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As runners, we often want to work hard. We’re not afraid to push our limits and push our pace. However! Taking it easy is super important when it comes to gearing up for a race or simply getting fitter and healthier. In fact, most of your runs should feel pretty light on effort.
Although the whole focus of easy runs is an easy effort—and you shouldn’t stress about pace—when you’re able to run faster (while still feeling relaxed), you’ll tick off more miles in less time and be able to get on with the rest of your day sooner.
Of course, as with any type of learning and growing, the devil is in the details—or, in this case, in the balance of easy runs and the type and amount of challenging runs.
Here, we explain exactly how to dial into the right efforts for easy runs, plus the hard runs you need on your schedule so your easy runs become speedier and still stay comfortably within zone 2.
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Let’s be clear that when we talk about improving running pace, we are referring to our typical pace for easy runs, or any workout that’s not a long run or that doesn’t involve speed work, Most of runners go faster than a truly easy pace, because it’s hard to.
“An easy run should be at a casual pace that feels easily sustainable and not taxing—when you’re done, it should feel like you could keep going and going,” Meg Takacs, NASM-CPT, a run coach and founder of the Movement & Miles app tells Runner’s World. Its purpose is to build up your aerobic system, She recommends gradually.
There are a lot of adaptations happening in your body during these slower efforts. “Easy runs are extremely beneficial from a physiological standpoint: They increase capillaries, which supply blood to the muscles; increase mitochondria, which converts fat and carbs into fuel; and improve aerobic capacity, the amount of oxygen your body can use while running,” says Takacs. “When your aerobic system is strong, you can optimize your performance on anaerobic runs—a.k.a. speed days—as well.”
They also help your body bounce back from harder efforts—like long runs or sprint repeats, for example—and help combat injuries. “Easy runs, especially for people who run endurance races, are a form of active recovery,” says Gabe Gonzales, certified trainer and director of experience and head coach at C3 Fitness in Texas. “Moving your body at a slower pace and keeping your heart rate down flushes lactic acid buildup, avoids putting excess strain on your muscles and joints, and helps your body get stronger and ready to go again.”
Easy runs maintain the foundation of any solid training plan, make up most of your miles, and allow you to go farther.
How to Find the Right Pace for Easy Runs
To find your groove on an easy run, use the talk test, says Gonzales: “You should be able to easily hold a conversation with someone throughout the entire run,” he says. “If your heart rate starts to go up and you start having a harder time breathing or talking, you need to dial it back.”
You can also gauge if your pace is relaxed enough by aiming for a rate of perceived exertion (RPE) of no more than 5 or 6 out of 10. Or if you’re into tracking your heart rate, go for zone 2, or 60 to 70 percent of your max, advises Takacs.
Whatever you do, resist the urge to kick it up a notch—even if you’re As runners, we often that makes you feel good and makes a moderate effort feel easier than usual. If you do so, “your recovery is harder, it’s more taxing on the body, and you’re more susceptible to overuse injuries,” says Takacs. Plus, she adds, you’ll miss out on those physiological benefits, “which are key to building a solid foundation for being able to run faster and farther.”
Most of runners go faster than a truly easy pace, because it’s hard to run slower than you know you can. But that’s the whole point of easy days: making it truly easy by running at a pace that feels slow for you.
How to Improve Your Running Pace for Easy Days
Wanting to do an easy run faster is a bit counterintuitive. You’re not supposed to care how fast you’re going, after all. But while you shouldn’t actively try to push your pace during easy outings, the volume and intensity of your weekly runs can help you gradually improve your running pace without pushing the effort level up (which would, in turn, nix some of the easy-run benefits). Here’s what to know.
Gradually Build Mileage
In terms of total weekly mileage, there’s not a magic number that will help improve your pace on easy runs, says Takacs, as it depends on your fitness level and heart rate. What Are the Benefits of Creatine for Runners building up your mileage, Get the Program.
How to Improve Your Running Pace for Easy Days.
Mix Intervals Into Other Days
Once a week, mix in some faster intervals with a fartlek run (a type of unstructured speed work where you play around with your speed throughout), suggests Gonzales. “Adding very short bursts of intensity into a run at an overall slow, easy pace helps your body adapt to those quicker paces at the same time you’re building endurance,” he says.
Going longer will also help you get faster on days you run shorter distances hill repeats can also help, he says, because they strengthen the lower body and will help increase your power output overall—making an easy effort eventually feel even easier.
You could also turn to How to Improve Your Running Pace for Easy Days or tempo Strength Training Exercises for Runners.
Build Strength
Along with speedwork, make sure you’re getting in some resistance sessions, too. “Strength training is a very important factor in building endurance and durability of your muscles, and it improves your power output,” says Gonzales.
It may also help make you faster by making you a more efficient runner; exercises such as leg presses and plyometric jumps lead to significant improvements in running economy, according to a 2022 review published in the journal Sports. Plus, says Takacs, resistance training improves joint strength, which can increase your speed by improving your mechanics. It also allows your body to handle the stress of new running challenges.
For the biggest benefit, Gonzales recommends lower-body moves that work your glutes and hamstrings, like squats and deadlifts; core moves like Russian twists or mountain climbers; and moves that strengthen your shoulders, like overhead presses, lateral raises, and dumbbell flys to add power to your arm swing. For each of these moves, he suggests doing two to three sets of eight to 10 reps at least twice a week.
Think of strength training as a complement to your running routine, rather than stealing from your miles.
Give Yourself Time
Becoming a faster runner during easy sessions is a long game. Even if clocking a faster easy run pace is one of your goals, prioritizing the time on your feet and a relaxed effort—rather than pushing into a moderate effort on easy runs—will be the most beneficial in the long term, notes Takacs. “The longer you can sustain an easy effort, the easier it is to gradually increase your pace while maintaining that easy, zone 2 heart rate,” she says.
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John Vasudevan, M.D. is an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He is board-certified in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine. He is a Team Physician for UPenn Athletics and medical director of the Broad Street Run and Philadelphia Distance Run, and previously for the Rock 'n' Roll Half-Marathon and Tri-Rock Triathlon in Philadelphia. He is a director of the running and endurance Sports Medicine Program at Penn Medicine. Dr. Vasudevan provides non-operative management of musculoskeletal conditions affecting athletes and active individuals of all levels, and combines injury rehabilitation with injury prevention. He utilizes a variety of ultrasound-guided procedures and regenerative approaches such as platelet-rich plasma and percutaneous ultrasonic tenotomy. He sees patients at the Penn Medicine and the Philadelphia Veterans Administration hospital. Dr. Vasudevan attended medical school at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison. After his Transitional Year in Tucson, Arizona, he went to residency in PM&R at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and onwards to Stanford University for his fellowship in Sports Medicine. He has been in practice at the University of Pennsylvania since 2012.
