Running slower to get faster

Running slower to get faster.

How’s that work?

As we roll up under the covers in these winter months (on my side of the planet) I want you to think about going slower to get faster.   This is a counterintuitive thought, especially for new runners.  Let me try to explain it.

Perhaps you’ve heard Ultra-runners or Ironmen talking about building a big bottom?  And you thought to yourself, “That’s why I go to the gym 4 days a week…to get rid of that big bottom!”  Or maybe you hear them talk about banking miles, like it’s some sort of running equivalent wood pile they are building in expectation of a long winter?  What are they talking about and what are you missing?

Running slower to get faster is even more hard to wrap your head around if you have listened to us veterans rant about how you need to train faster to get faster.  The two things seem to be in conflict.  What is a runner to do?

The truth is that depending on your circumstance running slower to get faster and running faster to get faster are both useful in getting faster.  It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your training, where you are starting and at what point in the training cycle you are.

Today I’m going to sing the praises of running slower to get faster.  What we are actually talking about is running slower to get more efficient.

Running slower to get faster means taking the time to build a big base.  What do I mean by a big base?  A big base is a relatively large volume of training at a lower intensity.  Think of it as the foundation of a house.  You want to build a solid foundation for your house.  In fact the quality and size of your foundation will constrain the quality of the house you can build.

The theory is to build that underlying strength then build the racing speed on top of it.

But Chris, won’t running slower make me slower?

Well, actually yes it will.  The theory here is that you build the base and then lay the quality speed work on top of it.  For example, I have been doing only long , slow base building runs over the last couple months.  I raced a 10k last week and found I had very little speed in my legs.

But, I’m not training for a 10K.  I’m training for marathons.  I don’t need to go fast.  I need to go far.  All the speed in the world won’t help me if I’m walking at mile 20.

So, Chris, you’re telling me to just ‘run more miles’?  That’s not helpful.

No, there is more to it than just running more and that’s the important nuance.  Running slower, building a big base, means running purposely at a lower effort level than you would normally run.

This is where it gets sticky.  If any of us walk out the front door and start running at our normal, easy-run pace that pace is going to be too fast, or more accurately, too much effort, to build base.  You need to run at a lower effort level.

Building base isn’t about just running more.  It is running in such a way as to promote physiological changes in your body that are useful for endurance.   This is what smarter people than I have figured out.  They discovered that if you do large amounts of Zone 2 training it promotes changes in your muscles that give them the ability to go longer and more efficiently at all speeds.

OK, Chris, there you go again with the Zone training, what does that mean? 

This is really the secret sauce of base building.   Technically I’m referring to heart rate zone 2 which is a way to measure your effort level by tracking your heart rate.  I’m not going into heart rate training here, you can search my blog for the posts I have done on heart rate training.

Think of it this way; you take your effort level and divide it into 5 even categories.  Zone 1 is the effort level of a brisk walk and zone 5 is an all out 5K race.

Chris, as usual I still don’t know what you’re talking about.

There are two key things you need to know for base building.  First, running in a zone 2 effort is drastically more efficient at promoting those physiological changes needed for endurance than any other zone.

The second thing is that this is a different effort level than your normal ‘easy run’.

Bang.  That’s it! That’s the punch line.  If you are trying to build base by just running more easy miles you  are wasting your time.  You may not even need more miles if you take the time to train in zone 2.

Great Chris, I get it.  Run slower to get faster, so that’s it?

No, not really. That’s the knowledge that should make running slower to get faster make sense.  The actual training takes some investment.  You need to block of a good chunk of time and dedicate it to base building.  If you are just starting out you may need months or even years before you start to see big benefits.

When you see the benefits you will be amazed.  You’ll find this work enables you to run more efficiently at all paces.   Let me say that again.  This Zone 2 work will enable you to run more efficiently at all paces.

It’s a transition that takes patience.   Most of us don’t know how to run in zone 2.  When you first start it’s a terrible experience.  In order to get into zone 2 you may have to walk occasionally and you will find your pace painfully slow.   It sucks to have to log your miles where all your running friends can see them with those slow, slow paces.

It’s ironic in a way. The running slower is almost as difficult as speed work or hill work, but in a different way.   You need the discipline to stick with it and stay slow and stop thinking about your pace.  It will take 2 or 3 weeks of consistent zone 2 training before you start to wrap your head around running slow.  What I end up doing is running by time and taking the pace display off my Garmin.   You make sustained zone 2 effort level the point of the work out and get it done.

After awhile, depending on where you are starting and how disciplined you are at sticking to the training you will notice that you are running faster at the zone 2 effort level.  Within a few months you may even find that you are running at the same pace you used to run at, or faster, but now you are doing it at a zone 2 effort level.

This is the big payoff.  By running slower you have promoted changes in your physiology that allow you to run faster, or more specifically with less effort for much longer.  The same thing works for biking or any endurance sport.

Winter months are a good time to do some base building.  Typically the races are in the spring, summer and fall and you’ve got some time to train slower without having to worry about an impending race.  The conditions up here in the northern hemisphere aren’t great for any kind of speed or tempo work with the cold, and snow and lack of sunshine.

Maybe the next couple months would be a good opportunity for you to strap on your heart rate monitor and do some slow running?