's a problem. In addition, before we get into telling you why and how to change it, which I'm going to offer some things that are counterintuitive here or different is a when you are able to pace and instead of externalize pace, which we tend to internalize or externalize and rely on both, but externalized means you're only looking at the clock, the watch, the heart rate, whatever to guide that pace.
3:49 Internalize is you know how to read your body. You're understanding the turnover, what your arm swing should feel like, how much you should push into the ground. That's internalizing. When you only externalize it, what happens is you don't get into a rhythm as easy. And what we know is that in running especially, we have this kind of rhythm-like feel that helps us get into an almost like flow like state where we stop having to pay attention to what we're doing and we can focus on maintaining the intensity of the effort or that race pace without thinking about it too much. This is why rabbits really help in races because you stop having to think about every step. Am I on? Am I on and on? You just lock on to the person in front of you, get in a good rhythm, and turn your brain off until it's time to kick or really focus when it gets tough.
4:46 The better we're able to lock into a pace by ourselves, the better we're able to get into that state, which we know will perform faster, better, and lastly, it allows us to ride the line better. Racing is essentially all about coming up to the line in terms of energy output versus what we're capable of producing and just being able to ride that line efficiently. That's generally why in most races except things like the 800 and some variation here and there relatively even splits to slightly negative in the longer work best because essentially we're riding the line. Okay.
5:26 All right. So, you got it. You need to learn how to pace. Novices, intermediate athletes often suck at it. How do we develop it? First off, it's important to know that pacing is a skill. And then that skill, we can either externalize it. As I said, look at your watch, look at the clock, rely on other people, or we can develop our internal ability. And what I'm arguing for is we need to develop that internal ability because generally if you look at the research elite performers or performing athletes tend to be able to read their internal signals better. Whether we look at interosception which basically means read your internal signals or the ability to pace they generally have a better ability to lock in. So what does it mean to lock in and read your signals when it comes to pacing? It means understanding the subtle difference in arm swing that different paces will require. One of my mentors, a famous sprint coach Tom DLZ told me like this.
6:31 Most people have the wrong conception of effort. They think it's loud when it is really subtle. And what he meant is people think, okay, I've got to increase the pace here and I've got to tighten up and put my head down and drive forward and really do something. And you're really going from 62 second 400s to 60-second 400s. And the reality is that is a very subtle difference. And if I told you in a 200 in practice to go from running 31 to 30s, you'd be like, "Okay, great. I'll swing my arms a little bit faster or through a slightly more range of motion. And you just increase that tempo, right? We call it a tempo. Like in music, we increase the turnover slightly. It's not just your arms, although your arms are often an easier indicator to read because you're a little bit more aware of them and have a little bit more control. You can also look at your turnover in legs or how much force you're putting into the ground. Meaning, how much are you pushing, right? And we know this because if I said, "Hey, drop down from 62 seconds to 58," you'd probably be like, "Okay, I got to hit the ground a little harder or push into the ground a little bit harder. I've got to put a little bit force."
7:49 In reality, when we look at the subtle effort of shifting gears, it's like pressing on a gas pedal, right? When you're driving a car, now that you're expert at it, you don't think, "Okay, how much force do I need to put in the gas pedal?" You just feel it. You know it. But if you get in a new car with a different sensitivity of gas pedal, sometimes what happens is you hit it and it's like, right, because you're like, "Oh, I got to adjust to this. This is different." Or when you started driving, you had more stop, start, accelerate hard, stop hard, because you didn't have that subtle push.
8:30 What we need to do is to be able to train that. So, first off is running things like short intervals or non-fatiguing things at a variety of paces, paying attention to what your body is doing, your arm swing, your legs, your turnover, how much you're pushing into the ground. Varying that pace up and not just consistently, meaning I'm going to go run a 475, but saying, "Hey, the first 200's going to be at this and then I'm going to gradually pick it up." You've got to play with that speed to understand it.
