Lifelong athlete. 37yr old male. College baseball player. Have been lifting weights for 15 years. Very consistent with my diet, in fact I have my diet dialed in and track calories eat nothing but whole foods.

I’ve been running for over a year, off and on due to calf and achilles injuries but mostly on. I am on week 10 of a 20-week half marathon plan.

If you look at me, I look very fit. People assume I am very fit because I have decent muscle mass and I’m pretty lean (around 10-11%bf right now). But I really struggle running. I just ran a 7-miler for my long run and it killed me. A freaking 12:53 pace, started at 5am and finished around 6:30am. I am deliberately running in zone 2 to build my endurance base using my Garmin watch and chest strap. I couldn’t have run any faster if I wanted to. Running so slow but my average heart rate was 149bpm. All of my other health factors are very good. 48bpm resting heart rate. 7-8 hours of sleep a night. Weight lifting 3 days a week. Running 3 days a week. All blood work in January was great.

Before I focused on my endurance I got my mile time down to 7:33 at around 80-90% effort. I just feel like I should have a better base by now and even though building the mileage takes time I feel like I’m way too slow for how long I’ve been running.

Am I doing something wrong? Any advice or feedback for me?

  • @nonresonantOPEnglish
    1•1 year ago

    Thanks for all the support. I’m going to finish this plan running in zone 2, like I have be sticking to the last 4 weeks. Once I can run 13.1 miles nonstop, I’ll find a new plan that helps build speed. I am on week 13, so next weekend is my first 10 mile run. Last week’s 9 miles was already the longest I’ve ever ran. It’s interesting because I’ve been adding a fartlek on the first run of the week, and when I do I can tell I’m on the verge of straining my left calf (always my left). So, I keep my Fatlek tame, too, and aim for 1 minute at an 8:30-9:30 mile pace, and then 1 min recovery jog, anywhere from 15-20 times which gets me anywhere from 4-5 miles. I’ll make sure I dont do anything more than that this plan.