Do you know the truth that the biggest difference between elite runners’ training and non-elite runners’ training is the volume of easy runs?

People very often see only sensational things like race results, how fast their interval workouts are or how fast their best long runs in the last 4 months before a marathon race.

However, people tend not to see their daily workouts, normal workouts, what they do on non-hard workout days. But the difference of performance at a race day comes from mostly non-hard-workout-days.

Amateur runners very often underestimate the power of easy runs. But the truth is that easy runs have so much training effect.

In fact, a runner ran marathon under 2:40 by almost only easy runs and 5x200m.

So, today I will talk about 8 physiological benefits of easy runs.

Roughly speaking, sprinters, throwers and jumpers compete with the maximal power output of the skeletal muscles and we long distance runners compete with the maximal power output of the heart muscle.

Of course, there are other factors too. But roughly speaking, it is true.

Then how is the maximal power output determined? I mean, what is the definition?

It is determined by the product of stride and stride frequency in running and speed and weight in other fields.

For example, if you can lift a 100kg barbel only once, that is also the maximal power output. On the other hand, if you can lift a 50kg barbel as fast as possible, that is also the maximal power output too. The maximal power output is determined by its product of weight and speed.

In running, our body weights are almost always same. So, the higher power you add into the ground, the longer stride you make and the higher energy you produce in your legs, the faster your legs move. And its product determines your running speed.

The maximal power output of the heart muscle is also determined by the one-time power output and speed. In other words, the maximal stroke volume and the maximal heart rate per a given time (usually we use per minute).

The maximal stroke volume is how much blood your heart is able to send per one pump. If you just sit on a chair and talk with your family or friend. Your stroke volume and your heart rate are relatively low. But once you start moving, your stroke volume and heart rate go up. The faster you move, the higher your heart rate and stroke volume go up.

And the maximal stroke volume reaches the maximum about at 60% of the maximal heart rate intensity. Or I would say, approximately at 60% of your 3000m race pace. If your maximal heart rate is 180, then if your heart rate reaches 108, already your heart stroke volume reaches the maximum. In a sense, it is same with lifting as heavy weight as possible. I think you can imagine how much you can improve your heart muscle.

However, this is very important, 60% of your maximal heart rate intensity is pretty easy, right?

If you do not have a heart rate monitor, then imagine you run 2 minutes slower than your 5km race pace. It is pretty easy, right?

But your heart stroke volume reaches already the maximum. If you repeat easy runs and/or increase the total volume of easy runs gradually, you could get much faster. This is the biggest reason why you can dramatically get faster by increasing the volume and/or frequency of easy runs.

While reaching the maximal heart rate is not easy at all. I tell you, it is not easy. You need to run from 1500m to 5000m at your maximal effort or you need to do a long interval at 3000-5000m your race pace and probably end spurt is also necessary to reach at your maximal heart rate.

If you run longer than 5000m, even if it’s your maximal effort, your heart rate does not reach at the maximum. And if you run less than 800m race, there is no time to go up your heart rate to the maximum.

Then how about 800m?

Probably, your heart rate reaches at the maximum.

So, reaching the maximal heart rate is not easy and that means, it is difficult to repeat it and adapt to the stimulus. Definitely, you need long interval at your 3000-5000m race effort to reach at your maximal potential.

However, you should not do it very often and understand that the most improvement comes from easy runs and moderate runs.

The basic idea of moderate runs is, getting a good side from a long interval and deleting a bad side from a long interval. It is not easy anymore, but still enough easy to repeat it consistently without feeling mental pressure and it’s easy enough to adapt to the stimulus.

Anyway, improving your heart muscle is the biggest physiological benefit of easy runs.

If your heart muscle power increases, one-time stroke volume increases and that means, more blood flow goes in your body. The question is where the blood flow goes?

I mean, a car runs on a tarmac road basically. Then where does blood run?

The answer is in blood vessels. We all have main blood vessels. It is like main roads or highways. But also, there are small roads, right?

The number of main roads, in other words main blood vessels is not so different between people. However, the number of capillaries is very different. The more you run, the more capillaries you get.

And then what is the benefit of more capillaries you have?

To produce more biological energy, we need oxygen. Oxygen is carried out by hemoglobin in red blood cells in blood flow. And blood flow goes in vessels and capillaries. So, if we have more capillaries in our bodies, the more blood flow goes in every hole and corner in our bodies. That’s why we can produce more energy in our bodies.

