Base Miles

I am wondering at what speed are base miles supposed to be at. I am a sophomore male preparing for XC and the coach told us to run easy (base) 5 times a week and one tempo over the summer. I've been running these "easy" miles pretty slow but for some reason they still feel really hard . My PR is 5:42 in the mile, never ran a 5k, so I was shooting for around 7:30 pace for these easy runs, though it's felt really hard to even run 8:30. Is there anything wrong that I am doing, or was 7:30 just too fast of a pace to shoot for.
P.S: I am currently running around 40 miles per week (most ever ran before by me), 8 miles three days per week, 5 miles three days per week, a tempo run, and one rest day.

sounds good to me
i'm not even running that far cause i'm doing tempo runs all summer

Hey, I'm kinda with you on this. I haven't ran in weeks and I'm starting out with like 20 miles for this first week. my miles are horrible times. like from 8:15 to 8:45... I'm just hoping that by building up my miles my body will get back in to shape and I'll see some improvement...
I think the more you run, the faster you will eventually become... that's how I'm looking at it

go easy it doesn't matter how slow you are on base runs just go relaxed run with a partner and be able to talk to them and stuff. you will eventually be able to run faster and have it still be easy don't worry your just starting up...everyones base is slow at the beggining (sp?)

Considering your (peak) mile time, I'm assuming that at that time you were capable of about a 20:00 3 mile, which is 6:40 pace. Based off of that, your recovery (easy) days should be at between 7:40 and 8:10 pace. If you stay around that zone, you are doing well. Sometimes you can go faster, sometimes you can go slower, all depends on how you are doing. Your training schedule looks good too, keep it up.

i think 7:30 mightve been alittle fast

Just a little, but not terribly fast. I am supposed to train at around 6:30-7:00 pace, but I occasionally go about 6:15.

RETURNover wrote:i think 7:30 mightve been alittle fast

That's what you run at, and his pr is faster than yours......

Running With Scissors wrote:sounds good to me
i'm not even running that far cause i'm doing tempo runs all summer

Please tell me you don't mean you're doing tempo runs everyday.......

hmm, I think you're suggesting he go a little fast bago. Usually 5k times = mile pace + 45 seconds, so he would be roughly 6:30 pace (6:40 is reasonable). but then pace should be that +90 to 120 seconds, so 8:00 - 8:30 pace.

I think his training plan could use a little work, but not much. Try a more evenly distributed weekly mileage plan. For this week of 40, I'm doing 0, 7, 6, 6, 7, 5, 9. Sunday is rest and Tuesday is a quality workout (tempo, long intervals), with the total including warm up and cool down being about 6 miles. On Monday and Thursday I'm trying to keep it at a solid pace (7:15-7:45), but Wednesday and Friday I'm not worrying about pace at all, but ideally they will be kept somewhere between 7:45 and 8:30. The long run day should also be like this. That's just what I'm doing, and I don't know how well the no-long-run system works, but your program sounds similar to miler's (with a lot more mileage). Again, I'd recommend a long run, but you're already running for more than an hour 3 times a week.

(Not to hijack, but if anyone sees anything blatantly wrong with my program, feel free to chime in.)

RETURNover wrote:i think 7:30 mightve been alittle fast

and I think you are a retard.

HXC_Runner2012 wrote:

Piper2 wrote:

RETURNover wrote:i think 7:30 mightve been alittle fast

and I think you are a retard.

GERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY HAVE YOU ANGERED ME!?

btw sorry returnover.