Pacing

I have a hard time hitting specific paces. Training plans call for miles at ten seconds slower than race pace or something similar and I don't have that kind of muscle control. Honestly I can either run by effort or I can run at max speed. I can't manage my pace to the level that these plans call for - and I am surprised that other rec runners can.

Last week I tried to finish my run up with some strides. I can manage a sprint at the end but I did two too quickly and one too slowly. I am not sure that missing the paces means that that part of the workout is wasted or not.

My best speed workouts seem to happen by accident. Maybe my legs warm up quickly on the treadmill and I can ladder up the pace easily. Sometimes I still feel fresh after a couple of miles on the road and I will do some strides. But, more often than not, I mispace them badly and they end up being short runs with some fast and some slow miles. It doesn't seem productive.

I was reading about doing downhill workouts to build up a higher foot turnover rate. I definitely do not have the muscle strength and cardio ability to power up speed. My stride is short enough that building turnover is the way to go. It seems like it is the first thing to go when I tire, my posture stays good but it gets challenging to keep the feet churning, even when I am not struggling with the cardio bit. The training plans make increasing turnover sound simple but I find that I really have to focus and even then it is easy to let it taper off. Suggestions seem to be to run at these paces to get better at running paces. It is not so useful for those of us who are already struggling with it.