Whats the fuss about running in Zone 2?

Is there anyone on Instagram and Tiktok not talking about running in Zone 2 at the moment? And lots of influencers talking about running slow to run fast. Have they got a point? Are they right? Well sort of.

Lots of runners don't think much about the pace they run at, their effort level and heart rate, or what run they're doing on a given day. For many, it's not important. But then the questions arise - why can't I keep going, why is my breathing hard, why aren't I getting faster?

The reality is lots of runners do go out too fast on a good number of their runs. For most of us, we can only run so far at those faster paces before we tire, or our heart rate is sky high. Lots of us want to run faster, we want to believe we can run at such a pace. Social media hasn't helped this - we must be seen hitting this pace on strava, or looking to post a particular run on Tiktok.

The reality is a fair chunk of our running should be at a slower pace - anything from recovery through to steady paced running. We should comfortably be able to keep going at that pace for a sustained time.

What are the challenges?

For newer runners, or returners, sticking to zone 2 can seem like walking pace to some, or involves walking for a minute to bring the heart rate back down. Frustrating as this might seem, running at a slower pace, and building distance at that pace will help build your endurance, strenth in muscles, and aid breathing.

That said, even as a newer runner, you should be doing some faster running. Adding a short tempo run once a week, or tempo paced stretches into your longer runs will help keep your running interesting and work your energy systems differently.

For experienced runners, it's all about balance. Running everything hard leaves no recovery. So your hard runs aren't as solid as they could be, because every run before it was hard too. Having easy days after a hard day is important.

Whats also important for experienced runners is knowing what pace you should be running each type of run at. Whats your pace for an easy run? For threshold? Your 400m pace. And in partiuclar the long run. Too many marathoners run their long runs too slowly. They can knock out an fast 10k, but when they translate that to the marathon, they've not trained themselves to run at the pace for a sustained period.

What should a week look like?

I find hitting the 80/20 rule hard, but hitting 70/30 is a good starting point. 70% of your runs as Easy or steady paced. A good chunk of your Sunday long run also at steady pace.

You should have part of your long run at target race pace (be that half or full marathon pace). I'd aim for at least 1 speed session per week, coupled with parkrun at pace (I'll not call it race pace). Using 100m strides at the end of an easy run also benefits, making you work harder aerobically, increasing stride length and cadence.

So the influencers are partly right, run lots of your runs at a pace you can sustain for a decent period - it's your base, and the more base you build, the better runner you'll become. But lets not forget we should run in, and test Zones 3, 4 and 5 too.

If you want to find out more about pacing, and how to run different types of runs at different heart rates, do get in touch.

#heartrate #zone2 #runningcoach #longrun #speedwork