Mistake #1: Running Too Fast On Easy Days

How do I know what pace I should do my easy runs at?

That’s a long hard read . Maybe you can present it in a different format

If you click into the article, there's a section towards the end that prescribes an easy pace range based on your 10k PB.

This is a conversion from the sample of 24 elites. Their average easy pace range was between 63-70% of their 10k pace.

E.g. for someone running 30 minutes for 10k (or 20km/h), their easy pace would be 63-70% of that speed - or - 12.6km/h - 14km/h.

In pace, that would be 4:46/km - 4:17/km.

I'm standing by for more great tips!

If you're just looking for a pace prescription, you could skip to the section that shows all of the elite runners' easy pace ranges. This is about halfway through.

The biggest finding is that the common prescriptions for easy pace ranges, such as "stick to zone 2" or Daniels' "E Pace" are far more intense than the pace that elites are actually running. Elites tend to do the bulk of their easy running in zone 1 or around 30 secs/km (45 secs/mile) slower than Daniels' "E Pace" range.

I’d been lurking and lingering here or some time awaiting some guidance on taking my easy runs easy.

Good joke.

Except, people seemingly do need "guidance" (or maybe convincing), because the vast majority still run their easy days way too fast.

And the point of the article is to demonstrate that even the common advice "to take easy days easy" doesn't go far enough. Elites are running much easier than that.

I have a hard time believing that this makes sense for slow runners.

At age 66, my 10K race pace is only about 9:15/mile. 63-70% of that speed is around 14 min/mile, which is walking. There's nothing wrong with walking, but it's not training for running. I'll keep doing my easy days at 10:30-11:00/mile, which is at least jogging.

Learn English bro.

DISCUSS

Are most people actually running easy/recovery runs at JD paces. I don't have a broad experience, just my running club and the random runners I follow on Strava, but everyone seems to go pretty slowly. Is this unusual for other clubs?

7:45 / mile easy pace for 2:30 marathoner

9:30 / mile pace for 3:05 marathoner

8:45 / mile pace for 1:24 half marathoner

9:17 / mile pace for 4:32 miler

8:20 / mile pace for 37 min 10k runner (ME, probably the fastest easy run relative to speed of the bunch)

Story of my wife, baby. Live fast, die, run.

I'd say your club and Strava feed are the rare exceptions.

My strava is full of people doing all of their "easy" runs at 4:30/km (7:10ish/mile), regardless of whether they run 30 minutes for 10k or 36.

Also, min/mile. This is an American site for god’s sake.

An excerpt: (You'll have to excuse the Letsrun formatting).

These were taken from a random 2 week sample on Strava.

Athlete (Nation) Easy Pace Range
Brett Robinson (AUS)
4:01 - 4:35/km (6:28 - 7:22/mile)
Andy Buchanan (AUS)
4:08 – 4:37/km (6:39 - 7:26/mile)
Isobel Batt-Doyle (AUS)
4:14 – 4:42/km (6:48 - 7:34/mile)
Rose Davies (AUS)
4:07 – 4:46/km (6:37 - 7:40/mile)
Emil Cairess (GBR)
3:50 - 4:10/km (6:10 - 6:42/mile)
Jack Rowe (GBR)
3:59 – 4:31/km (6:25 - 7:16/mile)
Hannah Nuttall (GBR)
4:22 – 4:46/km (7:01 – 7:40/mile)
Charles Hicks (GBR)
4:07 - 4:22/km (6:37 – 7:01/mile)
Clayton Young (USA)
4:08 – 4:36/km (6:39 – 7:24/mile)
Joe Klecker (USA)
3:57 – 4:20/km (6:21 – 6:58/mile)
Keira D’Amato (USA)
4:32 – 5:05/km (7:18 – 8:11/mile)
Alicia Monson (USA)
4:21 – 4:47/km (7:00 – 7:42/mile)
Robert Farken (GER)
3:56 – 4:32/km (6:20 – 7:18/mile)
Malindi Elmore (CAN)
4:26 – 5:02/km (7:08 – 8:06/mile)
Sintayehu Vissa (ITA)
4:25 - 4:46/km (7:06 – 7:40/mile)
Jacob Boutera (NOR)
4:20 – 4:45/km (6:58 – 7:39/mile)
Jacob Simonsen (DEN)
4:22 - 4:51/km (7:01 – 7:48/mile)
Maureen Koster (NED)
4:22 - 4:55/km (7:01 – 7:55/mile)
Juliette Thomas (BEL)
4:25 - 4:49/km (7:06 – 7:45/mile)
Emma Bates (USA)
4:28 - 4:58/km (7:11 – 7:59/mile)
Yemaneberhan Crippa (ITA)
3:43 - 4:17/km (5:59 – 6:54/mile)
Nick Griggs (IRL)
4:09 - 4:27/km (6:41 – 7:10/mile)
Marta Perez
4:17 - 4:49/km (6:54 – 7:45/mile)
Sophie O’Sullivan
4:20 - 4:46/km (6:58 – 7:40/mile)

Some noticeable trends:

The overall easy pace range was between 59 and 76% of 10k pace. However, 19 of 24 athletes did not exceed 72% of 10k pace on easy runs. All athletes ran at 66% or lower on at least some of their easy runs. The average easy pace range was between 63 and 70% of 10k pace. The average raw pace range was between 4:12/km and 4:41/km. However, when we separate males and females, we notice a few differences. Despite the men running at slightly faster raw paces, the females tended to run at a slightly faster pace range relative to their 10k pace; 65 – 72%, compared to 62 – 69% for males. 11 out of the 12 males did easy runs at 63% of 10k pace or below, while this was replicated by only 2 out of 12 females. Despite this, the equal slowest average pace for a run (recovery or otherwise) was recorded by a male (Jacob Simonsen) at 5:05/km. When we consider that Jacob’s marathon personal best is 2:07:51 - a pace of 3:01.8/km – we can see that runs more than 2:00/km slower than marathon pace still have a place in an elite distance runner’s training regime.

(I didn't make note of particularly slow "recovery" runs here, but I have in the full article).

You 10k pace is a 55 Min race. You should be basing your easy run pace off their HM pace. 90s off that is in the realm of reasonable.

And of course let’s not forget altitude adjustment for a bunch of them. And then the residual fatigue of running 120mpw instead of 40….

To be fair to amkelley, the article is aimed more towards runners in the 30-50 minute 10k range (maybe even 32-45).

And yes, in the article I make note of athletes training at altitude, but I'll repeat, "this may not be as severe for athletes living at altitude most of the year, especially given the relatively low intensity of these runs."

Also, what percentage of a 40mpw and 120mpw should be "easy"? Is easy just recovery miles? Does "easy" constitute zone 2, which is practically steady? Is "easy" just a vague term that means whatever you want it to mean?

As far as I can tell, people that only jog a few days a week could run any pace the want on any day they feel like. Pros on the other hand need a large dose of low end aerobic work. But what is low end aerobic work or easy running? If you run 120mpw and have a max HR of 205, doing ten miles at a HR of 140bpm seems pretty normal. If that effort happens to be a 6:00 mile pace, so be it. Didn't Grant Fisher just post a 20 miler at altitude with like a 147bpm HR at 5:40 pace? That may not have been truely easy for him but the end, but I'd bet at halfway, he was what he considered easy.

Is 70% of 5:53 10:00 min/mile?