9:04 And this is where intervals really help where instead of just thinking of it as physiological development, but also pacing development, reading that internal signals. When I was working with Tom Tles, we'd often have a case where we'd just go run 200s where the first hundred was at this pace and then gradually pick it up to the next. And we'd just be, yeah, we'd get some physiological benefit from it, but wasn't that fatiguing so that I could feel what that acceleration and that change of pace looked like. Another thing I'm going to suggest you do is take your watch off and especially if you have a friend or training partner, but this is a test both to determine where you're at and help you dial in is take your watch off, decide a pace.
9:49 Again, don't make it too fast. Sometimes 5k pace, 10k pace, a little bit slower threshold, whatever you're trying to lock into. vary it up and say, "Hey, I'm going to go run a 82nd 400. Take your watch off, have a friend or coach time you and see how close you get. And then if you're really far off, be like, "Okay, what am I going to pay attention to this time to lock in? How am I going to adjust to do this?" And if you don't have a friend, just turn your watch, start it, maybe place it face down on your wrist so you can't see it, and then just go for it. Don't look at it till the end.
10:27 and see where you're at. Okay? It's training that mental muscle where you're paying attention to your internal signals. Okay? That's what it's about. And if you vary this up, what you're going to learn is you're going to have this ability to pace things a little bit. with my college athletes. Sometimes I'd do a workout where the whole goal with a little bit of physiology in there or the whole goal was, okay, we're going to learn how to dial into this stuff. I'd take their watches off and I'd say, yeah, we're going to do our four by mile workout, but here's the goal. The first mile for you is going to be no faster than 5 minutes.
11:12 And the goal was to get as close to five minutes as possible without going too much over it. You know, if there were a couple seconds, I'd let them have it. But you say, "Okay, you know, this is what you're dialing into." And often what we'd do is we'd start individually, meaning one at a time, so that they could learn how to do it individually. And then we'd come back together as a group and be like, "Okay, now this is really going to be tough because you're going to be 10 of you together." And I'm telling you each like individual pace to hit and you're going to be tempted to go with the external signal of somebody else instead of reading your internal signals.
11:51 Okay? Learn to listen to your body. That's it. Also, do this without listening to music or podcast or whatever have you because you need to really internalize it. Learn how to do this. I know it sounds simple. I know it sounds like pacing. I've got a watch that's going to tell me how to do that. Nah, you develop the skill because the skill translates beyond just locking into a pace. It helps you perform better and it helps you read other internal signals better. I'm gonna end with this is gosh a couple years ago maybe five six years ago I was doing some teaching at St. Mary's University in the UK teaching a master's course in strength and conditioning. Yes, that's me.
12:39 Strength and conditioning coach with some wonderful other coaches like Dan John, wonderful experience. And I remember telling this group of strength and conditioning master students. I'm like, "Yeah, you got to learn how to listen to your body." And we went over things and talked about it. And I was talking a big game and I was fit back then or fitter. And one of the students turns to me and says, "All right, do it." And we're at the track. And I'm like, "What are you talking about?" He's like, "You said you can lock into paces like this cuz you're expert at it. Go do it." So there I am in, you know, not warmed up, not anything. Just like, "Okay, teaching mode, coaching mode, teaching them how to run, running form, internal signals, read their body pace." And I said, "All right." So, I, you know, did a couple warm-up drills, did a stride or two, threw my watch off, and then one of them ran with me, too. And I was like, "You want me to race or you want me to lock into the pace?" I said, "Run the pace."
13:39 I said, "Okay, I'm going to run 60c quarter 400 cuz again, I was in good shape. Probably low 4m minute shape at that point. 40 something. Said 60 seconds. I can run this all day." Didn't have my watch. waited till they go, locked into the pace, read my internal signals, knew what rhythm, and ran 60 point something. Okay, now a little bit of luck there, but it's also I spent so long learning how to listen to my body that I could lock into that. So, that's what you're hoping to train, whether that's 60 seconds or maybe for you in 90 seconds, 400 or whatever it is. Train to pace. All right, everybody. Don't forget, subscribe, share, appreciate it.
14:25 These are just meant to educate you. That's what we're here to do. So, let's keep doing it. Keep on coaching, keep on running. Hope you enjoy the channel.