We inhale air and oxygen in the air and it goes into our lungs and then it goes into blood flow and our hearts pump to get the blood flow going and oxygen is carried out with hemoglobin in blood cells. And finally, where does oxygen go?

From hemoglobin in blood cells to myoglobin in our skeletal muscles and from myoglobin to mitochondria in the skeletal muscle cells and mitochondria produce energy with oxygen and glycogen or oxygen and fatty acids.

Many people misunderstand that our energy is produced in lungs, hearts or stomach. They are wrong. Biological energy which is necessary to live and move is produced in mitochondria in cells. Without mitochondria, we could not become human beings, but we are still an amoeba.

With easy runs, the number of mitochondria and its function increases and that means, we can produce more energy at a given time (Let’s say at a minute) and that means, we are able to run faster. Remember, our body mass is same. So, the more energy we produce at a given time, we can run faster. Nothing else.

Long distance running is the most dangerous sport in endurance sports because the risk of injuries is much higher than road bike (cycling), cross country ski and swimming. It’s because of the impact of hitting ground and feet and pushing the ground. With easy runs, the impact of hitting ground and the power output of skeletal muscles of one step are very low. So, there are very low risks of getting injured.

However, the more steps you make, the stronger your muscles, tendons, bones and ligaments get and that’s why you become a less likely injured runner. This is also very important for half marathoners and marathoners.

How many runners have you ever seen and/or heard a runner who stopped running and walking after 30km point?

No matter how easy it is for your heart muscle, once your skeletal muscles, ligaments, tendons and bones are sold out, there is nothing you can do.

But once your skeletal muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones get tough, you can do whatever you want in training and a race unless your heart muscle reaches your limit.

Very often I get asked ‘What is the best method to avoid injuries?’.

The answer is increasing total running volume gradually and the best way to do it is increasing the volume and/or frequency of easy runs.

So, strengthening your skeletal muscles’, ligaments’, tendons’ and bones’ resistance is 4^th benefits of easy runs.

By increasing the total volume of easy runs, you can recover faster not only as a runner but also as a human being. The reason is very simple, we human being need energy to recover. By increasing the total volume of easy runs, our heart muscles get better, we have more capillaries and our mitochondria function gets better and as a result we can produce more energy not only for running but also recovery.

So, literally we can recover faster and that means, you get younger. Very often runners who I coach in 40s, 50s and 60s say ‘Now I can recover faster than before. Now I recover fastest in my life’. Very often they say that.

Also in my experience, right after I started up my own company Well-being Ltd, I focused on more business and did not run so much. In the beginning, I felt like I became a God. Without running, I had tons of energy and I felt like I could keep working forever. But, as time went, I started feeling more tired and my recovery ability decreased gradually.

Finally, I was as much tired as when I was training seriously. My recovery ability got worse so much. Also, concentration ability and cognitive function decreased. Without producing much energy, I could not think well and concentrate on one thing well. I felt I got weaker not only as a runner, but also as a person.

The opposite thing happens to you if you increase the total running volume. And the easiest way of increasing the total running volume is increasing the total volume of easy runs. You cannot increase your 5000m race pace volume so much without getting injured or getting weaker.

And also, the faster you recover, the more intense workouts you can do and adapt to it. The more beginner you are, the more you can get faster by doing easy runs. On the other hand, the higher level you are in (for example you run 5000m under 15 minutes), the more difficult you get faster with easy runs.

However, in any case you need to increase the total volume of easy runs first. By doing that, you can recover faster and adapt to intense workouts like 5x1000m at 5000m race effort, 10x1000m at 10000m race pace or something like that. And because of that you can increase the intensity of your training and if you are able to increase the intensity of your workout in training and adapt to it well, you are able to run faster on a race day.

This is the reason why top runners train much more than non-elite runners even though most of their workouts are easy runs, moderate runs and easy to moderate runs.

Improving your running economy means, you can run at the same pace with less energy, in other words, you can run more easily at the same pace.

How can you improve your running economy?

There are several ways to improve your running economy. However, the simplest way to improve your running economy is running more. And the easiest way to run more is increasing onetime volume and/or frequency of easy runs.

Our bodies naturally try to do it with less energy if you repeat it. It doesn’t matter it is, maybe swinging a bat, shooting a basketball, kicking a soccer ball, walking, carrying your baby etc. This is our bodies’ naturality.

