What should my constant speed be in running the cross country?

Question

How fast should I run in mph at a constant speed?

Answer 1

If you are talking about running on a treadmill, Appolenaire has the right answer. just add "for the number of minutes your training session lasts". Trial and error are the only ways to figure this out.



There is no real benefit to running at a constant speed in cross country. You are not a car. (even in cars - there is no real advantage - for best gas mileage you should slow down going up hills)



There is a school of thought that you should run at a constant cadence. Road bicycle racers keep a constant cadence that is some how scientifically/mechanically/ and biologically determined. ( I think its like 95 rpm). They just change gears so that they keep that cadence.



Anyway, the idea is that you keep your feet going the same cadence but take smaller steps going uphill and longer steps going downhill. I've actually tried this and found that my times got better and i had greater endurance. I think the optimum cadence is something around 90 steps per minute. I've even seen some runners with little metronomes clipped to their clothes.

For more info on this check out Chi-Running by Danny Dreyer. Also every runner is a little different so you should take some steps to determine YOUR optimum cadence.

Answer 2

Well, where do you live and what's the competition? Surely you can tell from recent races where you should be at competition wise, and also how far the race is. It's just over 8 mph over varied terrain for a 5k (3.1 miles) to make about 21 minutes, just over 10 mph average to hit 18 minutes for the 5k.

Answer 3

As Apollenaire says, and the key word there is "sustain". A good endurance athlete knows very well what level of output he/she can maintain and for how long. This is normally tied to one's heart rate. Many endurance athletes, like pro cyclists, monitor their heart rate continually during events, and know to a nicety how hard they can push for how long and what their particular "red-line" is.

Traditionally, runners do not wear heart rate monitors in competition, but you can certainly do so in training and they can be a valuable training aid.

For most athletes, pushing beyond the 90% (of max) level is not sustainable for any length of time.



https://www.heartmonitors.com/zone_calc.htm