We’ve all been guilty of pushing the pace on easy runs at least once, twice … or maybe more than a few times. Typically, it’s because we convince ourselves that a moderate-intensity pace, with breathing that’s just steady enough, still counts as a true zone 2 effort.
In reality, though, if your easy runs aren’t “ridiculously easy,” you’re setting yourself up for a cycle of cumulative fatigue and missed gains, says Brant Stachel, USATF-certified endurance coach at Fast and Free Performance Coaching.
When you push the pace on maintenance runs, you’re often coming from a place of trying to maximize your training, sneak in more fitness gains, or make your runs more efficient, Stachel says, but that’s your ego taking over, not a performance mindset.
By telling yourself to run way easier than you think you should, you put your ego to the side and stay true to the pace that allows you to recover and build endurance. And that’s what pays off in better performance, especially at long-distance races.
What It Means to Run Ridiculously Easy
Stachel says a “ridiculously easy” pace doesn’t feel taxing or depleting. “The goal of the easy run is to feel like you did nothing,” he says. “That’s a truth people might not like to hear, but the goal is you could keep going if you had to.”
He urges runners to follow a three-pronged guide for tracking easy run intensity:
- Your pace should hit about three minutes slower than your marathon pace.
- It should feel like a 2 or 3 on a scale of 1 to 10 for rate of perceived exertion (RPE), with 10 being all-out effort.
- Your heart rate should stay at about 60 to 70 percent of your maximum.
Stachel explains that while RPE is the best metric to go off of for tracking easy pace, he prefers you use all three methods together so you have multiple forms of evidence and can make sure you’re at the accurate intensity.
The Benefits of Running Ridiculously Easy
You Can Build More Volume
If you’re not running easy enough, your body builds up cumulative fatigue, which is essentially fatigue from small but frequent efforts that build up over time before you can recover. Stachel explains that if recreational runners find they have more time to train, they might struggle to actually add in more miles purely because they’re too sore or exhausted to handle an increase in load. And that’s often because they’re secretly pushing it on maintenance days.
After routinely running easy runs at a faster pace, you normalize that speed and fail to consider that it might be contributing to your fatigue. “You create these limiting beliefs that you’re tired, fatigued, sore, etc. But it’s not that you are objectively, it’s because you’re not doing the training that would allow you to increase your time or mileage,” says Stachel.
Once you start running truly easy, you begin to handle more load without as much soreness or fatigue, he explains. This means if you’ve been looking to make the jump to a longer race distance like going from a 5K to a half marathon, or from a half to a full marathon, you’ll be able to handle the increase as long as you keep those miles super chill. If you’re running a marathon, slowing down also allows you to increase your weekly mileage, and research shows a link between higher mileage (particularly easy miles) and faster finish times.
Reduce Risk of Injury
Slowing down your easy runs also helps keep you off the sidelines. “By going faster, you’re going to increase your injury risk,” Stachel says. “The faster you go, the more ground reaction forces, and the harder it is on tendons, ligaments, and muscles to recover.”
Even if you did gain metabolic or aerobic benefits from running faster on easy runs, the likelihood that you become injured outweighs any advantage, Stachel explains.
And, of course, avoiding injuries means you’re able to stay more consistent with your training. “It’s not what you can do for one workout or for one week,” says Stachel. “It’s what you can do for 12, 16, or 20 weeks that determines marathon success.”
You’re Able to Go Harder on Hard Days
As many run coaches stress, one of the key training principles for runners is to keep hard days hard and easy days easy. When you slow down your easy pace to something truly easy, your body can go harder in your workouts, like intervals and tempo runs. “If you’re not keeping your easy runs easy, you don’t maximize your workouts and you don’t maximize your easy runs for the actual benefits,” like recovering from hard days and building baseline endurance, Stachel says.
This carries over to race day, too. “If you’re not maximizing [easy days or hard workouts], it’s really hard to progress in training, and if you’re not progressing in training, it’s gonna be really hard to have a breakthrough on race day,” says Stachel.
Kristine Kearns, a writer and avid runner, joined Runner’s World and Bicycling in July 2024. She previously coached high school girls cross country and currently competes in seasonal races, with more than six years of distance training and an affinity for weightlifting. You can find her wearing purple, baking cupcakes, and visiting her local farmers market.