A friend of mine was recently talking to me about how he simply can not break 3km after taking 3 weeks off and while it seems quite obvious the reason why he can't crack it, I think it is the same mistake that a lot of us runners make when we take a bit of time off.
The reasons for taking time off vary, for me it is just getting stuck is because if i take too many days off running, it is really easy for me to continue to take days off even though I know I shouldn't. A hangover is normally why it begins for me but then the day after the hangover I feel compelled to not run again, and so on and so on.
src
Much like myself, my friend is a "normie" in that he is not terribly dedicated to any particular diet other than avoiding sugar and carbs as much as possible, but will not shy away from a pizza or pasta when he wants it. He also drinks on a regular basis. He isn't as old as me, so the slow death of metabolism hasn't happened for him yet, but that time will definitely come. For him, it is going to be in the next 5 years most likely, and this is a normal part of getting older.
Thankfully for him, he started the be a regular runner a lot earlier than I did so he is probably going to have a better time at it when the metabolism does start to shut down (and it will).
The problem this guy is facing after 3 weeks off is that he tried to "hit the bricks" at the same pace that he was doing 3 weeks ago when he was on a 3 month streak of near daily running. I feel that for a normie this is a bad mistake and will only frustrate you.
To me, this is a very impressive per km time, but the distance is weak AF. He knows this, I know this, the fitness community knows this. I run around 6 min km and try to stick with that flow. After many weeks off though, I don't even look at my phone to check how fast I am going and instead focus on simply "going with the flow."
I think my friend is really pre-occupied with getting below 4 mins per km rather than keeping his heart rate up for a prolonged period of time. Let's go ahead and do some simple math here folks, my friend, who is far faster than I am, only exercised for just over 14 minutes. Since he is not trying to be a world-class sprinter, this is not the normie way.
src
In this sense I feel as though something like a Garmin watch can actually work to your detriment as it encourages you to push harder in order to maintain some sort of per km time rather than just focusing on running for a longer period of time. I don't see what the big rush is to be honest. I think that for your average person, going on a long walk that keeps your heart rate up would likely be far more beneficial than running as fast as you can for 14 minutes.
This is such a short amount of time for exercise that while it is more beneficial than sitting on the sofa binge watching a series, it isn't really that much better.
Also, when I dug into his times he started the run truly like a madman, as it was obvious he was trying to do BETTER than he did 3 weeks ago and this is just silly. Because of this, he now finds himself in a situation where the mental block prevents him from even being able to run at all past 3km.
Look, I am no expert, but almost all trainers out there will contend that the amount of time you spend exercising is significantly more important that the intensity of said exercise. If you walk at a fast clip for 90 minutes and just take in the sunshine and surroundings, you are going to do a lot more for your overall cardiovascular health than if you run run as fast as you can for 14 minutes.
I suggested to him that he focus less on his per km time and instead don't even look at the Garmin watch for the duration. Instead, simply focus on getting through the 5k and pacing yourself at a rate that you can easily maintain.
src
So we'll have to see if he takes my advice. I actually am not sure as to why it is that this guy looks up to me but probably because we met when I was a fat ass and is impressed at how I dropped 50 lbs and kept it off.
I am not a personal trainer, nor am i an expert in the field. However, I did lost a bunch of weight and kept it off and if I can do it, I think most anyone else can too (and still drink beer all the time as well.)