Running by Pace Rather Than Feel...

I am working on this!  The easiest way to bonk during a long run is to run it by a pace. I need to try and remember that pace is only the outcome. It's not the target. When you run by feel (effort level) and stick with a conversation-pace effort, you'll always be in the right zone for race day. This is because there are a variety of things that affect performance and turn your normal easy 10:30 pace into a hard run.

Running on a very hot day will be much harder on the body. Lack of sleep, stress, training fatigue from other workouts and more can affect your performance. I really found this out over the weekend.  I overextended my social obligations and truly felt it on Saturday, when I really needed to do a long run and it just didn’t happen! If the goal is to train in the easy effort so you can cover the distance and recover efficiently, you can't pin this running goal on a specific pace. Doing so can lead you to over training and under training and will rarely keep you in the optimal zone. Listen to your body!

You'll teach your body how to utilize fat as the primary fuel source, get in quality time on your feet, and recover more quickly. As you develop your long-distance resume and your body adapts to running longer, you can weave in faster paced long runs to fine-tune race-day performances. But this is best left for those who are seasoned and have a solid base of miles behind them.