Transcription
I'm going to absolutely kick a hornet's nest in today's video. I want to talk about why the advice to run slow to run fast is both incredibly helpful, but also sometimes totally misunderstood and maybe actually causing some runners to just run slow to run slow. So, instead of giving you the one-size-fits-all approach like everyone else does, I'm going to fully break it down for you. I'm going to tell you where this advice actually stems from in the first place. I'm going to share with you how I've gone against this advice in the past and what that's actually meant for my performance. Now, I'll talk about when this advice needs to get in the bin recycling and why it's not right for everyone. And you'll learn whether you're in the camp of people that need to run slow to run fast or not. And if you are, I'll explain how to tell if you're actually running easy enough with some helpful tidbits I often give to the athletes I coach. And before I dive in, this is of course my perspective on this topic. I'm a 2:25 marathon runner with years of both mistakes and successes under my belt. I'm also a running coach for athletes of all abilities. And if you disagree with me after watching this video all the way to the end, leave a comment. Let's discuss.
So, first up, run slow to run fast. Why do we even say that in the first place? We're talking about taking your easy runs actually easy, which means slow in relation to your intervals, your threshold workouts. It comes from the polarized training model, which has been well researched and really widely used in a ton of endurance sports, not just running. You might have heard of the 80/20 rule. 80% of your training volume is easy. 20% is hard, faster work. It's the same thing. The slow is obviously your low intensity, your zone 1 to 2. Your fast is then clearly a different stimulus. Your intervals, your sprints, your threshold, your fartlek, your progression runs, anything that's not easy.
So, why does it work? A few reasons. Firstly, it focuses on the development of aerobic capacity. That's me drawing my lungs, by the way. Don't get weird on me. Improving your ability to use the oxygen that you breathe in and deliver it to your muscles. It's your endurance engine. And the fast complements this 'cause it's the gears. It also means you build more mitochondria, which are the cute little guys in all of your cells that help to create energy. More of them equals more energy with less effort. It improves fat oxidation. That's using fat as a fuel source. That means you can preserve glycogen or carb stores, which is really, really, really important for your higher-end faster stuff and your long race efforts. And with 80% of your volume or your week easy, you can space out your hard. That's going to mean you have optimum recovery between those hard sessions, thus improving fitness gains and reducing the risk of things like injury, illness, and overtraining. It's the buttery biscuit base of every endurance athlete's training and it underpins all that faster, sexier stuff, but there's a butt. Actually, there's a few butts and they're kind of big.
This advice assumes that you are a higher mileage athlete. And I say that in relative terms. Whilst I might be running 100 miles a week in a marathon block, that's a long, long way away from someone who's running couch to 5k. Higher mileage relevant in this context means you're running four to five plus days a week, 30 miles of volume or around 50 km. Meaning if you run all of those days too hard, you physically can't recover in between the sessions. It also assumes that you've actually built some consistency. You've been doing this a while. You've built a solid aerobic foundation, aka fitness, so your body is used to regular structured training. And thirdly, it assumes that you actually need to preserve some energy for those harder sessions. You've got intervals as part of your week or you're doing a progression run or some threshold. Therefore, you need to be recovered and fresh to get the most out of these sessions and actually have some quality in there to keep building the fitness. Hence, the easy running in between.
This advice is great, but we have a problem. What works really well for professionals, experienced club runners, and high-level amateurs doesn't necessarily apply to someone who's just starting out or someone who's in between the two. Does someone doing three runs a week need to polarize their training in this way? They effectively already have four rest days in their week to recover, assuming they're not doing any other kinds of cardio. And for me, that's where this advice gets a little bit murky. And I feel like some people that are promoting this kind of forget the important nuance that really needs to come in.
Going all the way back a good few years to before I got my first GB vest. And for a good few years after that, actually, I was pushing my easy runs far too hard. And I was obviously running a lot, 6 to 7 days a week, supposedly polarizing my training and very much needing that recovery of those easy runs. But Philly, you just said you ran for Great Britain. What you were doing had to have been working. Firstly, hindsight is both a wonderful but also frustrating thing. We can't know for sure whether slowing my easy runs down back then would have meant better quality sessions and therefore improved performance. Maybe I would have come top 10 at my first European cross country championships instead of top 20. I repeat, we can't know if that would have happened. However, there were clear signs that I was both pushing my easy runs too hard and suffering the consequences. Not only can I look at what my easy pace should have been by benchmarking off of my race times at the time, which I'll say isn't my favorite thing to do, and I'll get into this a little bit more later, but on top of that, I was getting injured a lot. Every 6 to 8 weeks, something new would be hurting. I'd be tired going into my workouts. And I got sick pretty often as well. All signs that I was overtraining, which can come not just from volume, but from intensity.
