THE BIGGEST MISTAKE RUNNERS MAKE ON EASY DAYS (AND HOW TO SLOW DOWN)

Published: 14/08/2026 | By: Emma Kirk-Odunubi

Emma Kirk-Odunubi has run sixteen marathons and spent more than twenty years studying how the rest of us do it, so when she says most runners are getting their easy days badly wrong, it's worth listening. Here, our running ambassador explains the one habit that quietly sabotages more training blocks than anything else, and how a simple mindset shift can fix it. 

If I had a pound for every runner I've watched turn a gentle jog into an accidental time trial, I could probably retire. In more than twenty years of analysing how people run, and sixteen marathons of my own, the most common mistake I see is beautifully simple: running too fast on easy runs. It sounds harmless, but easy days done at the wrong effort quietly undo the work your hard days are meant to build. 

What is an easy day? 

An easy day is exactly what it sounds like, and yet somehow the hardest thing for most of us to do. It's a run at a genuinely comfortable, conversational pace, where the effort feels relaxed and sustainable rather than something you grit your teeth through. Some call it a recovery run, but the principle is the same. You're running to feel good, not to feel finished. The test is lovely and simple: if a friend jogged alongside and asked how your weekend went, you should be able to tell them the whole story without gasping between words. 

Easy days are not filler. They let your body absorb harder work, build a strong aerobic base, and turn up fresh for the sessions that genuinely move the needle. 

The biggest mistake 

Here's the uncomfortable truth. Most runners run their easy runs too fast and their hard runs not quite hard enough, so everything ends up bunched in a grey middle zone that feels productive but rarely delivers. 

It usually happens without us noticing. Your legs feel decent, a good song comes on, and you drift faster than you meant to. Then there's ego, which is powerful on two legs. We see a pace that feels a touch too pedestrian and can't help ourselves. Group runs pull us along, fitness apps dare us to beat our previous times, and suddenly an easy run has crept into moderate, or even hard. 

The problem is what that does downstream. When you don't recover properly, you carry fatigue into your next quality session and end up running permanently tired, never quite fresh. Over weeks this is how fatigue accumulates, how the risk of overtraining and injury climbs, and how runners find themselves stuck on a frustrating plateau.  

Back in 2018, this happened to me: I developed a labral tear in my hip from simply pushing too hard. I've now learnt that easy days exist to create space for your hard days to be done properly. Spend that space, and there's nothing left when it counts. 

How to know if you're going too fast 

You don't need a lab to work this out. Your easy run is probably too fast if you can't hold a conversation, your breathing feels laboured, your legs stay heavy all day, or you keep trying to beat your previous pace. Other tell-tale signs are struggling to hit targets in your next hard session, feeling tired before the run has properly started, and finishing recovery days more drained than recovered. I did this in the early part of my running journey, and became demotivated and fell out of love with running. 

One important caveat: your easy pace won't look the same every day, and that's normal. Fatigue, weather, terrain, stress, sleep and training load all play a part. A hot afternoon after a broken night feels very different from a crisp, well-rested morning at the same effort. So don't get attached to a number on your watch. Easy is a feeling, not a fixed figure. I love to use the measure of RPE (rate of perceived effort): easy pace should feel like a 3 or 4 out of 10. 

Why it matters, and how to get it right 

Easy days feel pointless only because we can't see the work they're doing. Recovery is where you actually get fitter, because adaptation happens between sessions, not during them. Easy mileage builds the aerobic base everything else stacks on top of, keeps your overall training stress sensible for genuine injury prevention, and leaves you fresh enough to hit real paces on your hard days. It also protects your love of running and keeps burnout away. 

Getting it right is more mindset than science. Warm up, then let the conversation test guide you. Run by effort rather than chasing pace, use heart rate zones if you find them helpful, and honestly, slow down more than you think you need to. A trick I love is hiding the pace on your watch and showing time or heart rate instead. Walking breaks are absolutely fine, especially for beginners, so don't treat them as failure. 

And ignore the myths. Easy runs do make you fitter, just quietly. They count when you nail the effort, not a number. Slow running isn't only for beginners; some of the fittest distance runners on the planet do the bulk of their mileage easy. 

Finally... 

Slow down properly, keep the effort conversational, and don't chase every split. Recovery drives progress, not extra grinding. Comfort beats speed on these days, because easy runs are what make your hard days possible. Master this one thing and I promise the rest of your running gets easier.