Why should you run long at a slow pace?

"Long, slow runs are the most important part of any training plan, no matter what distance you're aiming for," says Mark Wooten, ultramarathoner and running coach at Life Time Gym in Garland. Texas - mentioned on Runner's World. "Long running at a slow pace has two benefits, increasing muscle endurance and being more efficient in terms of rhythm."

According to this expert, running at a slow pace strengthens the cardiovascular system, so the supply of blood and oxygen to the muscles puts less strain on your heart and lungs. Keeping a moderate pace also increases your ability to run further because it trains your body to access the right energy.

Meg Takacs, running coach and founder of the Movement & Miles app, explains: "When you're in the aerobic zone, the heart rate zone between 70% and 80% of your maximum heart rate, you'll maximize your burn potential. burn fat as the body's fuel". According to this expert, if the body gets used to burning fat instead of glycogen - which is a limited energy reserve, runners can run more comfortably, for longer periods of time, and the better the body does this, the runner. can spend more time running.

To really improve speed, it's also important to add a speed workout or two to the weekend. Maintaining a moderate pace during long runs helps you run as fast as possible during those speed workouts. It is the balance between the number of runs and acceleration effort that is the magic formula for runners to achieve success when entering an official race.

"Once the race starts, you may feel like you're running slower than you did during your tempo run. But through long, slow runs, you've built up the muscular endurance and aerobic endurance to keep up the pace." that level for a very long time," Wooten added.

To ensure you're finding the right balance, Takacs suggests runners practice the 80/20 method, which means doing 80% of your runs at low intensity and only 20% at higher intensity. This coach said: "You don't have to feel guilty about being lazy if you follow this ratio, because many elites also add slow-paced runs to their plans to help the body recover. In addition, research supports supports the idea that combining low-intensity training with high-intensity interval training is the best way to improve endurance performance."

"Plans for the day, besides running time, tend to subconsciously encourage us to run faster," says Wooten. "You might think, I have to run 16km today on schedule. Let's get that done as quickly as possible so that I have time to process the long list of other things to do."

But the main purpose of long runs at a slow pace is to build aerobic efficiency, and that won't be effective if you move into the anaerobic zone - the heart rate zone at 80% - 90% of maximum heart rate. "Speeding up during long runs at a slow pace is likely to be more physically damaging and may have a negative impact on the quality of the following week's workout," Wooten warns. more likely to burn out during a long run or suffer an injury from overtraining."

Wooten notes that a slower pace doesn't mean the runner is mostly walking on the track. In fact, your steps per minute during a slow long run will be the same as your race pace. "In other words, running for two hours on a long run at a slow pace and running a two-hour race will actually have the same number of steps. And that's a guarantee of performance as you approach the starting line ", Wooten analyzed.

So running at a moderate pace is good. "You should run at a low intensity, a speed that feels almost effortless," coach Takacs said. "The pace has to be at a level that you can maintain for a long period of time."

You might think to run anywhere from one minute to 90 seconds slower than your target race pace. But you really don't need to be that specific or look at your watch multiple times while running. The easiest way to determine it is to keep a running pace at which you can comfortably run and chat. According to Wooten, a good rule of thumb to keep in mind is that you can breathe through your nose if you're keeping a moderate pace.

If you're training according to your heart rate, run Zone 2 - at 60% to 70% of your maximum heart rate.

In terms of distance, a good goal is to gradually increase the length of your long runs until you do well for the same amount of time you want on race day. So if you want to run a half marathon in two hours, go slow for two hours. If you want to run a sub 3:30 marathon, run the longest for about three and a half hours.

However, some coaches do not support runners tracking their running distance. Instead, they just ask students to maintain a moderate pace for a certain amount of time, based on how far away the tournament you want to go.

And finally, runners don't have to be so stressed. "Sleep, temperature, humidity, weekly workload and stress all affect the pace of a particular day. Just forget the numbers, focus on consistent effort and find a rhythm tune", Wooten reminded.