The (many) advantages of walking slowly

Kenyan athlete Eliud Kipchoge, a two-time Olympic marathon champion, aimed to make history by becoming the first man to win three Olympic marathon gold medals. His collection of records includes several achievements. In 2022, at 38 years old, he completed the Berlin Marathon and set the fastest time in history for this 42-kilometre race with 2 hours, 1 minute and 9 seconds (although in 2023 the late Kelvin Kiptum took it from him in Chicago). To achieve these marks, however, he doesn't train with sprinting, but with what is now called 'slow running', which is something like going at an easy pace.

"Running slowly is the big fight we coaches have with athletes," explains Iván Rodríguez, professor of Sports Science and Physiotherapy at the European University of Madrid. And the less experience you have, the more fierce the battle becomes. "It's necessary to control intensities to avoid overtraining and injuries," the expert continues.

If you're starting to run or want to prepare for a race, engrave these two maxims in stone: neither run every day, nor go all-out every day you run. Even if you want to achieve a certain time, like Kipchoge, you'll have to run slowly for quite a few kilometres. The reason? You have to build a base. "It's a fundamental aspect of training," details Dan Gordon, professor of Sports Science at Anglia Ruskin University. "If you go all-out, you won't be able to run increasingly more kilometres. You can only increase distance at moderate and low paces," adds Rodríguez. This builds endurance and accustoms the muscles to withstand efforts.

And if you're worried about improving your figure, don't worry, you'll also burn fat. Studies show that running at a gentle pace has great benefits for metabolism and the heart. Although the stress level for our body isn't very high, "the amount of oxygenated blood that comes out with each heartbeat will reach the maximum possible volume or close to it," Gordon says. And putting that muscle at maximum heart rate won't multiply it.

But furthermore, running at a low pace "makes the body use stored fat as an energy source" instead of drawing from the carbohydrate reserves we eat. That is, it makes our body work "more efficiently," Gordon continues. The reason? "Slow runners use less energy, are less fatigued and are able to run fast on race day," he specifies.

For all these reasons, this type of training is highly recommended. Although this doesn't mean high intensities should be set aside. They're also necessary, as Rodríguez rightly says. One method to combine them is the so-called 80-20 training, which means running slowly 80% of the time and fast or all-out 20%.

With this on the table, now we need to know when we're in one moment or the other. If we're not very clear about training zones, which is a somewhat confusing concept, it's best to trust what Rodríguez recommends: "If you can maintain a conversation without problem when you run, you're at low intensity. If your voice breaks or you need to catch your breath, you're overdoing it. And if you can't talk... well, you're at high intensity." In this last case, moreover, we won't be able to last very long.

Another matter to consider when we're training and if we have the goal of a certain time is that "improvement isn't linear". That is, we're not going to do better than the previous one every day. And that's normal. "There will be days and seasons when you'll be better and others worse," Rodríguez emphasises. Don't get discouraged, it's part of the process.

- Do we have to forget about times?

-No, they can be a help, motivate us and make us feel more connected to the exercise.

But like Kiptum, it's about achieving them in races. Training is something else. One last piece of advice that also tends to be difficult for beginners: "Without good rest and adequate nutrition, they won't come either," the teacher concludes.