Runner’s Dilemma #32 — Does Slow Running Really Make You Faster?
Runner's Log | Runner's Dilemma #32 Does Slow Running Really Make You Faster? Something I heard on YouTube a while back. "Just run slow and long, and your pace will naturally get faster. You'll end up running 4:30 per km." That sounded pretty sweet. No painful intervals, just steady easy runs, and the speed would come on its own. So for three months, I ran slowly with a sub-4 full marathon as my goal. But "it naturally gets faster" didn't apply to me. Whenever I ran even a little faster, I tired out quickly. On race day, I held sub-4 pace for 21km and then dropped out. 'I did it this way because they said slow running alone makes you faster...' I wanted to know what actual experiments say, not just a YouTuber. So I asked an AI. 'Search for papers and experimental results and tell me what you find.' Out of all the studies, the one that caught my eye was a formula for predicting marathon times. I. A Formula for Predicting Marathon Times...
