subject: Set your own Pace [print this page] Set your own Pace Set your own Pace
Everything you do has some sort of pace associated with it, it's just part of everyday life, and it's especially prevalent in your physical training. If you set to fast a pace you'll burn yourself out to quickly, but if it's to slow you won't get the results you're looking for. There is a balance that you need to find for yourself that carefully balances your pace so that you're working efficiently and you still have enough time to recover.
There are two aspects of training, how fast or how frequently you pace or set your workout schedules, and the pace you set during the workout.
The results you get from training are largely affected by the pace you set during your workouts. If you train to regularly you'll find yourself not having enough time to recover properly which can have some pretty harmful effects, and it also leaves vulnerable to injuries. On the other hand if you don't train enough you won't get the results you want, so what is the best pace to set for your workouts?
I suppose the best answer I can give, without sounding to vague, is that it's different for everyone depending on your lifestyle. Someone who works in an office for example will require more recovery time then someone who leads a physically active job especially when it comes to high impact exercises.
If you lead a high impact lifestyle though you still need to realise that there is a lot more strain on your muscles on a daily basis which leaves you a lot more vulnerable to injuries if you don't take proper care.
Apart from how frequently you set your workouts how you pace them during is also important. The faster paced your workout i.e. high interval training sessions and sprints, the less frequent you will set them but slower paced workouts like long distance running can be set very frequently. High intensity interval training sessions or similar should not be planned more than 3 times a week because they put too much strain on the muscles. Long distance runs however can be set every day of the week if you wanted because your muscles don't need anywhere near as much recovery.
How you decide on a pace for your training sessions will largely depend on the results you are looking for. Like I said above if you are performing sports or activities that require short bursts of speed and energy then it's better to focus on faster paced workouts. Something like a marathon runner though would need to perform longer lower intensity workouts to allow their muscles to build endurance.
So in the end what you need to take from this is to make sure you plan out your training sessions and how frequently you do them and to what intensity they're performed at. This will have a very large effect on your results. If you'd like to know more about pacing I suggest you consult your personal trainer as they will know what pace you need to be working at.
