The appropriate or acceptable pace to run at on easy runs is a topic often
debated by distance runners and coaches and usually with a wide variety of opinions. So I wanted to weigh in on the topic here on
my blog. As with most things in running, I try to approached
the topic with a logical analysis; breaking things down into its elemental
parts, defining what the goal is, and then deciding on how best these parts can
be used to accomplish this goal. What I am presenting here is my interpretation of each of these things
(rarely is it 100% black and white).
The Goal
The goal of an easy/recovery run is to recover from a stress
workout, while maintaining or advancing our general aerobic fitness and
cellular adaptations to running. Easy/Recovery
runs are a key part of the stress and recovery principle, which states that we
must stress a body in a certain discipline (running) and then allow the body to
recover, and once it has recovered it will be better adapted to the stress than
it was before (fitter). (see illustration above) I call one complete stress and
recover cycle a “base unit” in our training.
The easy run is an integral component of the base unit, as this is where
the super compensation occurs.
Given this goal, the question becomes how much and at what
pace should our easy running be in order to recover and gain the super-compensation
benefits, while still maintaining or advancing our aerobic fitness and
adaptations.
The answer to that question will depend largely on how hard
the stress portion of the base unit was, and how long we have to recover before
our next stress workout. The answer
would likely be different if we have 3 days between stress workouts than it
would be if we have to have just 1 day between workouts. But not so much the pace of the easy runs, but rather the duration of them, as I will explain in a minute.
The Elemental
Parts
How much work/effort we do in any run is a product of multiple
factors including the duration of the run, the pace we run, the course we run
on and the weather condition. In this
analysis I hold the other elements constant so I can focus on the duration and
speed components of this equation.
To give us units to work with let’s use minutes of running
for the duration, and for the pace let’s use a percentage of lactate
threshold pace. (I define lactate threshold
pace as roughly the pace we can hold for 60 minutes in an all-out race effort).
Both speed and pace are critical in our analysis. 60 minutes at 75% of lactate threshold (LT)
pace is a greater overall effort than 30 minutes at 75% of lactate threshold
pace; likewise 60 minutes at 85% of lactate threshold pace would be a greater effort
than 60 minutes at 70% of lactate threshold pace. So we
must consider both in reaching our goal.
In the book “Daniels’ Running Formula”, Dr. Jack Daniels
develops a chart that assigns a single point value to each run based on the
duration of the run and the relative pace of the run.
If we determined that in order to recover from our last stress workout
before our next one, that we could only do a run of 20 point in value on Dr.
Daniels’ chart, then there would be multiple
ways to get those 20 point. We could run
a shorter duration at a faster pace or we could run for longer but at a slower pace. In theory either way would produce the
recovery desired.
So then one might state, “so it doesn't matter how slow or fast
I run then right, as long as I adjust my duration to match”. My answer
to that would be “only within a certain range”.
Here is why:
If we run too fast on the run (faster than a certain point) we begin substantially stressing certain systems of the body that we want to be recovering from the previous stress, not stressing again. This manifests itself by reduced performance on
our stress workout days and a feeling of not being recovered from our last stress workout.
The slower we run, the less muscles fibers that are actively
being used and the less bio-mechanically efficient we run. So if we run too slow on the easy run (slower
than a certain point) we may be teaching our body bad bio-mechanical habits, and
even worse, doing so for an extended period of time. We run
fast intervals at times on our stress days to teach our body to operate more
efficiently/economically, but similarly if we subject our body to prolonged periods
at paces that are too slow, we can teach it to be inefficient and bio-mechanically
uneconomical. This manifests itself not
on our slow days (which are easy) but through being more injury prone on our
stress days and long runs, where our bio-mechanical bad habits become more dangerous. But because the injury or problem happens in
a stress workout rather than easy run day, most runners and coaches fail to
make the connection to their easy run paces.
So what we want to do is run our easy runs slow enough to
let the necessary systems recover and fast enough not to teach our body bad
bio-mechanical habits. So what is that appropriate easy pace range? I believe this range to be (and many other elite
coaches and researchers seem to generally agree) between 20% and 30% slower
than lactate threshold pace or roughly 65% to 75% of maximum heart rate (for
those who use a HR monitor).
So if your lactate threshold pace is 6:00 per mile, than
your easy runs would be best done at a pace of between 7:12 (6:00 + (6:00 x
.20)) and 7:48 per mile (6:00 + (6:00 x .30)).
Note: These paces may
need to be adjusted for weather and/or course conditions.
With this safe pace range set then, the variable we change is our duration in order to get the proper recovery needed. Gradually over time, as our fitness and capacity grows, we may be able to increase the duration of these easy runs. Easy pace can also progress to the extent our lactate threshold improves.
If in our training, we use a 3 day base unit: a stress day
followed by 2 easy run days as recovery, at the beginning of the training cycle we may determine that we can run for
50-60 minutes in our easy run pace range (20-30% slower than LT pace) and be
properly recovered for the next stress workout.
Gradually during the course of the cycle or over the course of the year,
this duration may increase, to say 60-80 minutes, as our work capacity
grows.
Common Mistakes (IMHO)
One mistake (in my opinion) that I often see runners make is
they determine the distance they want to do on a recovery day first and then
adjust the pace accordingly. This
happens often with marathoners who want to increase mileage too quickly. This leaves them susceptible to running too
slow (teaching the body bad bio-mechanics) if they pick a distance that doesn't allow
them to stay in the easy pace range I have outlined. These runners feel great about getting in the
extra distance, but run the increased risk of injuries from running for prolonged
periods in an inefficient manner.
I suggest that instead they should determine the appropriate easy pace (20-30% slower than LT pace) and then see how much
distance/duration they can cover at that pace range and still adequately recover, and start there and try and grow that as
their fitness improves.
Another mistake I often see is, runners running outside of
their appropriate easy pace range on their easy days, in order to run with
runners who are faster than they are.
This often results in the runner not adequately recovering from the last stress
workout and thus not getting the full super-compensation (bump in fitness) they
should/could be getting from the work they did.
While I know it’s tempting to run with faster runners on a
day when it’s possible to keep up with them, but good and effective training
requires adhering to the principles of stress and recovery. Luckily the easy pace range is larger than most hard
training paces, so this does allow for some runners of slightly different
fitness levels to run together at a pace within both of their easy pace ranges,
but runners should be careful not to stray too far outside their peer group on
recovery runs.
Happy Running!
Coach Mark Hadley
Happy Running!
Coach Mark Hadley
