group run #3
For me this was only the second group run (since I missed last week), and this week's schedule called for the same run as last Thursday - 2 miles at an R5W1 ratio (so run for 5 minutes, walk for 1 minute). I was already wondering why, if the distance stayed the same, we didn't up the length of the run portions, but it got worse. With the crappy weather, only a dozen or so people showed up, and neither of the coaches for my group were there. (I still haven't seen the second coach at all, although it's entirely possible that he was there last week when I wasn't.) Initially they were going to have one of the novice group's coaches run with us, but when it turned out that me and another girl were the only beginners there, they decided to have both groups run together ... at the scheduled novice group ratio of R3W1.
Oddly, the novice group coach who ran in front set a much faster pace than we ran the first week, and, at a little over 11 minutes a mile, a bit faster than I'd run by myself. A few of the slower runners dropped off the back quickly and the second coach stayed with them, but I felt like I could keep up that pace for such short distances, and I did. I decided to consider it interval training, and, although I thought the walk breaks were much too slow (my group's coach had at least kept us walking fast enough to keep our heart rate up), we averaged only a little slower than my usual pace, and it felt like a decent workout. Once the long runs get longer, though, it won't really work - long runs and interval training shouldn't be the same thing! Several other people said afterward that they felt the pace was faster than it had been the previous week, so maybe it was just the cold that had us running so fast (the coach said it had only been faster toward the end, but since she wasn't even sure how to work her watch to time the intervals, I'm pretty sure she was going on perceived exertion ... and I trust my Garmin more than I trust her!).
Still not sure how I feel about this whole group run thing.
Oddly, the novice group coach who ran in front set a much faster pace than we ran the first week, and, at a little over 11 minutes a mile, a bit faster than I'd run by myself. A few of the slower runners dropped off the back quickly and the second coach stayed with them, but I felt like I could keep up that pace for such short distances, and I did. I decided to consider it interval training, and, although I thought the walk breaks were much too slow (my group's coach had at least kept us walking fast enough to keep our heart rate up), we averaged only a little slower than my usual pace, and it felt like a decent workout. Once the long runs get longer, though, it won't really work - long runs and interval training shouldn't be the same thing! Several other people said afterward that they felt the pace was faster than it had been the previous week, so maybe it was just the cold that had us running so fast (the coach said it had only been faster toward the end, but since she wasn't even sure how to work her watch to time the intervals, I'm pretty sure she was going on perceived exertion ... and I trust my Garmin more than I trust her!).
Still not sure how I feel about this whole group run thing.