Hello and welcome to the Runers Connect audio blog on the Run to the Top Podcast. This is Coach Claire Bartholic and today I am reading

how running 80% easy could make you 23% faster, written by John Davis.

If you have spent any amount of time digging into literature

on coaching and training, you probably

know that there is one running-related topic that can be a touchy subject,

often leading into lengthy and sometimes heated discussions.

Which method of training is best?

Should you accumulate a lot of mileage at an easy pace only

doing a small amount of running at high speeds? Or should you try to reach moderate

speeds fairly frequently in your training, so your training sessions are more race-specific.

difficulty finding the truth.

Research on untrained or sedentary people suggests that doing a lot of training near the lactate threshold is a very effective way to improve cardiovascular fitness.

But observational studies of elite athletes in a range of

endurance sports have found that they tend to spend the majority of their time training at

slower, easier paces.

One of the main criticism of research into high-intensity training programs for runners

is that they are too narrowly focused on immediate results

since the typical study only lasts four to eight weeks.

With this kind of design, research might miss out on the long-term benefits or drawbacks of a certain style of training.

However, it doesn't take a PhD to see why it's very difficult to actually conduct a long-term study.

It's going to be very hard to convince a group of runners

to let a scientist tell them what workout to do every day

...