The Effect and Purpose of Easy Run (jog)

Post long-run 35k on Sun, I did a 60min 'run' on the following day morning session. I defined this 'run' as jogging since pace and distance are the least to worry. The objective of jogging is to get the body moving actively to promote blood circulation and hence facilitate a faster recovery. By running at a faster pace I will increase more stress and defeat the purpose of recovery. In simple layman's term such easy jogging session should be as simple as possible with the following recommendations:

1. no GPS watch

2. no HR Strap

3. go by feel (RPE <13 of max 20)

4. breathing should be relaxed state

5. go with softer and thicker cushioning shoe

6. maintain your usual cadence (suggest between 170-180spm) but stride length will be shorter due to slower pace

7. have a post run breakfast rich in protein

Slow jogging has its place in distance running. Many top elite runners like to post their fast pace workout in social media that often mislead to the community that that is their one and only pace. If you follow their running stats say Strava, you will discover elite runners do run significantly much slower, just that they don't publish it. The human's body has its physiological limitation and it is not possible to run hard for the entire week sessions. Some coaches advocate the 80/20 rule (80% aerobic while 20% quality hard) base on this notion. Some elite runners can balance the ratio to 70/30 but in general everyone's fitness and respond to stress is very subjective. However we can all agree that bulk of our training load should be spending more time on the easier pace.

HR zone training advocated by many coaches and watch brands utilize the pyramid concept as shown:

Z5 is the highest window of HR intensity (90-100%) while Z4 refers to 80-90% HRmax, Z3 refers to 70-80% HRmax and Z2 refers to 60-70% of HRmax

If you calculate the surface area of 80% of HRmax and below, z2 + z3 will form the bigger section of volume and time spent. In simple term you need to run slower most of the time and flipping the pyramid over, one will find himself or herself more prone to burn out and injury. Inexperienced runners tend to run too fast and hard for all their runs which explain why their performance stagnated over time. Even for moderate intensity example in z3, inexperienced runners might push the pace perceiving the effort is comfortable but a check in their HR graph that plots over time you will see a spill over to Z4 due to cardiovascular drift effect.

I will give a simple case study where both runners ran the same duration and same workout:

1. Runner A who jog 60min easy on Monday and nail his hard session 100% on Tuesday

2. Runner B who run 60min mod hard on Monday and nail his hard session 80% on Tuesday

Question is which runner will you want to be? The key words above are in bond and if you opt to be Runner A then the notion of "Run Slow to Run Fast" is derived from this concept. You gain higher Return of Investment ROI on Tues by being patience on Monday. If you're Runner B, it means you are competitive but impatience. What if you have another hard session on Thursday? Will there be snowball effect where fatigue is carried over to Wednesday and Friday? Base on below weekly sample how would you design and plan in such a way you can smartly plant the 80/20 rule? East African runners are known to do a lot of easy pace but they are able to run at WR paces because they "runslowtorunfast", conserving energy for the right reason.

Mon: ??

Tues: ??

Wed: ??

Thur: ??

Fri: ??

Sat: ??

Sun: ??

Don't get me wrong that all aerobic sessions should be jogging and this is incorrect. Jogging and quality aerobic are not the same. The former is shorter in duration, less intense and less structured while aerobic session is the opposite. Capillaries adaptation will benefit more if you are running longer duration at aerobic zones (Z2-Z3) and this development trains the body ability to transport more oxygen to the working muscles, hence improving fitness and stamina. Both workouts have their place and purpose as part of your weekly programme and the fun part is to know when to plant them.

Let me know if you have any questions and I appreciate if you can 'like' and share the article if you find them useful. This will help to keep me going to create and write more training contents.