Transcription
Everyone thinks running is about being in pain. Running as fast as humanly possible till the lactic acid burns your throat. But what if I told you the slower I ran, the faster I got?
This year I committed to 180 minutes of zone 2 cardio every single week, which I'd been doing in the past. But specifically the concept that I've saw brewing as a new trend online in the running community is slow running. The concept I saw slurred all over social media. You have to run slow to run fast, which makes absolutely no sense. But somehow that decision carried me through grief, a marathon, a medical procedure, and literally may have improved my speed of aging. So, what happened when I ran slow for an entire year?
First, let's talk about what is zone 2. It's cardio at 60 to 70% of your max heart rate. The pace where you can still hold a conversation comfortably, which would be around zone 2. So, this leads me to the idea of like run slow to go fast. So the idea is instead of killing yourself and giving 100% every single workout, every single run, you slowly build up your endurance by increasing your volume through a lot of slow-paced runs throughout the week.
And this year I did a lot of challenges. I did the 30,000 step challenge. I did my run streak. I ran the Berlin Marathon. I did hybrid training. And we'll talk specifics, but even throughout that, the one constant was always getting that weekly dose of zone 2. I originally planned this out in January 2025. I was like, yeah, you know what? Maybe do like three runs a week. Um, that should probably even it out. But throughout the journey of all those other challenges and some other things that happened, I realized it completely changed my concept of what a run is.
So back at the start of the year, January to March 2025, my main focus was health and longevity. If you've seen those videos, you know a big focus of mine was Dr. Peter's recommendations, which is 180 minutes of zone 2 cardio a week, which you're probably like, Kelty, haven't you done this challenge? Not exactly because I want to talk about slow running, but yes, I've done zone 2 in the past. But I really committed that to be like the through line of all my health and wellness is like zone 2 for overall longevity. So no specific goals, no races, just try to get two to three runs a week or some kind of cardio or my heart was in that zone. And I'm going to be honest, I was kind of on autopilot. I just thought we'll test my V2 max at the end of the year, see what happens.
Then March and everything changed. So, let's talk about March and April. End of March, my dad passed from heart disease. And suddenly, this fun little fitness challenge wasn't just a challenge anymore. I realized my grandfather, my dad's dad, died of a heart attack. My dad died from a combination of cardiovascular disease and a stroke. And my own blood work had shown not great apo B little A and cholesterol. And in that moment, I realized like even though I'm fit and I have this heart health and I get my zone 2 and V2 max in and all this, I'm genetically cursed when it comes to heart disease, which I don't think I'm alone in because it is the number one killer on earth.
In this moment, I realized this wasn't a trendy thing that I saw online like do zone 2 cardio or like showcasing that I'm following the most scientific fitness program. And I knew I was training for longevity, but I don't think the concept ever really sunk in. It was just like I've always preached balance like Yeah. No, just like the thing that make you live healthy and happy. But in March and April, it really connected for me cuz up to that point, my biggest fear was dementia because I saw my grandpa as we lost him. How sad seeing someone die with Alzheimer's is and slowly lose their mind. It was so impactful. So all my focus on longevity was about Alzheimer's. But I didn't think up to this point I should be so much more afraid of heart disease because my grandpa on my dad's side I never met because he died before I was born and so he's out of mind. But I saw my grandpa die on my mom's side. So I was always scared of that. And in that moment clicked. I was like, "No, you should be so much more fearful of the disease that killed your grandpa you never met because obviously he died a lot younger." And it seems so obvious, but it's one of those things that doesn't really click until you experience something like this. Oh, he died of a heart attack. I don't know if I mentioned that. And he actually had seven. I think the eighth one's got him. So, honestly, kind of impressive. But when my dad passed, I stopped training for a little while. And then I started something tiny, a run streak. Even it was just for a few minutes, 1 km run. I need in that moment of grief, a small victory every day. It wasn't perfect, but every day I was able to show up and that built momentum to get me back on zo. Sometimes a run is all you need.
Kelty, did you do slow running or did you zone two? I'm really confused. Let me explain the difference. And are they the same thing? Not always, but for some people they are. Zone two, 60 to 70% of your max heart rate, which normally means you can do cardio and speak full sentences. Breathing feels controlled, aka running slow. But here's the wild thing. Some people feel like they're going easy on a run and will look down at their heart rate on their watch and it is through the roof. And that's because heart rate zones are actually really individual. You might have seen the usual formula online. 220 minus your age is your max heart rate. Then you calculate the zones from there. And that's a good baseline. But the only accurate way is to go get tested. And the cool thing is if you just notice that, we'll talk about ways to improve your heart rate and all that later on. But if you're just one of those people who you're like, you're fit, you've always worked out, you're just heart rate's so high, you can go get that tested. And the cool thing is Apple Watch and Garmins, you can actually adjust your heart rate zones to account for your own individual max heart rate.
