Part XII · Running workouts
Base Run: The Easy Running That Builds Your Engine
Run at an effort you could chat through, breathing through your nose, for 30 minutes to two and a half hours. It builds the engine every harder run uses.
The workout
30–150 min
Base · Endurance base, cardiac efficiency, fat oxidation
Run
30–150 min
RPE 3/10 · HR 65–80%
Breathe in and out through your nose. You could keep this up for hours.
The lesson
What easy running builds
Run often at an easy effort and your muscles grow more of the tiny engines that burn oxygen (mitochondria) and more of the small blood vessels that feed them. Every harder effort then costs you less.
Run by feel, not pace
Ask yourself how long you could keep this up. On an easy run the answer is almost indefinitely, and you could hold a full conversation. The same effort runs slower on a hot day, a hilly route or after a short night, and that is fine.
Breathe through your nose
In and out through your nose. When your mouth opens to keep up, slow down until it closes again, and walk a steep hill if you have to.
Heart rate is a check
Around 65 to 80% of your maximum heart rate, RPE 3 (how hard it feels, on a scale of 1 to 10). Your watch guesses your maximum from your age, and that guess can be well off, so when the number and your breathing disagree, trust your breathing. The top of the band is a ceiling, not a target.
Same effort the whole way
Hold the effort, not the pace. As you tire or get hot, your heart rate creeps up at the same pace, so slow down to keep the effort where it started. If your run goes past two and a half hours, eat and drink from the first hour, not once you start to fade.
The test
You finish feeling better than when you started. If you finish tired, it was too hard or too long for today.
Watch for
- Running a little too fast because easy feels slow. You land between easy and threshold: it tires you more than an easy run and does less than a real threshold run.
- Chasing a number: last week's pace, or your usual pace on a hot day or up a hill. Your heart rate climbs with the effort, and an easy run turns into a hard one.
- Speeding up for the last stretch because you feel good. The last minutes turn into a harder run, and you finish tired instead of better than you started.
Why is my easy run so slow?
Because easy is set by your breathing and your heart, not by the pace you used to run. At first it can feel slow enough to be embarrassing, and you may need to walk hills. Over months the pace at that same easy effort gets faster on its own, and that is your engine growing.
Is a base run the same as zone 2?
Close, but the band is wider. On the common five-zone scale, zone 2 is about 60 to 70% of your maximum heart rate; a base run allows 65 to 80%, as long as you can still breathe through your nose. Zone scales differ between watch makers, so trust your breathing over the zone number.
How long should an easy run be, and how often?
Anywhere from 30 minutes to two and a half hours, and longer only when a challenge on your calendar needs it. Most of your running is this run: on most days you run, this is the one your plan gives you.
Next
Threshold Run: Hold a Faster Pace Before You Fade→The next effort up. The threshold run holds a strong, steady effort for 20 to 40 minutes, with this easy running on either side of it.
From the book
24Slow training builds what fast training cannot→