Running Doesn’t (always) Need to be Hard and 5 Ways to Make Running Easier
Day 2 of my 10 day writing journey, 9 days now before Chicago 26.2. Here’s day 1 if you missed it.
A key take away from training for my first marathon last year, and one that kept me healthy throughout training, was that hard running should be hard — think speed and track runs — but a majority of running should be slow, relaxed, and at a conversational pace and effort.
Keep a majority (~80%) of your miles slow and conversational to build your aerobic base and time on feet. Build your mileage and running duration gradually. The miles don’t need to be done all in one sitting — especially if you’re new to running or early in race training! Here’s a video that helped me visualize effort and heart rate scales and how these differences train different energy systems.
Speed runs are more intense but they are typically shorter workouts with shorter intervals and more recovery time. Speed sessions are more taxing on your body meaning you need more time to recover so they are only done once or twice a week in most cases. I’ll get into the full benefits and the hows and whys of these sessions at a later date but here is something that can get you started.
If you are newer to running, prone to injuries but enjoy running, or think running isn’t for you because it’s “too hard” then…
- Focus on effort not your running pace (4–5/10 intensity): Unless you are training for a race PR, I recommend starting out by focusing on effort for a few reasons. First, you may not know what your right paces are and monitoring them can be discouraging — especially when comparing to others. Second, focusing on perceived effort gives you a scale to measure training and future progress. Finally, it allows you to build body awareness and adjust effort off of how you feel on different days.
- Slow it down, keep it conversational, and try running with others: You could keep a conversation with a running partner or you could even call and catch up with a family member or friend! This keeps you at a conversational pace and takes some of the focus off of running.
3. Run for a set duration instead of a mile goal: “Run for 15 minutes” sounds a lot less daunting than “run 2 miles.”
4. Take breaks: Running doesn’t need to be all in one shot to be effective! You can try walk/run, run/jog, run/rest scenarios to help break up the time and distance.
5. Have a good playlist or podcast: But be mindful that the music isn’t so upbeat that it takes you out of your 4–5/10 effort zone.
Anyway, I hope this helps and if you’re in the NYC area and want to run some nice easy miles with me, Katrina, Alexa, and the SESSION Community you can join us Mondays at 7am and Wednesdays at 7:30am. 😊
