When I am prescribing running programmes for my clients, I give them a ‘pace guideline’ for each of the different types of run they do. Some of them will have recovery runs in their schedules, where the object is to keep the pace and effort level really low. The goal here is for the session to be low-intensity enough to not require any further recovery - so going faster is certainly not necessary and may well be counter-productive. And yet, over and over again I hear the cries ‘I can’t run that slow!’ ‘It’s more tiring to run slowly’ and most of all ‘Sorry, I tried to run slow but I inadvertently speeded up.’
I’ve mulled over this a lot - worried about it, even - because personally, I have no problem whatsoever running slow. (In fact I’m just back from a snail-pace recovery run in the snow - bliss!) But it doesn’t mean I can’t, or don’t, run fast when I need to. I’ll happily run my recovery runs at a pace that’s a minute per mile slower than what some of my clients will grudgingly do - and yet my race times are significantly faster. I always remember Liz Yelling saying that she did her recovery runs at 8 minutes per mile - and yet her marathon pace was around 5.45 per mile - 40% slower. Kenyan runners routinely incorporate effortlessly slow runs into their training.
I’m starting to wonder whether running technique has something to do with people finding it ‘hard’ to run slow. If you run with good form, then that form should hold true whatever pace you are maintaining. Running slower shouldn’t mean significantly dropping your cadence, losing your leg lift or turning your run into a glorified walk. I suspect that people who find it very hard to run slow are doing the following: overstriding - most likely with a heel strike - running with too slow a cadence and too much tension. One of the drills that running coach and Alexander Technique teacher Malcolm Balk suggests in his book Master the Art of Running is to run very slow whilst maintaining perfect form. I highly recommend giving it a try.
The other reason runners can’t slow down is probably mental. It’s an issue of bravado - ‘hell, I can’t run THAT slow!’ - with the tacit suggestion being either ‘I’m too good,’ or ‘someone might see me and think I’m slow…’ But I’d say it takes focus, effort and determination to reap the benefits of any training session and recovery runs are not excepted. Give it a try and you might just find that less is more.