Easy Running

How fast should you be running? Should every run be “smashed” in an attempt to gain fitness to become faster and better and faster and better……surely to get faster you have to run FAST?

Well yes you do, but running and improving performance is not as clear cut as that; you also need easy and moderate runs to build the base upon which you can sharpen for races with faster speed work strategically placed in your training plan.

Too many runners train at a pace faster than necessary, leaving them prone to injury, fatigue, burnout, which in turns prevents them from being able to properly recover from any previous speed sessions, long runs, or races.

The simplest way to make sure you’re training at the appropriate pace is to listen to your body, your body doesn't know "pace", it only knows effort so run to how you feel. Being able to sing, talk or hum, this is your easy pace, your easy effort.

Easy running is SO COOL. It's not magic... but it can be the magic ingredient!

Easy effort running is a foundational component of your training, if you are new to running all your runs should be run at easy effort, slowly building the foundations. Once you have a solid base you can add in the speedwork.

If you are coming back from injury or have an injury, there is no sugar coating it SLOW DOWN AND RUN MORE EASY RUNS. The evidence is clear and it shows that increasing volume plus faster paced runs on an already injured body is a recipe for disaster; the body will become too stressed, will not adapt through any recovery, and ultimately will break.

For other runners, who have a good solid base, easy effort runs should still be most of your runs every week, but bear in mind that easy effort can change from day to day, effort can seem harder, depending on what else is going on in your life including training fatigue, weather, stress, menstrual cycle, diet, sleep etc.
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Why do I have to run Easy! It hurts! I’ve only got so much time to train, I don’t want to waste a running session on an EASY run!

By building your endurance & aerobic capacity through easy effort running, you are becoming a more EFFICIENT and stronger, fitter runner! You're improving your mitochondrial & capillary density to deliver more oxygen to your muscles; improving your ability to burn fat for fuel (sparing glycogen, which you'll need for higher intensity efforts); improving your endurance & fatigue resistance. ⁠When you run easy, you can run MORE and LONGER without spiking your injury and burnout risk!

Try to reframe your runs from using the word SLOW to EASY EFFORT OR BASE RUN.

If you don’t trust how you feel or are unsure of how to find your easy effort, there are a number of ways you can work it out. I do advise having a flexible approach to working out your paces, pace formulas are only estimates and should be determined by your present fitness not past fitness, you need to start where you are right now. ⁠

Below are some examples of formulas used to work out your pace.

Easy pace - 10k race pace + 2 mins

Long run pace - 10k race pace + 90 secs

Effort pace - 10k race pace + 1 minute

OR….⁠

HEART RATE

Approx. up to 75% of Max Heart Rate

Approx. up to 70% Heart Rate Reserve

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OR...⁠
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PERCEIVED EFFORT⁠

Your easy effort is a *singing*, "run forever" pace that is a 1-3 effort on a scale of 1-10!⁠

Your moderate effort is “can say a sentence but then you need to breathe” 4-6 effort on a scale of 1-10

Your harder moderate effort is “can only speak a short phrase” 7-8 effort on a scale of 1-10

Your hard effort is “can only speak one word or not at all” 9-10 effort on a scale of 1-10

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Remember these are approximate paced goals, the data is quantitative and does not consider you as an individual, your lifestyle, your history, or your training age. But as a tool and a guide they are useful, if your pace seems too easy and you are fit, well and have a strong endurance base, then experiment with the paces, see how faster feels, look at the data and measure it against how it FEELS.

On the other hand, if the paces feel hard and you are not recovering or are constantly plagued by injury, slow them down, listen to your body and stop fighting it. You could be sabotaging your full potential.

Research suggests that endurance runners should be training at 80% easy & 20% moderate or hard effort, but there may be phases of training where distribution includes more easy, more hard, or more moderate effort sessions depending on your goals, experience, and specificity of current training cycle/phase. ⁠One size doesn’t fit all.