They should be as fast as easy is.

My easy runs = dictated by heart rate. easy should feel easy.
My intensity/interval runs = dictated by pace. Hit yuh splits.

fwiw, I've run 8:00/mi "easy" pace for a good five years. I haven't gotten much faster at all. Got a coach in December. Did a LTHR test. Now I run my easy runs in my zone 2 heart rate based off my lthr of 172. I now cruise at 7:00/mi easy pace. Do I think it's hard? yes. But compared to what? My years of plodding around at 8:00/mile? I'm running fewer miles a week (30) at a faster pace versus 40 or 50 at a slower pace.

I've become much faster on the run in those few months while raising my FTP and swimming faster than ever.

But then again, I'm not a 16:30 5ker. Hell, I could maybe touch 17:30 on a great day, rn. But ymmv.

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

I've got two types of easy days. Days where everything is truly easy and I don't look at any metrics. For these my heart rate typically sits well into zone 1 (for me zone 2 is 148-156ish), and my pace is around 8:00 give or take. Those are just stats I look at after though.

Then I have easy z2 days where I'm not trying to work hard, but I try to keep my heart rate between 140-150. If my legs are fresh-ish, I'll usually end up running around 7:15 pace or so depending on terrain. It's different for pure runners putting in more miles on more runs per week for sure, but if I did my easy days faster than 7:00 pace I'd be constantly achy I think.

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Benjamin Deal - Professional - Instagram - TriRig - Lodi Cyclery
Deals on Wheels - Results, schedule, videos, sponsors

I'm 35 and not quite that fast ... 5k PR ~16:50, half marathon PR ~1:15:30 -- so about 10"/mile slower than your friend when racing.

But I do the bulk of my mileage (e.g., easy runs) about 45"/mile slower, between 7:30-8:00/mile. Typically an easy everyday run will have an average heart rate of 130-140 (usually in the upper 130s), or around 70-75% of my maximum, though this varies with fatigue, sleep, heat, hills, etc.

Especially during periods when I'm doing workouts, I think that going much faster on easy days, even if it didn't feel too hard, would be counterproductive. I could run conversationally at 7:00/mile but it wouldn't be legit easy day-in day-out.

FWIW, I'm 111/90 and over 800 miles in 100/100 so far and feeling good, fingers crossed that continues! I'm certainly not immune to injury even following these guidelines.

Have him read this: https://www.letsrun.com/...i-sucked-in-college/

Or this: https://lowellrunning.com/...ning-hard-easy-days/

(edited to add HR info)

I just ran ~17:30 with only one track workout of some 400s beforehand. Everything else was easy save for some long runs where I’d go a little faster but nothing sustained faster than marathon pace. Some of my easy runs are as slow as 9:30/mi. Most of them are 8:30-8:45/mi.

You need to be more clear. You say easy in the title but aerobic in your post. When I was running that, yes a general aerobic run would be 6:45-6:55 pace. Recovery, which was easy, was quite a bit slower. Which are you meaning that he’s running at sub 7 pace?

A fairly typical example from one of my guys (young pro) who is ~16:30 off the bike (~15:30 open 5K)....



Those are min/km so that's ~9:00/mile (~4 min/mi slower than open 5K race pace)! @ a heart rate of 124 which is ~65% of max.

My take: The key to long term improvement & avoiding injury is keeping those easy days eazzzy.


I haven't worked with any 55yo's who are *that* speedy but I can only imagine that the above is even more applicable for the older fast runner.

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Alan Couzens, M.Sc. (Sports Science)
Exercise Physiologist/Coach
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Alan_Couzens
Web: https://alancouzens.com

I think there is something to that. I had to learn to run 9-9:30/mile before it became comfortable (I've gone under 17 5k) and there's a lot of people slower than me who don't like to run as slow as I do. And the complaint is that it is hard to run that slow...

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DFRU - Detta Family Racing Unit...the kids like it and we all get out and after it...gotta keep the fam involved!

Slow
. Should be able to hold a conversation without gasping at all.

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USAT Level II- Ironman U Certified Coach

I'm turning 50 in a few weeks and ran 1:13 half and 16:15 at 49. Goal at 50 is to break 16:00 again. My normal run are 6:30 to 7:00 pace. They feel easy and are conversational. My 15m long run was 6:5x pace on Sunday. I've had my fair share of injuries too. I recognize the benefit to working actual recovery runs into my schedule but also default to that 6:45 pace on my own. Therefore, I have started to run several times per week with a few guys who run 7;30 to 8:00. I'm buying into needing to run slow to run fast...who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Nice! What kind of MPW do you have -

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

Barring injuries, my normal masters years have been around 60mpw, with actual weeks usually ranging between 50-70mpw.

Personally, I wouldn't bother trying to help your good friend unless he want help. I know you are just trying to help but you have to ask yourself what you are trying to accomplish here. Whether he has an injury may or may have nothing to do with his easy days anyway. Maybe he needs to sleep more, eat more, recover more etc. Basically we have no idea why he is getting a run injury. Maybe his hard days or too hard or maybe it is the shoes, or maybe he needs to work on imbalances and strength and conditioning. I hope this answer gives a different perspective.

He also sounds like just runner, the easiest answer here if he is a triathlete is to run less.

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Interesting discussion, not as fast as your friend (~17:12 5k) Before I joined a tri/running-club, I used to do easy runs on ~5:30/km (9:00/mile). I run with a club who has the philosophy of doing easy runs as fast as comfortably possible so around ~4:20 - 40/km (7 - 7:30 min/mile) for my level. However, I had the opportunity to chat with a local elite marathoner (~2:11 pb) and was surprised to learn that he does a lot of his easy mileage at 4:00-5:30/km, with the philosophy that it is better to go a lot slower than a tad too fast on those runs. So now I don't hesitate to run 9-10 min/mile on easy runs. Having said that, your friend is probably still within "zone 2" @ 7 min/mile, in my view.

Also not as fast as your friend, probably ~1:19-21 for a HM depending on the course right now and right at 17:00 for 5k (been a while since I've raced). I am a big proponent of taking easy days easy. I'm usually in the 50-60mpw range, trying to bump to 80ish over the next few months, and my easy runs are usually around 8min miles. Some days I'll go slower, as slow as 8:40-9min miles when I'm wiped. Usually no faster than 7:50-8min/mi. If you go look at the Road Racing and Training thread on Letsrun (which is often one of the only threads worth a damn over there), you'll get a lot more data for your sample. Plenty of guys posting their training ever week...a number of sub-16min 5K types and low 2:30s/high 2:20s marathoners as well. A solid majority of them are training in the 7:45-8:15/mi range.

I've learned with running that if you're pushing the envelope with mileage (which is necessary to get fast), you're constantly going to be managing aches and pains...those aches and pains are even more prevalent when you push the easy days. For me, the more I run, the faster I get, and the faster I get, the slower my easy days are.

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