Slowing Down to Speed up: Embracing the Comfy Pace
“Remember, it’s the pace that kills, never the distance.”
Today we are going to talk about one of the most contradictory (and most important!) parts of training: slowing down to speed up!
For the majority of my running career, the idea of slowing down my running seemed like a joke. In sport with big goals of PRs, qualifying times, and podium finishes, why would a runner ever want to add time to their mileage?
However, mastering the art of the “conversation” or “comfortable” pace is one of the, if not the, most important part of distance running. Like the great Bill Jones said, it’s not the distance that will break a runner, it is the speed.
Wait, what? How slow is Kipchoge running at?
I am going to give you a crazy scenario right off the bat. Are we familiar with Eliud Kipchoge? Kipchoge is the Kenyan running great who broke the elusive two-hour marathon barrier in the Ineos 1:59 Challenge in October 2019. While that course was heavily controlled and paced, Kipchoge’s personal record on an eligible marathon course is 2:01:09, which averages to a 4:37.2 pace per mile. FOUR MINUTES AND THIRTY-SEVEN SECONDS PER MILE. For 26.2 miles. *Mind blown*.
Now, most would assume his training is 1,000-mile weeks with all of his miles at sub-five minute paces, right? Guess again. According to Run Outside magazine, Kipchoge’s long run pace usually hovers around an 8:30-8:45 minute per mile, with some runs accelerating to 6:30-7:00 minute miles at the very end. This means his long runs are four minutes per mile slower than his marathon pace, and two minutes per mile slower than his marathon pace during his fastest miles at the end.
For the general population of runners, aka those who are not running sub-five minute miles, a four minute differential is a lot, and frankly unnecessary, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be embracing the art of slowing down. For most of my running clients, a general rule of thumb is that “comfy” pace miles should be about 75-90 seconds slower than goal marathon pace. Therefore, if a runner is looking to run an 8:30 mile pace on race day, long runs at comfortable pace should be about 9:45-10:00 miles.
What is a comfy pace?
So what exactly is comfortable pace, and how do we slow ourselves down? For runners who go by heart rate zones, easy long runs should be about 60-70% of your maximum heart rate, often referred to as “zone 2” cardio. As a coach who prescribes runs more by “feel” than by heart rate or zones, comfortable pace is one that you could hold for miles and miles at a time.
Two tricks I give to runners to try to find this pace:
Focus on your breathing. In a comfortable pace run, try the 3:3 breathing technique. To do this, inhale for 3 steps (left, right, left) and exhale for 3 steps (left, right, left). If you are unable to do this, chances are you are going too fast!
Try the talk test. If you are able to maintain a conversation pace and get out four-ish sentences, you are at the right pace! If you can only get 1-2 sentences out without feeling like you’re out of breath, you’re going too fast!
So what?
So now that you’ve mastered the art of comfortable pace running—why is it so important? Comfortable pace builds aerobic endurance, and has several significant benefits. According to Coros, comfortable pace running promotes recovery by increasing bloodflow without adding significant stress, improves your body’s ability to use oxygen which increases overall performance, and enhances fat metabolism by encouraging your body to use fat as it’s primary energy source—an ideal adaptation for distance runners!
While it may be easy to prescribe 2-4 comfortable pace runs a week (the recommended number for intermediate to advanced runners), as a coach, getting athletes to stick to the plan is another story. So while running at comfortable pace may sound easy—it’s not. Most runners are guilty of running their long runs too fast as opposed to too slow—and the downsides to this could seriously take a toll on training.
According to Brian Rosetti, coach and founder of V.O2 for Runner’s World, the issue with pushing too hard on an easy run (besides just not being able to enjoy a chill pace) is that increased effort on those days could cut into your ability to go harder on other days. “People think, ‘even though I ran a little bit harder, relatively, it wasn’t that hard,’” says Rosetti. “But what tends to happen is that starts to add up, where you’re overtraining a little bit. You’re adding more stress to the body and then probably not getting as much out of your harder speedwork days as you could be.”
In addition to not being able to fully push yourself on your workout days, overtraining and running too fast can lead to lethargy, low energy, illness, and/or injury - all of which could spell disaster for an athlete. You’re also pushing your muscles further than prescribed, which means you could need more recovery time than your coach programmed!
So, next time you’re thinking of picking up the pace: DON’T. Stick with your controlled breathing, run with a friend (or four-legged fur pal!) that has a slightly slower pace than you do, listen to a podcast or go no music instead of jams that make you want to accelerate, and try the conversation test. Your body (and your race!) Will thank you for it!
Xo