Lifelong athlete. 37yr old male. College baseball player. Have been lifting weights for 15 years. Very consistent with my diet, in fact I have my diet dialed in and track calories eat nothing but whole foods.
I've been running for over a year, off and on due to calf and achilles injuries but mostly on. I am on week 10 of a 20-week half marathon plan.
If you look at me, I look very fit. People assume I am very fit because I have decent muscle mass and I'm pretty lean (around 10-11%bf right now). But I really struggle running. I just ran a 7-miler for my long run and it killed me. A freaking 12:53 pace, started at 5am and finished around 6:30am. I am deliberately running in zone 2 to build my endurance base using my Garmin watch and chest strap. I couldn't have run any faster if I wanted to. Running so slow but my average heart rate was 149bpm. All of my other health factors are very good. 48bpm resting heart rate. 7-8 hours of sleep a night. Weight lifting 3 days a week. Running 3 days a week. All blood work in January was great.
Before I focused on my endurance I got my mile time down to 7:33 at around 80-90% effort. I just feel like I should have a better base by now and even though building the mileage takes time I feel like I'm way too slow for how long I've been running.
Am I doing something wrong? Any advice or feedback for me?
I’m very similar to you (I do actually love running though) in that I enjoy being good at sports, and challenging myself. I’m going to agree with the person above.
I’m usually one of those perky happy looking runners, and average an 8-8:30 pace on my big elevation change/most taxing runs. It hasn’t even been hot (by my standards) here, but it’s been EXCEPTIONALLY humid for my local (we were just preparing for a hurricane, which we never have here).
I’m STRUGGLING. My average pace on my normal routes is easily 0:30-1:00 per miles slower, and I feel like I’m working a LOT harder. It’s killing me to be slower. It’s messing with my head/confidence, but it’s totally normal. I have to keep telling myself that.
There was one day, immediately after the “hurricane” passed that was significantly cooler, and more importantly, nearly no humidity, and I was FAST, and it was so easy. Just keep with it, you’ll probably start setting PRs once the weather shifts to cooler/less humid.