“How slow can you go?” is not a question you often hear in athletic circles.  The more common query is, of course, “How fast can you go?”  When most endurance-oriented competitions are won or lost by the finish time, the “How fast can you go?” question is certainly legit.  (Side Note:  Click here to watch one historic & controversial race that was NOT won by the fastest time!)

But as I’ve often said…you have to go slow before you can go fast.  Thus, my question:  “How slow can you go?”

The usual response is something along the lines of “Why would I want to slow down?” & “What good will that do me?”  All valid responses.  So, let’s dive into a few reasons why going slower will, in the end, make you a faster athlete.

Builds a Strong Aerobic Foundation

Remember, you can’t build a great castle on sand.  For endurance athletes, this means that your base level of fitness needs to be solid.  We build our base level of fitness by doing lots of low-intensity aerobic training.  And the longer the workout, the lower the intensity needs to be.

Typically, athletes train at an intensity that is just hard enough to produce the “I just got a great workout” feeling – better known as “the Tempo workout”.  It’s that awesome intensity where you are able to go the distance while getting that “good effort” feeling.  It’s the bragging intensity (i.e.  “Last weekend I did X miles in Y time!”)  Believe me…I love this intensity too!  But it’s almost always too hard to really stimulate the changes that we need our aerobic system to make.  It’s just a little bit too hard, too much.

Reduces Injury Risk

In the 20+ years I’ve been coaching, I’ve seen a lot of injuries.  I myself have had a lot of injuries.  While there are always a few outliers, the vast majority of injuries happen because we went too fast, too long, too soon.  In other words, we push the pace (or the volume) BEFORE we’ve built our base.  If we think about typical injuries that endurance athletes get (plantar fasciitis, IT band syndrome, shin splints, patellofemoral pain [pain under the kneecap]), Achilles tendinitis, shoulder pain), these are almost never muscular in nature.  They almost always stem from irritated connective tissues (ligaments, tendons, fascia).

Connective tissue is the weak link.  It doesn’t have much blood flow, so it develops & heals very slowly.  Muscles, on the other hand, develop & heal quickly…because of all that blood flow.  You can see the inherent problem – muscles get strong (and heal) really quickly whereas connective tissue doesn’t develop (or heal) nearly as quickly.  And so, my dear athletes, we end up with significant imbalances between the muscles & the connective tissue…which leads directly to injury.

Avoiding these imbalances is critical to sustainable & consistent training.  And as we know, you are only as strong as your weakest link.  Slowing that pace down allows your connective tissue time to strengthen, time to heal microtrauma, time to develop into a strong link between muscle & bone.

Encourages Consistent & Sustainable Training

Consistent & sustainable training – the KEY to improved performance.  If you are unable (for whatever reason) to train consistently day to day, week to week, month to month & year to year, you will NEVER get significantly stronger, faster, or fitter.  The only way to maximize your fitness potential is to train consistently & sustainably.

Oh sure…you can go all in, push your pace, rush the process & perhaps get a phenomenal result.  But I guarantee there’s a cost for that fast & furious approach.  You may not pay the cost in the 1st year, maybe not even in the 5th year.  But hear me now…you WILL ultimately pay the cost.  I guarantee that, as you age, you won’t be able to maintain that same fast & furious approach.  You will get injured.  You will be forced to stop.  You will have to change your ways.

Slowing down is not sexy.  It doesn’t feed our ego.  It doesn’t make for great stories.  But it does make for incredible performance improvements over time.

My trainer once asked me this question…and I’ve never forgotten it:

If you gain 05lb on your Squat weight this year, would you be happy? 

Five pounds???  That’s not much.  You could easily push your Squat progression & increase by 100lbs in a couple of months!  But is that sustainable??

Let’s rephrase the question.

If you gain 05lb on your Squat weight every year for the next 30 years, would you be happy?

I say HECK YA!!  That means I’ll be squatting 285lb when I’m 84 years old!  That’ll be freakin’ amazing!!

Now let’s translate that same concept into a 1-mile run time.  What if you improved your 1-mile run time by 01sec every year for the next 30 years?  I’d certainly take that.

So…I challenge you all.  Slow down.  Slow down your pace, slow down your progressions, slow down your expectations.  I guarantee you will get faster!

Happy training!