Keep your easy days easy

Posted on August 27, 2009 by CoachJay

I think this is one of the few times one of my weekly tips for Nike speaks to this audience as well or better than the Nike audience.

I think many athletes run their easy days too fast and that this habit is one of the quiet factors that leads to poor performance. Most coaches can’t monitor the pace of easy days; as athletes gain fitness they can easily run 15-20 seconds a mile too fast, especially when in the company of teammates or when visualizing the first big meet of the cross season.

You can view the post here or read below.

To everyone that has commented or emailed me in the past 48 hours, I will comment and return emails this weekend…just a bit behind.

One of the biggest mistakes runners make when their training is going well and they’ve gained a new level of fitness is running too fast on their easy days. This is especially true the day after a track session or a threshold run because you’ve practiced running at a faster pace the day prior and your nervous system can easily get back into that rhythm. But you need to be disciplined enough to say, “Even though I could run faster today, it’s an easy/recovery day and I need to make sure I’m ready for my next workout.” If you can practice this important aspect of training, you’ll continue to gain fitness with each workout because you’ve given yourself the ability to “absorb” the training by actually going easy on your easy day. The best runners in the world have at least two easy days a week (some as many as four or five) where they consciously hold back, keeping the pace easy throughout the run.

When you gain fitness you can and should be doing workouts that are farther and faster than you previously have, but you need to keep your easy days easy to continue to improve your fitness over time.

This entry was posted in For Everyone and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.
  • marcluko

    i agree with this. I see too many of my teammates racing on easy days and they are the ones who start to skip or miss practice due to injury or fatigue. There are NO winners in a warm up. i say this because some runners try to prove themselves on anything that has to do with running. The best runner is the smartest one

  • http://www.veganoutreach.org/ VeganAZ

    What role do you see days off playing, esp. in different age groups? (E.g., HS vs. college vs Sara)

  • http://coachjayjohnson.com CoachJay

    That's a good question. I think a day off is important for HS athlete and should happen weekly in the first couple of years then every 2-3 weeks the last couple of years. I think college kids could derive the most benefit from days off, assuming they're training at high volumes and intensities. Why? Because they are often overwhelmed with schoolwork, work that seems to come in the same week from all of their classes. So after a big academic week, the college kid runs hard friday, runs easy Saturday and take Sunday completely off. I'm not saying this has to happen every month, but I do think recovery is related to chronological age and the 18-22 year old will recover quick but does need a day off.

    I think days off with the post collegians can come as often as once every three weeks, yet this assumes really high volumes and intensities, as well as lots of double runs to aid recovery from the primary run/workout.

    We'll see how well I do talking people into that this fall.

    Thanks for the question VeganAZ