Top Tip For Anyone Interested In Running

The short version – Start slow!

The long version – Keep reading!

I’m still pretty new to running and one of the first things I learned upon hiring a coach was…

Go slow. 80% of the time.

But why slow?

There is lots of research to show the benefits of slow running, so much that even the fastest runners on earth run “slow” (relative to them!) 80-90% of their runs.

How does it work?

When you run slow enough, your heart rate stays in the aerobic zone. In the aerobic zone your body uses oxygen to power the muscles, fuelling them with both glycogen (carbohydrate stored in the muscles) and fat (its preferred energy source).

When you run fast – your heart rate is in the anaerobic zone. This is where your body starts to rely on the carbohydrates (glycogen stored in your muscles) as fuel. Glycogen is less efficient and yields less energy, so eventually you’ll run out and hit a wall.

As well, long-slow runs increase the size and number of mitochondria in our cells. Mitochondria is your bodies powerhouses that convert fuel (food we eat) into energy!

The added bonus to all this slow running, is that it gives your muscles, tissues and joints time to adapt to the “stress” of running. This is what we want! Starting too fast and hard is a recipe for injury.

How slow should you go?

Slow is relative of course (my fastest pace is still much slower than the pro’s easy runs! ) so how slow do you need to go for YOU?

You should be able to carry on a conversation while you’re running.

You can’t hear yourself breathing much.

Your heart rate (if wearing a monitor) is no more than 80% of your max HR.

Can you sing while you’re running? If not – slow down and sing! (Wouldn’t life be magical if runners were also singing?? )

So program 80% of your runs to be quite slow, with 20% speed training (that’s a separate post!). But if you’re doing 20k’s a week, 16k should be very easy.

Summary – Run slower than you think, and you’ll be making progress faster than you know!

Turns out the tortoise really knew what he was doing against the hare!

Happy running!