How to work out your easy running pace?
So here’s some good news. Getting quicker at running isn’t all about feeling that burn of lactate in your lungs and having your lungs screaming to stop. Actually, what we would always recommend is that a good chunk of your weekly runs are run at what we call ‘Easy’ pace.
These runs should be a chance to relax, forget about the goal that you're training for and to go out and enjoy the time on your feet. Another bit of good news; the easy running pace is actually the least important to stick to in your training plan. Use the pace as a guide to where you should be but don’t worry if one day you don’t hit it and other days you can run a bit quicker. The key is that you’re not working too hard so your body can recover and be at its best for the Interval, Tempo and Long Run training that will really make the difference.
Easy runs should make you smile :).
So how do you actually work out what your easy running pace should be?
The general rule of thumb that we would suggest for working out your easy running pace is to run at 10-20% slower than your target race time.
But before you get the calculators out, we’d recommend going out for a run without any worry about time or pace, just go out and enjoy putting one foot in front of the other. You shouldn’t feel out of breath at the end, a little bit of sweat is ok but you shouldn’t need a towel or a bucket to catch it all. Once you’ve done that, have a look at your running pace; this is most likely going to be a good marker for what your easy running pace should be.
But to check that you’re not just a super human who doesn’t feel pain or sweat it’s good to do some of the calculations of your easy running pace and compare the two.
The easy way to work out your easy running pace
The easy way to work out your easy running pace is to use an online calculator to do the complicated maths for you. We think the best one is from Omnicalculator here. Simply enter your target distance and target time and it will instantly show you your expected Easy Run pace.
The hard way to work out your easy running pace
If you want to practice your maths skills then this how to work it out:
Find your target race pace in minutes per mile or minutes per km. So for example a 4 hour Marathon would be 9 minutes and 9 seconds or 5 minutes and 38 seconds in km.
Turn your pace into a decimal. To do this you need to divide the number of seconds from your pace above by 60. So for example 9 seconds would be 0.15 and 38 seconds 0.63. You then add the minutes from your pace to give a decimal for your running pace. In the examples above it would be 9.15 minutes per mile or 5.63 minutes per km.
Increase your target run pace by 10-20% to find your easy running pace. Take the decimals in the previous step and multiply them by 1.1 and 1.2 to get a range for your easy running pace as a decimal. In the example above you’d get:
10.07 to 10.98 minutes per mile
6.19 to 6.76 minutes per km
Turn your decimals into seconds. Now you do the reverse of step 2, so take the two numbers after the decimal place and multiply it by 60. So for the first example 10.07, I take the 0.07 and multiply it by 60 to get 4.2 seconds, which I round down to 4 seconds. If I do that for the rest I get the below, which becomes your Easy pace range:
10 mins 4 secs to 10 mins 59 secs per mile
6 mins 11 sec to 6 mins 45 seconds per mile
So, once you’ve calculated your Easy runs by the ‘go out and run method’ and either the easy or hard calculation method you can compare the two.
If your Easy running pace is within the range or less than 30 seconds slower than the range then you’re right on track. It’s not so important to hit these paces so if you feel comfortable going a bit slower than the calculation then stick with it. Easy runs are about recovering and everyone recovers differently so it will have no bearing on how quickly you can run your race.
If your running easy pace is more than 30 seconds slower than the suggested calculation then we’d recommend slowly upping the pace of your Easy runs as you feel comfortable doing so to get them within 30 seconds of the pace suggested.
If your easy running pace is quicker than the suggested pace then we’d recommend slowing down. The one important thing for an Easy run is that it is Easy. These runs are not about pushing yourself and if you are running too quickly it could mean you can’t give your all on your Interval, Tempo or Long runs that you see in the Coopah app.
How often should you update your easy running pace?
Actually a lot of runners go through their whole careers with a pretty fixed Easy running pace that doesn’t alter even if they are starting their post Christmas Turkey and wine recovery or on the road to their quickest marathon.
It does depend on your journey but our recommendation is that once you feel comfortable running at a pace then you don’t need to change it as you get quicker. If you’re at the start of your running journey then it may be worth calculating your easy run pace every 6 months.
How much of your running time a week should be run at Easy running pace?
In the Coopah running training plans we focus on over 70% of your weekly running being run at your Easy running pace and often that figure can get to 80% during certain times of the programme.
Once you have your easy running pace this is often used for warm ups and cool downs, recovery periods in between intervals or tempo reps, easy runs and long runs. So it’s a huge part of your training and calculating the right easy running pace is an important way to not get injured and maximise your efforts on your key training sessions.
If you have any questions on how to best calculate your easy running pace then feel free to contact us at run@coopah.com.
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