Kelty though I don't have an Apple Watch or Garmin. Let me introduce you to a concept that you might have heard if you've done a running program. A conversational pace. It's a good rule of thumb to know you're kind of in that zone 2 area is if you're on a run and you can still carry out a conversation. So sometimes I do that instead of just boringly stare at my phone. I call my fiance a friend while on a run. And also it's good because your heart rate will change every single day from so many factors aside from just how much you're pushing yourself in a workout. For example, did you just chug an energy drink right before caffeine? How much sleep did you get? Did you drink a lot? Because my heart rate is through the roof if I had too many tequilas the night before. Hormones and a lot of other factors. So yeah, uh days after uh drinking, I knew my heart rate zones would be off. And so I just kind of would talk to myself a little bit if I didn't have someone to call to like gauge where my heart rate was in because if I looked at the watch, it would be screaming, I'm dying. But a drink I did have every single day this year that did not make my heart rate go through the roof is AG1. During this year allowed me to make sure I was giving my body a wide variety of nutrients every day so I could recover fully. We're going to talk about the different things to help with not overtraining when running mileage gets bigger later on the video. But one factor is getting enough nutrients and that's why I love AG1. It's not just a green powder multivitamin. It's about seven supplements in one. It's your adaptogens, antioxidants, then yes, a multivitamin. It also has things that support your gut health and immunity. And I enjoyed every single day with breakfast after my runs. And it's just your nutritional insurance because that's the biggest thing with like not overtraining is just giving yourself everything. And there was times like when my dad died and I wasn't really thinking too much about how many vegetables I'm getting and taking a thousand different supplements. No. Versus I just had my one AG1 every single day and I know I had wide variety of nutrients from it and multiple supplements in one instead of telling myself I have to remember to eat seven when I can't even remember what my name is at that point. And of course, I'm not going to talk about AG1 and not give you guys a code. For a limited time only, get a free A1 duffel bag and free A1 welcome kit with your first subscription order. Only while supplies last. Scan this QR code or head to the link in my description to get this offer.
So, thanks to my run streak, I had momentum going. I was doing my zone 2. I was doing some chill runs. And because I just had to run slow because of mentally, it was kind of funny. It made me want to train for a marathon cuz I realized I was like, "Oh, I can run slow and long, not just short and fast." But the thing is running a marathon is not exactly healthy. So I made my goal for running my first marathon. Be fit enough to enjoy the 42 km. I set on my program that it was 5 to six runs a week, which in the past I would have thought was like 1 to 3 hours every day just lactic acid building. Like that's what I thought a run was. But then when I looked at the program Rena gave me, it was mainly zone 2, a little zone 3, slow, comfortable, sustainable. And yes, there was some speed work because D2 max is important. And there was definitely hard days, but I was kind of shocked how like much, lack of better terms, you just kind of cruised while training, which led me to I'm really proud to say I finished my first marathon and I enjoyed it. I ran the marathon the entire time. Never had to stop. And I finished it dancing and smiling on my face. Even though most of my running felt like just a cruise, it felt easy. All my training program there was like I said one to two harder runs a week just to improve things but for the most part most of my mileage as it got bigger and bigger my pace stayed very chill like I said a conversational pace that zone 2 was mainly what I did and left the marathon not injured and honestly in a good enough mood that 2 days after the marathon I went to October Fest and danced my heart out with a lot of beer and felt fine.
Uh, and then comes October and life threw me another curveball and for 2 months I could barely train because I got a medical procedure that meant no running, no jumping, no lifting. So instead, I was back. I was like, you know what? There's a different way to do zone 2. You can't just do zone 2 running. You can also do it walking. So I got my zone 2 through walking. Now a weird blessing from this medical procedure is I had to do a ton of blood work. And I won't lie, I was really worried about doing the marathon and it wrecking my hormones. As I said before, running a marathon isn't necessarily healthy. But happy to say all of them came back great. And I think it's because I slowly increased my volume through out this zone 2. Like I was always in the zone 2. That doesn't mean I just started cranking out 200 km weeks or anything. Like I started at 12 km in a week and then it moved up to 14 and then my long runs went from 10 km to 12 km and slowly worked my way up. Zone 2 gave my body space to adapt while still getting the volume in to allow my body to run 42 km injury-free. And once I was cleared from the doctor, slowly got back into running. Did run 500 m, walk 500 m, then slow 5 km, then a slow 10 km, then slow 20. Instead of forcing it, which I know makes me hate something, I slowly rebuilt my foundation by the end of November and then signed up for a half and full marathon with a few tweaks, which I'll mention at the end.
