Best way to speed up "easy" pace

if weather is a factor, start earlier when it is cooler.

if it's not about the weather, then run with people who are faster than you and that will give you the pace improvement.

Just start going a little bit faster on a regular basis. Let the pace come down during each run.

Stop running 9 minute miles if you ever expect that to happen.

Ummm... get more fit?

Easy pace should be easy.

Why do you feel the need to speed up your easy pace to 6:30? What makes you think 6:30 is right vs some other pace?

If you are injury prone, a great way to trigger another injury is to force an easy pace.

Best advice I have besides "get more fit?" is: take off the watch for easy days, and tell yourself you're running 6:30 pace (if that makes you happy)... even if it happens to be 7:00 pace or 7:15 or 6:15 pace.

What are your recent race times?

run faster

You can try alternating every other mile till pace gets easier. 7:00-6:30-7:00 - -

Why are you worrying about your easy pace? So you can post impressive stats (75 miles this week at 6:30/mile average vs same @ 7:00/mile)?

Easy runs are named that for a reason. If you know how long your route is, take the watch off and run by feel. Worry about your pace in sessions and races.

The simple answer however is get fitter. Good luck.

What others have said, "easy means easy" and "get fitter" is probably quite true.

Both of your proposed methods are wrong. Stick with the 7-9 mile runs, but let it "get away from you" surging up & down hills and when you're feeling good. In other words, you might run 60" at 6:10 and then think "woah, I'd better cool it down." Go back to ~7, and then let it get away again once you're feeling good. Finish the last 3 miles 6:40-6:30-6:25, or whatever. This is how to improve your easy pace, and it won't happen in a week.

A good way is to have pickups in your run. By that I mean that in your run maybe include a 30 sec surges or so at 2 mile to 5k pace.

Probably the best thing you can do from an "optimal training" point of view is analyze why you want to speed up your easy pace. Easy is supposed to be easy, not fast. Identify the root cause of this desire to speed up your easy pace, and pull it out from the root, like you would a weed in your lawn, so that it doesn't grow back.Easy should be the slowest pace you can muster, while still maintaining running form. If you want to run faster, do that on other days, not your easy days -- especially if you are injury prone. If your training is properly balanced, your easy days will become faster, because of the training you do on your hard days.

A Slow Runner wrote:

I'd like to speed up my easy pace from about 7 minute miles to ~6:30. I fluctuate from 7-9 miles per run through my base phase for typical runs. From an "optimal training" point of view, how should I go about this adjustment? Should I keep the distance the same, but maybe try to run 6:30 pace for the run for 1-2 days of the first week, 2-3 the second week, and build up until I regularly run 6:30's and do that til it's regular? Or run shorter at that pace and build up mileage again already going 6:30's? I'm pretty injury prone so I want to keep it as easy on my body as possible.

@1:10 or bust: 1:54 for 800, and 4:20 for 1600 this spring.

I am mainly worried about my easy pace because most of my team runs their easy runs somewhat considerably faster (ballpark 6:15 pace?) than me. If I run with them one day, I'm quite tired the next day and feel like I'm gonna die running remotely close to them. So I'd like to speed up my easy pace to make it easier to run with them. Also, my 5k is around 5:20 pace yet going faster than 6:00 pace for tempos is really hard for me.

Thanks for the advice so far. I'll try to run with the watch less. I've just been worried that my easy pace is too slow, especially if some of my teammates run a lot faster on easy runs yet they (the ones I'm concerned about) are "only" 10 or so seconds faster over 1600.

6:30 is non-specific, so is 7:00, and so is the 6:15 your teammates are running. There's no evidence to show that running faster in the easy zone will help you improve. You're better off going longer at the same or an even easier pace. This is especially true if you're a high school or collegiate athlete (I.e. You have an underdeveloped aerobic system.). Running faster may improve your aerobic system faster for a few weeks, but it'll hinder your long term development.

Best to make it 5:30...

6:30 is just not a living pace.

You're pretty competitive to be worried about how fast your easy pace is. You should be worried about how fast you race.

You almost certainly have more fast twitch fibers than your teammates. You can hammer when you need to, but you aren't as resilient. Acknowledge it, swallow your pride, and focus about what actually matters. I'm the same way. I've never in my life been capable of doing two hard workouts in a week. As for regular distance runs, I'd drop the pace down to something within 30 seconds of marathon pace on one or two runs per week (out of maybe 11 total), but that's about it. You've gotta listen to your body.

A Slow Runner wrote:

@1:10 or bust: 1:54 for 800, and 4:20 for 1600 this spring.

I am mainly worried about my easy pace because most of my team runs their easy runs somewhat considerably faster (ballpark 6:15 pace?) than me. If I run with them one day, I'm quite tired the next day and feel like I'm gonna die running remotely close to them. So I'd like to speed up my easy pace to make it easier to run with them. Also, my 5k is around 5:20 pace yet going faster than 6:00 pace for tempos is really hard for me.

Thanks for the advice so far. I'll try to run with the watch less. I've just been worried that my easy pace is too slow, especially if some of my teammates run a lot faster on easy runs yet they (the ones I'm concerned about) are "only" 10 or so seconds faster over 1600.

Makes sense. At least you are faster than I suspected... at the mile.

Your 1-mile, 5k, and "tempo" I think tell the full story. Are you familiar with the Daniels Running Formula? Your 4:20 1600 is around a 70 VDOT, but your 5K time is significantly slower (around 62 VDOT.. which is equivalent to 4:49 mile time!). You clearly are very aerobically weak. Your times drop off significantly as the distance lengthens. And then, your "struggle point" of 6:00 is even slower than the 5k time would suggest.

Daniels suggest an easy pace of 6:30 for your 1600m time. But the problem is that your 5k time suggests an easy pace of 7:11. I bet if you raced a 10k or half marathon, your suggested easy pace off those distances would be even slower.

So, my advice is don't worry about pressing the easy pace down to 6:30. It's too fast for you now. That won't really be the right easy pace until you get your 5k time down to 14:55 (4:49 pace), which will match your 4:20 1600m. Even then, if you are more fast-twitch, you may not be able to run your easy days as fast as a slower-twitch runner. No big deal.

Keep the pace comfortable, and if you have the extra energy (and your coach agrees!!), try to get in more mileage. Extend your runs, or add doubles. More mileage, and another couple seasons will be the key to dropping your easy pace, as your aerobic fitness improves. The cool thing is that you have some awesome potential to improve your 1600m time as your aerobic conditioning improves. It has to be holding your 1600m performance back by a fair bit.

Don't force the tempo pace either. The same thing is going on with it. (it's currently slower than your 1600m time would suggest).

"Easy" is recovery, it isn't a speed.

Watching the watch and pace is about ego and not recovery. Watching the watch and trying to boost your "easy" pace is the fast track to running medium. Medium takes you into the bizarre realm where you don't run fast enough to do any good, but you still get fatigued. At the same time, you do not recover enough to maximize your hard efforts when they count. Stress, Recover, Stress Recover - hard days, hard and easy days, easy.

Pay attention to how you are feeling when you run: http://www.logicoflongdistance.com/2013/01/what-is-easy-run.html

By doing workouts like tempo runs and speed workouts on the track, you develop your aerobic capacity and quick twitch fibers. Therefore, you will gradually be able to handle a faster daily pace.