Easy Training
that’s runnable
The 4th Edition of your favourite weekly running newsletter
Welcome back to your weekly dose of run chat.
Your quick weekly read of insightful tips and thoughts to help you with your running.
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This week, I wanted to talk about something I don’t think can get enough emphasis. It’s one of the key principles of running sustainably and training productively, and the vast majority of people I speak to are getting it wrong. This week, we’re talking about Easy Training.
Something to Think About
There’s a huge range of Aerobic Zones to be utilising in your training. If I were a betting man, I’d bet you spend most of yours in the top Zones. You wouldn’t be alone, but it’s not a group you want to be in. Not only do you limit your performance potential, but if you’re not spending a considerable portion of your training in Zones 1 & 2, you risk injury.
Most common running injuries - like Shin Splints, IT Band Syndrome, or “Runners Knee” - can too often be attributed, at least in part, to not enough Easy training (or the Easy training not being easy enough).
Something to Ask Yourself
Be honest and ask yourself, how much time am I spending in Zones 1 & 2 each week? Does it make up 80-90% of my weekly volume? Could I do more?
Also ask yourself: Why am I not training like this? Do I not believe it will work? Am I impatient?
Maybe you find it boring and you only want to run fast (or at least, not that slow), Maybe you think “running doesn’t have the same benefit if you’re just going this Easy most of the time”. If that’s the case, make sure to read the Personal Lesson section further down.
Article of the Week 📄
This amazing article from InsideTracker explains everything you need to know about Zone 2 training, delving into the science and benefits with references at the bottom.
Track of the Week 🎶
The Eagles wrote a great song that Jack Johnson, Jackson Brown and John Cruz did a live version of at KOKUA Festival a few years back. You’ll have heard the original, but I love this version and sometimes sing it to myself when I’m running easy.
This week’s song of the week is:
Take it Easy by Jack Johnson, Jackson Brown and John Cruz (2012)
Personal Lesson
When I started running, I didn’t consider Aerobic Zones at all. I did what most people do, I went out each day and effectively ran as fast as I could. I made some progress and each time felt I’d “put my body through it” and “progressed”. Eventually, after years of this, I plateaued and I ran into injuries far too often (pun intended). I was always dealing with some sort of minor niggle or injury and I didn’t know why. That was until I discovered Zone 2 training.
I took it upon myself to sceptically give Z2 a go. At first, it was possibly the most frustrating process I’d endured. I felt like my fitness was going down, I was getting slower and I was endlessly having to break into walks even when I thought I was going as slow as I could. “What is this bullshit?” I thought, “I’m just getting worse!”
But, with further research, I stuck at it, and eventually my body started to adapt. This didn’t happen overnight. It took months of frustration and discipline before I eventually ran my first run in Zone 2 without walking. It was from this point I started to see rapid progress in my ability and went on to drop my marathon time by 40 mins and come 5th overall in my first Ultra.
Since then, I’ve never looked back, and Easy running makes up the vast majority of my training. I no longer deal with injuries and niggles like I used to, and I continue to build a foundation upon which I can progress further and for longer.
Running - Life’s Metaphor
Patience is a difficult thing to master. We always want quick wins and shortcuts. But the reality is, some things take time and the best approach is to play the long game. Running has taught me that some things in life require patience, discipline and consistency. To be successful at anything in life we must marry Patience with Consistency.
Final Thoughts
I get a lot of messages on instagram from people complaining about an injury they have. Whether it’s Shin Splints, a pain in their knee, or something else. My response is usually “see a physio” because they’re going to do a much better job at diagnosing the issue and providing rehab exercises.
But, as well as a chronic lack of Strength training amongst runners, there is a severe lack of appreciation for the importance of running easy. We live much more sedentary lives than ever before, spend less time on our feet and - outside of our training - spend most of our day sat down behind a laptop screen, in a car, watching TV, demanding little to nothing from our bodies. This sedentary lifestyle leaves us all the more vulnerable to injuries when we demand so much from our bodies when we train.
This means it’s even more important to be using the time we do spend training our muscles, doing so easy. Then, when you do go hard, you can really go hard, and you have a strong foundation that you can build from
Thanks again for reading and subscribing.
Run the runnable, and keep showing up for yourself!
Tommy :)
