Setting up pace groups for group run planning and forum notifications

Group Runs & Workouts
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@heathercobb3’s post looking for people who want to run at a pace of 12-plus minutes per mile ties into something I’ve been planning to set up for some time—pace groups here on the forum.

Rather than make Heather manually maintain a list of people who want to connect to run at 12+ pace, I can set up groups here that anyone can join to be alerted to runs planned at a particular pace. The goal is to help people group up at paces that are comfortable for them and avoid the awkwardness of joining a run that’s a pace significantly faster or slower than you’d like to run.

I can create these groups in a matter of minutes—my question is if this is a good set? Obviously, I could instead break it by 1-minute chunks rather than 2-minute chunks, but that feels too specific and fussy.

  • Sub-8 Pace: Those who train and race competitively generally do their longer social runs at a sub-8-minute pace, so that’s where I’d start. There’s no question that they will want to run workouts faster (and those can be set up more specifically), but for a group run, sub-8 should cover it.

  • 8-10 Pace: Next, I’d suggest an 8-10 minute range. That might seem like a lot, but the goal here is to help people sort themselves into group runs and if someone who can run an 8:15 pace ends up with someone who’s only comfortable at 9:30, the first person can usually just slow down and enjoy the company.

  • 10-12 Pace: Going with the 2-minute chunks, our next group would be running 10-12 minute miles. It’s important to note that you can join multiple groups, so if you normally run an 11-minute mile but would be happy running at a 12:30 pace too, you can be in both this group and the next one.

  • 12-Plus Pace: I’d propose this as the final pace group unless there are people who’d like to organize around hiking as well, at which point we could have a Hike Pace group, where the pace would vary with terrain between probably 15 and 25 minutes per mile.

Once these groups are created, anyone posting a group run could notify all the members of a particular pace group about the run. So, Heather could post, saying “I’m planning to run the Thom B course on Saturday if any @12-plus-pace people want to join me.” Those @-mentions would ensure that the people in that group would be notified of that run.

How’s that sound? Thoughts?

3 Likes
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I like this idea, and I’d also like a hiking option. It’d be nice to tag specific groups if you want to target a specific pace.

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I’m interested!

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i like the idea. My long runs are a roughly 10:30 pace.

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I like this idea!

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Cool idea! For trail runs or road routes with a lot of hills, I’d suggest saying something like “10-minutes-per-mile effort”, knowing that the actual pace would be slower. A Thom B trail loop is slower for everyone than the Black Diamond Trail, and even slower if it’s on snowshoes. The wording could be helpful for newer trail runners.

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Yes, when this is explained, it will need to be clear that the paces are for long road runs. Anything where course conditions come into play changes radically—what’s key is that you’re running with people who are likely to be of the same basic pace, however that has to adjust for conditions

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This sounds awesome. How do we sign up for pace groups?

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Glad to hear this sounds like a welcome addition! This is the first I’ve worked with public groups, so let’s all try it together. If you click or tap the hamburger button (three horizontal lines) at the top right of the screen here on the forum), you’ll see a Groups item. Click or tap that, and you’ll see a list of available public groups. Or just use the link below:

https://forum.fingerlakesrunners.org/g

Once there, click the Join button for any group you’d like to join. The PGXC groups have Request buttons instead, not because we want to keep anyone out, but so we know who’s joining. And the Print & Post team is a group that posts flyers for FLRC races around town—everyone is welcome to join it too!

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If you ever want to leave a group, return to the Groups page and click the Leave button.

Give it a try and let me know if anything is confusing.