So, let's talk my results. So, throughout this year, as a recap, the only consistent variable with my cardio side of my workout routine was getting in enough of that zone, too. Sometimes it was at walking. A lot of it was at slow running, which allowed me to run my first ever marathon without having to stop to walk. And here were the results of my body. My resting heart rate dropped by about six beats per minute. It was about 60 beats per minute in January. I had taken a little time off due to being sick. And by the peak of my zone 2 training, it was averaging about 54 beats per minute. Was a little up during the medical procedure uh for obvious reasons. Two, my HRV improved by 10 points, which is the craziest stat for me because HRV is pretty much your stress. It's the variability in beats. Things like Whoop and Aura use it a lot because it shows how your body's recovering. So if when your HRV is lower than your average, you are either under recovering, so stress, not sleeping, or you're overtraining, adding extra workouts, volumes. And even though I was running more, it was improving. I think this is thanks to sleeping enough, recovery protocols, and not overreaching with my training and slowly adding in volume. So, it's just cool to see how my body was able to adapt to more stress and that was my HRV improving because I was doing it at that slow rate versus the opposite, overtraining and overreaching, which would cause my average HRV to just kind of plummet. Third, injury-free. Aside from some tweaks and sore muscles, I never got injured once during my marathon training. I didn't get injured on marathon day. And four, I decreased my body's age by 9 years. Whoop now actually has this feature that tracks your like pace of aging. Once again, it's its own algorithm. This isn't accurate. I'm not one of those biological tests. And even those like they're so complicated to probably get everything tested. You have to get your skin and heart. I don't even think we have that resource unless you're Brian Johnson. But it's cool cuz what I like about is the algorithm takes all the factors that we know are linked to longevity like zone 2, V2 max, your sleep, your recovery, and it gives you a score. It's kind of like how is the whole of your habits and routines resulting in your aging? And my pace of aging according to Whoop is almost 10 years below what I am. So it means like I'm in my early 20s. What can I say? And why I bring this up is the biggest factor that Whoop gave me to why I have this longevity is the time spent in zone 1 to three, aka my zone 2 time. The second thing it mentioned was my zone four and five, so V2 max training. And third was how often I strength trained. But my V2 max and strength training could definitely be better. It's not just those variables of what I'm doing. It's also other things. And like I said, yes, I got a lot of zone one in, but yes, my zone 5 and strength training did suffer a little this year. And there's reality check that happened with a lot of things this year. I focus less on music, less on strength training, less on mobility. I lost strength. And I pretty much only lifted enough to avoid injury. And the main reason is that's life. We only all have so many hours in a day and you cannot optimize every single second every single day, especially when a lot of us have desk jobs and our job isn't being a marathon runner. So yes, even though I got my zone 2 in and I saw amazing benefits from it and I got my other buckets like the strength training and the V2 max and I did some stretching, those things did suffer.
So the main premise of my entire cardio this year was running slow. But 2026, we're mixing it up. Instead of more miles, I'm thinking of reducing my volume and refocusing back on the five pillars of HellSpan. One, zone 2 cardio. Two, V2 max. Three, strength training. Four, mobility. And five, social and fun. And having them bit more even spread. And seeing if I can still have the same results at my marathon by reducing my running volume and upping the other factors like strength training and sprinting while also focusing on my relationship, career, and creativity. And that is the focus of this year. Let's see if I can fill all those buckets and still manage to run a marathon. Hit subscribe if you want to see that.
But most importantly, running slow made me fall back in love with running this year. Just cruising around, putting in some music, taking in the sights around me in my own town or wherever I travel to. Not the pressure of the paces I post on Strava or the race times, just enjoying the actual routine of running. And it made me remember a word I totally forgot existed. Going out for a jog. Like seriously though, why why do why are we all running? Why can't we jog? Why is jogging not a thing? I'm all for team jogging. And sometimes you run, sometimes you sprint. But honestly, team jog here. Have a great day. Go pet a dog. Love you guys. Bye.