Redefining Easy Running
As I read through 80/20 Running, I realized I needed to redefine my easy pace.
This week, I started to read Matt Fitzgerald’s book, 80/20 Running (affiliate link). While I’m only a few chapters in, I’ve learned a lot, and has me re-evaluating what my personal easy pace should be. In this book, Matt shares the idea of running a majority of your miles slow. Roughly 80% of your runs should be at a very easy pace, and only 20% of your running should be done at that faster, harder pace. Over time, this would help build endurance and speed.
The part that stood out for me in this book was Matt’s comment about how a majority of runners training in this way actually start off with a moderate effort rather than an easy effort. After reading this, I definitely saw myself in that group. While my marathon training runs have felt easy, which I defined as an effort that wasn’t breathless and more conversational, I’m coming to realize I still need to slow down even more and go even easier. So in today’s run, I asked myself if I could go even easier than before and challenged myself to stick to a completely zone 2 run.
Coincidentally, on today’s workout, I was listening to the latest Strength Running podcast today, covering the topic of high mileage training. In this episode, Matt Meyer talked about how he runs a majority of his runs at an easy pace. Surprisingly, while he runs a sub 3-hour marathon, his training has a majority of his runs running at paces 5 minutes slower than his race pace. He iterated that his easy runs are never faster than an 8-minute mile, and can even go as slow as a 10-minute mile pace. As I was on my run, maintaining a very easy pace of 10-11 minutes a mile, this felt reassuring and reminded me that I was doing something right. While I knew I could run faster and work harder, hearing the training methodology from a sub 3-hour marathoner reminded me that I needed to focus on this slow and easy pace to succeed in my own personal goal of getting faster.
All in all, today’s 7-mile run finished at a 10:36 mile pace with an average 140bpm heart rate. In comparison, this same route/effort a few weeks ago was done at a 10:07 mile pace with an average of 147bpm effort. So in terms of data, this was much much easier than before and I definitely felt much more relaxed this time around. Change doesn’t happen overnight, so I’m hoping to see the improvements in the long term as I implement more of these very easy runs as I train up for the Walt Disney World marathon. I’ll be sharing my experience with this slow training, so subscribe if you want to hear more about how this goes over time. Thanks for reading!