w/r/t "trying to run slower": like you i'm still very much at the beginning of running training. the best thing for me is, at least 80% of the time, to not think about pace at all. settle into a comfortable cadence, whatever that means that day, and go with it. i don't try to run at any particular speed. if my experience is any indication, you'll speed up over time without meaning to. i started out in august/september at 5:12/km for 4 km as a natural pace on the roads and last night ran 4:34 for 5 km. that's a nearly 40-second improvement, with little noticeable difference in workout-to-workout effort,* in three months.
so my recommendation is just not to fuss about pace at all while you're running. it'll take care of itself.
*i did kick a bit at the end of the run last night, when it was clear that i could get under 23:00 if i wanted to. but i wasn't gassed, still very much a training run.
This is pretty much exactly what I did for that run. I had the watch running but just put it back on on the time and didn't even look at it for the first 20 mins. My natural pace is quite fast and I'm trying to stay in that 120-150 bpm zone so I keep talking to myself every now and then to make sure I'm not going to fast. If I can hold a conversation with myself then I'm ok haha. If I ran 7k at 6m/km pace then I'm pretty happy as I wasn't pushing it.
I am noticing that squatting 3x per week, swimming, riding and running definitely leave the legs in a fatigued state though #captainobvious
x2 to lbss! agree bigtime there. I've done most of my running without looking at my watch: in most of my workout posts you'll see "no watch" etc, that's just going by feel. I prefer it. Lately i've been using my watch more though, because i'm trying to "hold on" to certain paces. But when i'm running light, recovery, warmup, cooldown etc, definitely no watch. I didn't look at my watch in either of my last two races either (mile & 5k). I definitely prefer it.
also ya, all of that combined stuff will take its toll, especially now.. eventually you can adapt to it for sure, and feel really good. If you want to feel good with it, just need to keep it up consistently and occasionally throw in unplanned rest days when you really need it. The good thing about training while always being somewhat fatigued, is after 1-2 days rest you really rebound hard out of it (generally). When the fatigue starts really ruining workouts though, time for some unplanned forced rest.
pc!!