And now, objectively the fastest I've ever been, having run all of my PBs from 5k to the marathon in the last 12 months, I run slower than ever before, or at least the slowest I've ever run since having a watch and being able to objectively measure that stat. 5 to 10 years ago, I used to hate seeing a mile split on a run that started with a seven, unless I was doing a very short easy double run after a session. The pace of my easy runs had to be six something minute. And these days, most of my runs start with an 8 something minute mile, and I'm averaging somewhere in the sevens. And my sessions and races are far quicker than when I was running my easy runs far faster. And it's amazing when you learn why this is so important because you can see it in yourself. The penny just drops. Back in 2020, I made a coaching change. And that is when I started respecting my easy runs. I didn't see improvements immediately. And that's because I think the damage of overdoing it stays with you for a little bit. But after a few more months of inconsistencies and ups and downs with injuries, I was able to find the longest stretch of consistency in my life. I stopped getting injured, got sick less, the quality of my workouts improved, and I actually started to enjoy and appreciate a truly easy run. And it's been 5 years since then without a significant injury. That's me knocking on wood because you just never know.
And whilst I might have just sold it to you by giving myself as an example of someone who categorically was not following this advice when they should have been, I'm going to flip it back around for you. And we're going to use Daniel as a prime example. For those of you that don't know, this is Daniel. He is my husband. Feels really weird saying that. He's fairly new to running and does it for fun and enjoyment. And I'm his coach. In 2023, Daniel started running three times per week as his coach. And also recognizing the fact that not too long before this, Daniel tried to start out running and went out the door literally all guns blazing doing workouts. I set him some run-walks to get his body used to running. We then built up to 20-minute runs, 30-minute runs straight through. Pretty similar to your couch to 5k format. No offense to Daniel, but starting out running with zero other cardio in his life, he was pretty unfit. Okay. Yeah, you make you make a good point. If I'd have told him stay in zone 2, he'd have probably been going out for some fastish walks. And there is nothing wrong with walking, but his goal was to run and to get fit and to get better at running. Therefore, we needed to be running to get those adaptations. And I'm going to come back to Daniel a little bit later on, which I think is going to be really helpful for some of you because Daniel has now graduated from three runs per week to the point where his training is polarized. There's a workout in there and so our approach to his easy runs has changed a little bit. By the way, if you're interested in coaching advice or training plans, sign up to my mailing list which is linked in the description because later this year I'm going to be expanding the resources that are currently on there which already includes some free training plans. So go and have a nosy.
I think the internet has done a great job at educating people on heart rate zones and the importance of recovery and this very advice to run slow to run fast, which lots of runners really need to take note of. But it's also meant that we've got beginners who are terrified that they're running too fast. They've heard "don't train in the gray zone" or "stay in zone 2," which can leave you jogging or walking three times a week and wondering why you're not getting any fitter. And this is where I think we need to park the "run slow to run fast" book on the bookshelf for later down the line when you're up to maybe 5 days of running a week with an interval session in there and a long run. And until you get there, just run. Don't overthink it. You're not trying to recover in time for brutal track sessions or grueling progression runs. You're just trying to get your body used to and a little bit better at running, which can actually benefit from you pushing the pace a little bit from time to time when you feel up to it. Just to be clear, I am not saying that every beginner runner needs to go out there and hammer themselves. But if you're training two to three times a week and you're recovering well from it, you don't need to be afraid of running a little bit faster sometimes. The main thing is to build consistency so that you can then gradually build your volume and go and pick that book back up off the bookshelf in the future if you want to and avoid injury. And that is much more about listening to your body than it is sticking to strict zones for pace or heart rate. Welcome to coaching corner.
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This is the part of the video where I solve all of your problems and answer every question you ever had about running. Should you be running slow to run fast or not? If you have been running consistently for a little while, you're training four to five days a week or more. Perhaps you've got a long run in the mix or a couple of sessions. In general, you should be running slow on your easy days to run fast on your hard days. And some of you might be overdoing it. In fact, I know that some of you watching this video are overdoing it, which means you need to slow down. Daniel, he's a new man these days. I even paced him to a 5k PB earlier on this year, which you can watch up here if you haven't seen it yet. He now runs between four and five days per week. In that week, he has a longer run at the weekend, somewhere between 90 minutes and 2 hours. One session day that might involve some intervals or some sustained tempo and three pure easy days peppered in between of varying distances. In general, he has to take those easy days easy in order to be recovered to be able to get the most out of his long run and his session day. That means if Daniel is feeling particularly good on one day and he has come to learn in himself that he is recovered and he feels it's sensible to push the pace a little bit, he can run his easy run slightly faster, but it needs to feel easy. He's not tempoing. So nine times out of 10, that means that Daniel is running his easy days easy because he's he's come to the point where he's got a pretty good handle on this. But if he absolutely spanks a run and creeps into tempo, which he did quite recently, I pull him up on it. Did you get many spankings as a kid?
