Why Most Runners Overthink Their Easy Runs
If you’ve spent more time worrying about whether your easy run was “easy enough” than actually enjoying the run, you’re not alone.
Many runners are convinced they’re doing easy runs wrong. You see a lot of content online about how to do easy runs, Zone 2, MAF, are you in the right heart rate zone etc.
Some of it can be helpful. Most of it is unnecessarily complicated.
The reality? Many runners I’ve known over the years, (including myself at times) are overthinking it.
Here’s why:
1. Easy Is a Feeling, Not a Pace
Easy pace is highly individual.
Even among runners of similar ability, there can be significant variation in how fast they do their easy runs. Many times I’ve run with training partners who ran very similar times in races, but their easy pace would feel too fast or too slow for me.
Some of us prefer a slower more relaxed pace on easy days, others can run a little quicker and still recover properly. There’s no one size fits all pace for a runner of a given ability.
Easy pace also changes quite a bit based on fitness, fatigue, weather, terrain, stress, sleep, and age. If you did a big workout or a long run yesterday, today’s easy effort run will be slower than if you’re rested.
That’s ok, in fact, it’s how it’s supposed to be. Easy means easy for the exact conditions you’re dealing with on each given day.
Key takeaway: Learn to run by feel first, pace second.
2. Easy Run Adaptations Happen Across a Wide Range of Paces
Most of the benefits of easy running occur across a fairly broad intensity range.
The aerobic system doesn’t suddenly switch off if you’re 15 seconds per kilometre faster. As Steve Magness has often said, the differences between zones are more like a dimmer switch than an on-off switch. That is, the benefits and adaptations between, say high zone 2 and low zone 3 are almost identical.
Your metabolism is not an all or nothing, aerobic or anaerobic process. All energy systems contribute at all speeds, it’s just a matter of degree. There’s no magic pace where adaptation suddenly appears.
Key takeaway: Consistency matters far more than precision.
3. Most Runners Are Told They’re Doing It Wrong
Social media often promotes rigid rules:
Stay below a certain heart rate.
Never let breathing change.
Slow down at all costs.
These rules create anxiety instead of fitness.
Many successful runners throughout history trained largely by feel. Bill Rodgers, for example, 4 time winner of the Boston and New York City marathons would train anywhere from 6-7 minute mile pace on his easy days, depending on how he felt on the day.
Learning how to read your body and dial into the correct effort is an underrated skill for runners. This kind of awareness can only be developed by trial and error, but it comes in very handy on race day.
Key takeaway: Your body gives better feedback than your watch.
4. Use Simple Cues Instead
Rather than trying to be super precise, introduce a few practical cues:
The Talk Test
Can you speak in complete sentences? You’re probably in the right range.
Breathing
Relaxed and controlled. Not gasping.
Effort
Finish feeling like you could keep going. Easy runs should be at what cyclists call, “All day pace.” You should feel like you can run for a long time at your easy pace without significant effort.
These cues work regardless of your fitness level.
Conclusion
Easy running shouldn’t be complicated.
The goal isn’t to hit a perfect heart rate or pace. The goal is to accumulate aerobic training while staying fresh enough to run again tomorrow. If you can complete your weekly workout and long run while hitting your weekly mileage goal without getting injured and still look forward to your run most days, you’re doing it right.
Trust your body. It knows more than your watch.