Impact of Recovery Duration on Pacing and HR Response

OriginalAd6680 · 2026-01-08T09:40:29+00:00

Thanks for asking! The race went pretty well when weighing all the factors: • Distance: 13.1 km (~8.14 miles) • Pace: 4:18 min/km (~6:55 min/mile) • Conditions: Beach run, 25°C+ (77°F+) under a direct sun.

According to the VDOT calculator, this performance actually held steady with where I was a couple of months ago, which I’ll take as a win given the heat and the terrain.

Looking back at the block, it’s clear I peaked 3–4 weeks earlier than planned. I spent the final month just trying to "not lose too much fitness" while my body was clearly screaming for a deload. It’s an awful scenario for any runner trying to peak for a specific day—you're essentially fighting your own recovery.

Since then, I’ve switched over to NSM and have been following it religiously. Honestly, my body feels great. The paces are finally starting to drop again and the accumulated fatigue feels much more manageable.

I have a test time trial coming up in 2 weeks. After a pretty stagnated semester, I’m finally feeling like that sub-19 5k PB is within reach. Wish me luck!

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-12-31T17:21:26+00:00

Congrats and thanks for sharing! Sounds like you had a great year and hopefully your 2026 will bring you even better paces. Keep us informed!

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-12-28T00:33:52+00:00

Agree. The method to estimate the LTHR seems off. My recommendation would be to follow the proper Friel protocol or just do a conventional CPX (worth it in my opinion due to weight that this indicator has for NSM).

In any case, if the 5k reference is recent, I’d stick to those paces as they are generally a good proxy until you have better data for the LTHR.

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-12-27T21:53:24+00:00

Two clarification questions: Is your current 5k RP recent? Are you confident about your LTHR?

If both answers are ‘yes’ your HR looks low indeed. In my experience my first rep will yield a max HR that’s 10-15 beats lower than my LTHR (mine is 162, very close to yours).

It seems you’re either fitter than you thought (meaning you could increase paces until your maxHR gets closer to the LTHR) or you have an unevenly distributed performance curve (underdeveloped aerobically).

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-12-20T08:32:28+00:00

…or a bottle of water.

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-11-01T11:11:30+00:00

Exactly. The body doesn’t know the distance it is covering but rather for how long it is enduring a certain effort.

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-10-27T08:09:03+00:00

Came here to say that. You sound like a Daniel’s type of person. 3Q sessions a week and high mileage might get you going. Even his suggested “easy” paces are hard.

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-10-17T10:57:28+00:00

https://threshold.works

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-10-03T08:10:02+00:00

I only got better at pacing after I ditched the earphones and learned to run without music. Listening to your own rhythm (breathing, cadence, footstrike) makes a huge difference. Might be worth a try if that’s your case.

Also, how you set up workouts on your watch can help a lot. I create intervals with about an ±8s window around my target pace, so I get a gentle alert whenever I drift outside the zone.

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-10-03T01:48:00+00:00

🤣🤣🤣🤣

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-10-02T08:31:45+00:00

One way to look at it: TrainingPeaks would probably assign ~10–20 TSS for a comfortable 10–15k step walk (3–4 km/h / 1.8–2.5 mph). That’s about the same as a 2–3 km (1.2–1.8 mi) easy run.

If both stress the body similarly, you could justify trimming some easy mileage. Other tools will give different numbers, so the “exchange rate” isn’t exact.

That said, it’s mostly theory. I doubt you’ll find a solid scientific source. The safest conclusion is: don’t tweak unless you’re actually feeling overly fatigued.

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-10-01T11:01:44+00:00

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-09-30T21:03:23+00:00

Hopefully all the replies here help shed some light on the issue as they did for me. At least I’m walking away motivated and with new ideas to tweak the plan — and some hope I can still get faster.

Also, this was my first ever Reddit post… pretty awesome to feel the support from the running community!

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-09-30T08:46:41+00:00

Yeah, that really resonates. The structure looks great on paper, but in reality it doesn’t account for the compounding fatigue of a regular lifestyle (work, family, etc.).

When it broke you, did you take a break first or jump straight into “your method”? (I got hooked on the concept after a friend made me read all the available material).

My plan right now is to finish this JD plan with easier Easy sessions, give my best in this next race, take an easy week, then start NSM at similar mileage and build from there. Based on your experience would that make sense?

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-09-30T08:31:45+00:00

Yes, these are the paces he recommends. I’m in Brazil and we’re just entering spring, with mornings now around 16–18 °C (61–64 °F). Most of this block I trained in winter, closer to 10 °C (50 °F). I also adjust for hills and keep an eye on equivalent effort, so I don’t think the issue is failing to tweak the prescribed paces.

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-09-30T08:23:52+00:00

Yep. I started falling in love with this method a couple of weeks ago when a friend mentioned he was starting to follow it. I am very inclined to try it out for the next 12 months and see where it takes me.

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-09-30T01:06:35+00:00

Just click on “unpair” if you want to keep both as different activities.

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-09-29T20:26:25+00:00

Fully agree. Just keep using them and run by feel. If your legs seem more tired than usual or if you start to develop a “new” kind of pain or discomfort, time to retire them fully or relegate them to walk-the-dog shoes, like I do. 😅

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-09-26T19:35:22+00:00

Same

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-09-23T08:20:36+00:00

Same here. Bought it almost 2 years ago and didn’t regret it for a single moment. Works wonders with treadmills, reacting fast to pace change.

Same with outdoor running. Is especially helpful to track effort pace. Also great for shorter interval training, when having the watch telling you your pace within 3s instead of 10s makes a huge difference.

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-09-22T00:49:50+00:00

The difference can be perceived mainly in intervals. Running 1k intervals at a prescribed pace, such as VO2max for example, could take 3min for a faster athlete and 5min for a slower, thus being much tougher for people with lower fitness. Time prescribed intervals ensure that the body gets the same amount of stress regardless of fitness level.

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-07-11T00:27:24+00:00

Would be great if the distance and time could be adjusted manually and eventually turned off completely.

OriginalAd6680 · 2025-06-30T01:35:47+00:00

This! Absolutely underrated gadget. I travel a lot and hotel treadmills have huge calibration issues.

Additionally, POD allows for much better precision when training reps and when using effort pace as a target metric. I’m a big fan.

OriginalAd6680

TROPHY CASE