10-9-8-7 . . . Anatomy of an Easy Run . . .
This post is for distance runners who want to run faster races. Especially the young runners coming up.
Most runners will start a run at the same pace they finish the run… It’s common even among competitive runners. If they are doing an easy run, whatever easy run pace is, say 9 or 8 or 7 minutes a mile they’ll keep the pace steady.
Sounds like a good idea right?…
But the East Africans do it a bit differently.
Story
Years ago Mike Long the elite coordinator for the Rock n Roll Marathon in San Diego told a story of one of our stars Meb who would later go on to win the NYC and Boston Marathons and place 2nd and 4th in 2 Olympics. And Meb told him of an easy run he was doing with a bunch of Ethiopian super runners from Mike’s condo on San Diego’s Mission Beach boardwalk.
They were going to do a 30 minute run.
So Meb was running with them and they went past 15 minutes, 16 minutes, 18 minutes… and so Meb asked them, “hey guys aren’t we doing 30 minutes, 15 out and 15 back?”…
and the Ethiopians said “no… 20 out 10 back”… The whole run was easy but the first half was ridiculously easy….
My friend Ryan a former fast guy from South Africa told me of his buddy who ran with the great Haile Gebrselassie. And Geb would start his runs at 10 minutes a mile… He would finish his easy warmup runs well below 5 minutes a mile (which was still very easy for a guy who could run 4:40 / mile for a marathon)…
One of the best coaches I know trains high school kids and they are always at the top of the State meets here.
And he told me if the best in the world start their runs at 9 or 10 minutes a mile and they can run 4:40/mile pace for a marathon, what are we doing starting at 7 minutes a mile?….
So the question is why? Why start a run so slow?
Here’s the thing.
The purpose of an easy run is to recover, and to build the heart and blood vessels without stressing the body and to strengthen the muscles and joints and tendons without stressing them…
And the purpose of starting slower and building the pace on the easy runs?
Try it and see. My boy says it best when he tells me how he feels faster, more excited, looser, bouncier if he starts slow and builds into it.
He starts at 10 minutes per mile, then 9 then 8 then 7 minutes a mile. 7 to 8 minute per mile is his prescribed slow run pace.
But by starting slower and building into it he goes through all his gears. He teaches his body and mind that no matter what he always picks it up. And then what happens in races? He always closes faster than he start. He’s built it into his anatomy and physiology and mind…
He also progresses with his speed workouts as well. First ones slower than last ones.
Now I didn’t say race the last part. To run that easy and pick it up as the run progresses yet to keep the easy run easy, the runner has to start very very slowly. Otherwise they’d just pick up the pace and race the easy run.
It is very important to keep the easy run easy. It’s just that by starting even slower they teach the body that no matter what we run the 2nd half of all runs faster…
This translates to faster closing speed when it counts… races!
Try it and let me know what you notice.
Easy Runs…
Out easy easy easy….. build into easy easy…. and finish those easy runs well your know… easy 🙂
enjoy,
And remember “we don’t win workouts…we win races”
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