And here's a curveball for you. Especially if you're sat here watching this video thinking, "Well, I train like that, but I've got my easy runs down." As you get fitter, your easy run pace starts to gradually creep down without you realizing. This is again where I'll say I'm not the biggest fan of the easy pace that you can calculate from your race performances that gives you a kind of targeted range to stay within. Because you could argue, well, yeah, I was running my easy runs at that pace in January, but I've taken 10 seconds off my 5k time since then, so I'm categorically fitter. Why then are my easy runs the slowest they've ever been? There is an element to that where it's perfectly fair enough, especially if you very recently gone from beginner to actually polarizing your training and you're making really rapid improvements, but in shorter time frames, even if your PBs have gotten faster, as you get fitter, your aerobic engine is better, your legs feel stronger, and it's really tempting to just push the pace on every easy run, especially if you're competitive, or maybe you have a slight obsession with Strava segments. I'm looking at you, Michael. You got me. If you're not careful, that pushing the pace a little bit starts to compound, and your easy runs become steady runs, your steady runs become tempos, and before you know it, you're not recovered for your interval session, and you can't hit your paces. So, you're effectively following a gray zone plan that's not fast enough to act as a real stimulus and lead to fitness adaptations, and it's not slow enough to be recovered from. And that is when you get injured, you get sick, you're too tired to get the most out of your workouts, you plateau, or you burn out. Not today, Satan. Not today.
For those of you who have got polarized training weeks, you got your sessions in the mix and a decent base of fitness, I'm going to give you some really helpful tips, the same ones I teach my athletes, that are going to help you make sure that you're running easy. What I'm not going to recommend at the top of this list is using a pace calculator to find your easy runs, which by the way, I think is a great way to find a rough ballpark for your threshold pace or your marathon pace based off of a recent 10k or half marathon time. But I truly believe your easy pace has to be holistic. I've talked about weekly volume already being a big factor, but things like sleep, stress, terrain, time of day, weather conditions, proximity of a workout, and for females, the phase of your menstrual cycle can all impact and really change what is easy.
So, first up, we've got the talk test. Can you speak in full sentences without gasping? If not, you're probably running too hard. You should feel like you can have a conversation with someone. If you can't have a good old moan when you're on an easy run, probably should slow down. And if you're running uphill, there's no shame in taking a little walk. Just make sure you know you get to pause your watch. All right, aren't going to pay the bills.
Next up is the rate of perceived effort scale. I really like this one because if there's snow on the ground or if it's super windy, it takes that into account. Aka, you should be running slower because those conditions are harder. It's a subjective scale from 1 to 10, but it gives you a good idea of where you need to be. One is your walk and 10 is your all-out max effort. Your easy runs should be between a 3 to 4 out of 10. And that's going to feel like you're holding something back. Sometimes frustratingly so, but you're going to learn to lock into that rhythm and that's going to do you some good.
Heart rate. If you use it, great. If not, don't stress. This is your zone 2 runs, which is roughly 60 to 70% of your maximum heart rate, which is useful if you've got the data. Don't become a slave to your watch. And your wrist-based heart rate, the one that's sort of built into your watch, is pretty inaccurate, especially if it's cold outside. So, ideally, you're using an arm strap or a chest strap.
Recovery cues. How you actually feeling? You shouldn't feel wiped after an easy run. You want to feel like you could have kept going. If your legs are feeling sluggish or heavy in your workouts, your easy runs probably weren't easy enough. If you're getting lots of small unexplained injuries kind of peppered about, overdoing your easy runs or not having enough recovery time in between runs and sessions could be your culprit.
Mental cues. In general. Mentally, you should feel better after an easy run than when you started. In general. Going hard enough that all of those endorphins are doing their thing. Not doing a workout, but you are running hard enough that all those endorphins are doing their thing. In general. Sometimes you just feel no matter how slow you're running. That's okay. Again, you want to feel like you could have gone faster, but you didn't, 'cause you don't have to. And this one's closely linked to recovery cues, but it's actually really thinking using your brain whilst you're using your legs about how you're feeling. And that's going to give you a really clear picture over time about what easy feels like for you.
Data and splits. I've already said, please treat this with caution here, and I'm a much bigger fan of holistic cues and easy as a level of effort rather than a specific pace. But for athletes that are still failing to grasp it and really struggling with what an easier run should be, pace range can be helpful to get you started. And my advice here is to work backwards from your threshold pace. Threshold changes because that's also an effort level, but it's a pace that you could roughly sustain for about an hour. For most people, it's somewhere between their 10k and 15k race effort. Your easy pace should be at least 90 seconds slower per mile or 55 to 60 seconds slower per kilometer than your threshold pace. And even slower than that on days that you are tired or all of those other things that can make easy running harder like the weather, stress, any of that comes into the mix. So if your threshold pace is 4 minutes and 15 seconds per kilometer, your easy pace is going to be about 5:10 to 6 minutes per kilometer or slower when it feels like it needs to be. Look out for small pace creeps on your easy days. And if your easy runs start getting anywhere close to your threshold pace, red flag.
Like a lot of things with running, we are all individuals and we are all different. Easy is relative. And that's because it tends to be a pretty big range and it's impacted by so many things. It's about training smarter, not harder, and understanding why in your week with different objectives on different days, every run has its different purpose, which means knowing when to slow down and knowing when to push. And if you want to learn more about the "when to push" part, in this video, I talk all about riding that fine line of training whilst fatigued, which sounds like it goes against this entire video, but it's actually a really important layer to high-end endurance performance. So, check it out.
and love the grind.
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now.