The more you run, the more you improve your running economy naturally. I also recommend you run with staying as relaxed as possible running style. The key is moving the center gravity forward without kicking the ground. Just try it with easy runs.

If your maximal heart muscle power output increases, your number of capillaries increases and your number of mitochondria and its function increases, automatically your Vo2 Max increases.

By the way, what is the Vo2 Max?

Vo2 Max stands for the maximal volume of oxygen intake or uptake. What we want to know by measuring the Vo2 Max is how much energy our bodies produce maximally with oxygen. But we cannot measure how much energy our bodies produce with oxygen.

However, simple logic is we inhale oxygen because our bodies use it, right?

If our bodies inhale oxygen, it would be necessary and use it to produce energy. Based on this hypothesis, researchers measure the maximal oxygen uptake. If you want to know your maximal oxygen uptake exactly, you need to go to a lab. But, the easiest way of measuring Vo2 Max is running 12 minutes at your maximal effort. It is called the Cooper’s test. Doctor Cooper invented this method. That means, there is a close relationship between a 3000m race result and your maximal oxygen uptake.

Imagine, there is a person who does not run at all. And another person does 10km easy runs almost every day. If they compete in a 3000m race, who wins?

There is no question about it. Of course, the person who does a 10km easy run everyday wins. Based on this truth, you can know easy runs improve your Vo2 Max without going to any labs.

Improving your Vo2 Max is the 7^th physiological benefit of easy runs.

What is the lactate threshold would be a different theme. Today, I will explain it only shortly. Long story short, the faster you run, the more lactate acids get accumulated in your blood and if lactate acids get accumulated too much, you are forced to slow down. There is no exception. And the relationship between your running speed and lactate acids accumulation in your blood is not proportional but exponential. There is the running speed that once you reach that speed, lactate acids in your blood get accumulated exponentially. And that point is called lactate threshold.

The higher speed the lactate threshold comes, the better.

And easy runs get you run faster with less lactate acids in your blood. That means, you are able to run faster on a race day. Especially, the race distance is longer than 5000m.

I explained so far 8 physiological benefits of easy runs. Honestly speaking, I explained nothing special because all experienced runners know how important easy runs are and how much easy runs got them faster.

However, many amateur runners believe only hard workouts get them faster and underestimate the importance of easy runs. If you know how easy runs get you faster physiologically, you can believe more easy runs and that belief motivates you to go for easy runs so much. And I am hoping that.

Thank you for reading!

I wrote a 12 weeks training program for running half marathon under 90 minutes for amateur runners. Before I introduce this training program, please answer following questions to check if you are qualified.

1.      Do you want to run half marathon under 90 minutes seriously?

2.      Will you regularly run around 300km a month?

3.      Do you want to achieve sub 90 efficiently and in the fastest way?

4.      To achieve that, will you pay 5 US dollars (as much as two cups of Starbuck coffee)

If you answer above questions, this 12 weeks training program is perfect fit for you. Let me tell you why and what it is step by step.

This training program is something like the greatest common divisor of amateur runners.

First of all, I want you to understand the following one thing. I coached about 1000 amateur runners and hundreds of amateur runners ran half marathon under 90 minutes in the last 5 years. And none of them trained in the completely same way. The principle is the same while details are different.

But also, training program of most amateur runners who ran half marathon under 90 minutes is similar. So, your training should be something similar with them, So I'm 100% sure, this program is fit for you too.

This content includes following points.

1.The whole structure of training strategy.

2.Things you should do before diving into this 12 weeks training program.

3.How I separate this 12 weeks training program into 5 phases. The idea of periodization.

4.The purpose of a test race and how you analyze your training exactly by comparing your training and your test race results.

5.Terminology. I explain the meaning of every word I use in the training program.

6.12 weeks all workouts for running half marathon under 90 minutes.

The benefit of having this 12 weeks training program is following :

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The cash outlay of this program is only 5 US dollars (Don't worry, I set an automatic current converter. You'll know how much it is in your currency in the product page). It's just as much as 2 cups of Starbucks coffee. Someone drinks two cups of Starbuck coffee and probably pee more than usual because of caffein and you get faster dramatically by spending the same amount of money.

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So, literally you'll get this training program in 5-10 minutes.

Now, what's the worst can possibly happen here?

On the upside, you are going to run half marathon within 3 years just like my other customers.

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