Quote Originally Posted by Memphis View Post
You have to run faster. If you stick at one pace it can become difficult to break the cycle. Muscle memory will tell us that this is the pace that is comfortable so we should stay there.

Run shorter but faster. You have to run faster than your target pace so that you can 'drop back' to your target pace and feel comfortable.

The best analogy for this is learning to drive. You start at 30mph. That is your max and it feels fast. At some point you will go up to 70mph which will also feel fast. But then, you drop back down to 30mph and everything feels a bit slow and you could probably cope just fine with 50/60mph.

I found myself stuck at about 6:30 minutes per kilometer on my easy runs. Around about 10:30 minute miles. Which is fine, but I wanted to increase my base speed. Sprints and hill reps are what helped that. Going faster than intended to fall back to a more comfortable pace. If I go and do a long run now to feel, it'll be around 5:45 minutes per kilometer.
This seems sensible. Instead of doing my 7 mile Monday, I will cut it down to 4 and run it harder. Try to do a 10:30...