Usually for one of three reasons: your runs all sit at the same medium effort, your training has not grown in months, or you are running tired. Sometimes you are getting faster and the way you compare runs hides it. Look back over the last two or three months before you change anything.
Are all my runs the same effort?
This is the most common one. Easy days drift a little too fast, hard days never get properly hard, and everything lands in the middle: tiring enough to need recovery, not hard enough to make you faster.
Signs to look for:
- Your easy runs and your fast runs are only a few seconds per kilometer apart.
- You cannot talk in full sentences on an ordinary run.
- Most of your running time is in zone 3.
The fix feels backwards. Run your easy runs slower, and make one session a week clearly harder: hill repeats, intervals, or a few short, fast strides at the end of an easy run. Studies of endurance athletes by Stephen Seiler and others found that most of their training is easy, a small share is hard, and very little sits in between. See How slow should my easy runs be?.
Has my training changed in months?
Your body adapts to what you ask of it, and then it stops adapting. The same four runs a week at the same pace on the same routes will make you fitter, and then keep you there. That is fine if holding is what you want. To keep improving, something has to grow: a few more minutes a week, a longer long run, or one harder session. Small steps work better than big jumps. The weekly mileage calculator shows how much you can add next week.
Am I running tired?
More running is not always more fitness. If you added a lot recently, your legs may be carrying fatigue that hides what you have gained. Heavy legs that do not clear, an easy pace that feels hard and a resting heart rate above your normal all point that way. Take a few easy days and see whether the speed comes back. See How can I tell if I’m overtraining?.
Am I running often enough?
The opposite problem. A week off here and there, or three runs one week and none the next, means you keep rebuilding what you lost instead of adding to it. Regular weeks do more than any single big one.
Am I really not faster?
Average pace across different runs is a poor judge. Hills, heat, wind, surface and GPS all move it, and a hot summer makes the same fitness look slower than a cool spring. Two comparisons are fair:
- The same route. Same distance, same hills. Compare the time rather than the pace, because GPS measures the same route a little differently every run.
- The same heart rate. Faster at the same heart rate, or the same pace at a lower heart rate, both mean you got fitter.
See How do I know if I’m getting better at running?.
Is it normal to plateau?
Yes. In your first months of running, almost anything makes you faster. After that, progress comes in smaller steps and takes longer to show, so a few flat weeks do not mean something is wrong. Change one thing at a time and give it a month or two before you judge it.
What does Kiiro show?
| Question | In Kiiro |
|---|---|
| Are all my runs the same effort? | Intensity shows how your recent training splits between low, medium and high, and every run shows its time in zones. See heart rate zones in Kiiro |
| Has my training grown? | Your fitness level is your training base over about six weeks. If it has been flat for months, so has your training |
| Am I running tired, or doing too little? | Your status. Building is how fitness grows, Fatigued and Overtrained mean too much, Detraining and Undertrained too little. See training load in Kiiro |
| Am I really not faster? | Route progress puts runs on a route you repeat side by side, with pace and heart rate. See route comparison in Kiiro |
Related questions
- How slow should my easy runs be?: Slow enough to talk in full sentences the whole way. For most runners that is zone 2, 60 to 70% of maximum heart rate, and it feels slower than expected. Here is how to find your easy effort and why it works.
- How do I know if I'm getting better at running?: Compare like with like. The clearest sign is the same route at a lower heart rate, or faster at the same heart rate. Runs that feel easier, a rising VO2 max and a falling resting heart rate back it up over months.
- How can I tell if I'm overtraining?: No single number tells you. Look for several signs together: training load well above what you are used to, a raised resting heart rate, a lower HRV, and runs that feel harder than they should.
