How Do You Run Slow

Audio Transcript

Claire: Today’s question comes from Jody. “Here is a question I have about easy running. How do I do it? It sounds stupid, but as a new runner, my 5K pace is not that fast. The calculators provide my easy pace, but when I try to go that slow, I’m nearly walking. If a brisk walk is my easy run pace, is that truly going to have the same results? It’s harder to run just above a brisk walk speed than it is to jog at a comfortable pace. The comfortable pace is too fast for an easy pace.”

That is a great question Jody. Here at Runners Connect, we’re always talking about how to run slow.

It’s not as simple as you might think. A lot of peoplewho are starting outrun easy and they think they are running easy but it’s not actually easy enough. How do you actually run slow?

The first thing to do is to relax. You want to take shorter steps, but you also want to make sure that they are still brisk and light and you’re not stamping or shuffling on the ground.

That means you keepyour cadence or the number of steps that you take per minute, relatively high and stable.

Instead of stretching that cadence or that stride when you run as you would do with a faster run, you shorten those steps but make them light and quiet.

If you can run light and quiet, that has the least amount of shock going up through your legs and through your body. You want to make sure that you have quick, little, light steps.

The next thing to remember is to stay connected to what you are doing. It’s easy to shuffle through a slow run and not pay attention to your body posture, but this is the perfect time to work on your body posture.

You want to take a deep breath when you start, relax your shoulders, and don’t let them hunch up towards your ear.

Don’t forget to keep your very slight, forward lean, without any shoulder tension again.

It’s easy when you’re running very slowly, to forget about the forward lean and kind of let your head droop forward.

You want to make sure that there is a nice straight line through your spine, from the back of your head, all the way down to the base of your spine.

You’re not hunching your shoulders, or leaning forward, or on the opposite end. You’re not aching your back and leaning backwards. You want to have a slight forward lean.

You want to keep your core tight. That means you bring your belly button into your spine. That will help protect your spine and keep you in a nice, straight posture.

Don’t allow your head to droop forward. When you’re not paying attention to what you’re doing and you’re moving along slowly, it’s kind of easy to sort of relax.

That’s the opposite of what you want to do. You want to keep everything in alignment and keep all those support muscles in your core, in your hips, in your glutes, engaged in the process of what you’re doing.

Think about what you’re doing with your arms when you’re running easy. You don’t need to take those big, sweeping arm movements, but you also want to make sure that you’re not crossing over the midline, the imaginary line down the center of your body.

Keep your arms and everything else in your body in the forward plane. No crossing with your arms and keep your arms really relaxed. You can keep them at the level of your heart and move along without really using much energy at all.

The other good key to a good posture when you’re running,is to make sure that you’re leading with the knee. You want your knee to move forward so that your whole body can travel with it.

If your knee goes first, it’s really hard to over stride. When you over stride, your leg goes out ahead of your body and when you land, you land with a straight knee, which causes a chain reaction of shock to go straight up your body.

You never want to land on a straight knee; you should always have a slight bend. When you consciously think about moving your knee first, your foot cannot land in front of your knee, so that your foot is landing and sticking at the center of your body mass. It should be that your foot is underneath you by the time your body travels forward.

The most important thing to remember when you are running slowly is to move the corners of your mouth towards your ears.

That’s right, smile. It’s supposed to be enjoyable. Running is to be enjoyed and to be appreciated. Not everybody can get out there and run every day. Remember when you are running easy, it’s not a slog. It’s a gift to be able to get out there every day.

When you are out there running on your easy runs, take a few moments to enjoy your surroundings: deep breathing, enjoy the fresh air, or listen to a podcast.

The key to running slowly is to stay relaxed because if you can run slow and relaxed, you’ll be able to run fast and relaxed which for many people is a big goal. People want to run faster. The only way you can run faster is by appreciating running slow.

If you are at a pace where you need to take walk breaks, that’s perfectly fine. Walking is an aerobic activity too, but running slow, even if it seems really uncomfortable and awkward, will make you a better runner at every speed.

If you can get the hang of it, it will make you a better runner all around. Thanks Jody. I loved that question. Thank you so much for asking.

For those of you listening, again, if you want your question on the podcast, head on over to RunnersConnect.net/daily, hit the record button, and record your own question. We’ll use it on a future show. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider heading over to iTunes or your favorite podcast directory and subscribing or leaving a review. It would really help us grow this podcast and reach more runners like you. Have a great run today.