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Run Slow to Run Fast

Run Slow to Run Fast! But why?

You might have heard experienced runners talking about why you have to run slow to run fast. This seems counterintuitive. Why does running slow make you faster? Common sense suggests that to run faster, you have to practice running faster. Maybe that’s you? Maybe you are wondering why you aren’t getting fitter as quickly as you’d hoped? Or maybe you are wondering why your legs and lungs always feel so beat up at the end of each run? If so, then read this, because “Run slow to run fast” is true. If all you ever do is run fast, your progress will be a lot slower than if you do a mix of fast AND slow running.

So how does run slow to run fast work then? For endurance runners (1500m upwards), the amount of slow running you should do each week is more than the amount of fast running you should do each week. When you achieve run slow to run fast, there are a huge list of benefits. This type of easy effort improves the aerobic energy system and your aerobic base.

Use the links below to jump to the section of the article you are interested in or read it all!

Red blood cell count

Running slowly promotes an increase in both red blood cell count and the amount of haemoglobin in those red blood cells. Haemoglobin carries oxygen, so running slowly = more oxygen in the bloodstream, and thus easier create energy to run.

Capillary growth

When you run slow to run fast, it promotes capillary growth. Capillaries supply the blood to the muscles and organs.  Therefore running slowly gets that oxygen (in the haemoglobin in the blood) delivered more efficiently to the muscles. Thus it’s easier to run.

Mitochondria growth and density

Running slowly promotes Mitochondria growth and density. Mitochondria in the muscles use that oxygen as part of the aerobic energy system to turn fat and glycogen into energy for the muscles. They respond to demand, so with longer duration of exercise, they sense demand, and mitochondria density in the muscles increases. Thus it’s easier to run.

The increased amount of capillaries also decreases the distance the oxygen needs to travel to the nearest mitochondria.

Higher fat / Glycogen ratio

Running slowly promotes the use of more fat during aerobic exercise. The normal fuel sources during exercise are Glycogen in the muscles, plus a little fat. If you run slower, slightly less Glycogen and slightly more fat is used and the body gets used to this mix. This is important once you start running longer distances, because muscle glycogen can run out after 90 minutes or so, then needing to rely on fuel stores in the liver and fat. Getting energy from Glycogen stored in the muscles is a much faster and more efficient process, so the longer you can delay that, the longer you can maintain pace in long runs and race. Plus in very long runs and races, you’ll have to run on just fat most of the way, apart from anything you eat while running. Run slow to run fast, so that you find the effort easier in the long runs.

Lactic Acid process improvements

I go into (a lot of) detail about how the body uses Lactic Acid to go faster here. The Lactic Acid energy process ramps up at higher running intensity levels, and there are two bits of it that need to be trained:

  1. Producing energy (without Oxygen), then passing resultant Lactate and Hydrogen Ions from fast twitch muscle fibres to the slow twitch muscle fibres next to them. This is improved most by training at Lactate Threshold, which is fast running, somewhere in Zone 4 / Z4. Run fast to run fast in this case!
  2. Moving the Lactate and Hydrogen Ions from the slow twitch fibres to the blood, so they can be transported back to the Liver to be turned back into more fuel. Oddly, this is improved most by training at Aerobic base pace, so an easy run in Zone 2 / Z2. Run slow to run fast in this case!

If you only do the fast running, you are missing out. If you run slower to run faster, it really does work.

Easier to run for longer

If you just run fast, you can’t run as long, so the above processes get less time build. Time on feet, building on the above benefits, plus enough recovery, is critical. So run slower most of the time, because it’s easier and you can build all the core aspects the body needs to run faster when the time comes, be it race day or just a session smashing it out on your local routes.

Lower injury risk

Running slowly has a lower risk of injury, since it does not stress the muscles so much and its easier to recover from. It’s common sense, but so many runners ignore the body and push on through when they should have either had a rest day or done an easier run. If you run slower, you’ll be able to do more running, both each week but also in the long term, so you’ll get fitter and faster. So, run slower to run faster!

Zen

Running slowly is quite a chilled experience – it can help with the mind as a kind of meditation. This might not be so apparent as a beginner runner, but once you have excellent running form dialled in by habit, are breathing easily and are able to run for a while without thinking about it too much, you may find mental benefits from running slowly too. When thinking about slow running vs fast running, it’s a lot easier to relax when running slowly, but when running fast, all you focus has to be on getting the right effort and keeping posture and form correct.

How slow is run slow to run fast?

If you can chat to yourself out loud while running, without having to gasp for breath half-way through short sentences, you are running slow to run fast. For example repeat this mantra out loud while running: “Can I say a sentence of about this length out loud while running, without gasping for breath”. If you can’t, then run slower. If you aren’t able to do this, you might need to look at your breathing (matching it to your steps properly and using belly breathing).

To get more detailed advice on how often you should run slow to run fast each week, consider running coaching. To find out more and decide if it’s something you’d be interested in, read the running coaching page.


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