I have shaved off 6 minutes off my 5k time in the span of three months.

It might not look like much, but after trying for so long to finally get in shape a little bit, I am incredibly proud of the progress I'm making.

I’m a casual runner. Not very consistent. In 2022 I was running more and aimed for speed for 1-4 miles usually. But my heart rate was always in zone 5. 180+. Some runs were 90% in zone 5; obviously not safe.

So lately I’ve gotten back into running and I’d like to get close to what I was doing 4 years ago, but with a safer heart rate. I’m assuming I can simply run very slow 11-minute miles and keep my heart rate below 160. But perhaps you have some experience or advice on how to maximize efficiency? I’ve seen experienced runners doing sub 8 minute miles for 10 miles with an average of 140bpm. That’s so out of reach for me right now. I’m 36 and my max HR is currently 194 based on recent activity I guess.

FitPub is a federated social fitness platform and Strava alternative built on ActivityPub, giving athletes control over their data, communities, and connections.

A 15-year-old girl from Oegstgeest collapsed about four kilometres from the finish line. Race organisers had set a minimum age of 16, but the registration system relies on runners entering their own details.

Power law models are great for extrapolating—for example, predicting your half marathon time from a 5k and a 10k, or predicting your 400m time from an 800m and a 1500m time. They perform much better at this task than the critical speed model, and my power law calculator also includes some useful features for prediction.

Some runners sneer at recovery runs, as if anything slow is a sign of weakness or wasted effort. For the sub-3 runner, though, nothing could be further from the truth. Easy miles are not junk - they are one of the hidden engines of endurance.