You’ve probably nailed your intervals. You’ve gutted out the track repeats. You’ve cranked up the treadmill and left sweat puddles in your wake.

But here’s the kicker: Most runners aren’t failing because of their hard sessions. They’re failing because they don’t know how to slow down.

Sounds backwards, right? Let’s dig in.

Why We Interval in the First Place

Intervals are the sexy stuff. Fast bursts. Heavy breathing. Pushing your body until your lungs feel like fire.

And they work — brilliantly. They build your anaerobic engine, raise your lactate threshold, and sharpen efficiency.

But here’s the truth no one likes to admit: intervals only work if you recover enough between them. Push too hard, too often, and you’re just stacking fatigue on top of fatigue.

The Silent Killer: “Easy” Runs That Aren’t

Ask most runners what “easy pace” means and you’ll see them smirk. They say they run easy. Then you look at their watch data and it’s anything but.

Too many treat recovery runs like half-effort races. Which means they never actually recover.

End result? Legs feel heavy all week. Intervals turn sloppy. Progress stalls.

You don’t get faster by being fast all the time. You get faster by running slow enough to recover, so you can truly hammer when it counts.

Rest Between Reps Isn’t Laziness — It’s Science

Same goes for the actual breaks inside your workout.

You’re supposed to jog, walk, or stand there sucking air. Why? Because when you actually let your heart rate come down, your muscles reset just enough to attack the next rep at full throttle.

Cut recovery short, and every rep after the first two is trash. Quantity goes up. Quality goes down.

Warm-Ups: Your Secret Weapon

You wouldn’t floor a cold engine in the dead of winter. Yet plenty of runners launch into intervals stone cold.

That’s asking for injuries, but it’s also kneecapping performance. A good warm-up primes muscles, tendons, and your cardiovascular system to handle the surge.

Skip it, and you’re racing with the parking brake on.

The Simple Formula Most Ignore

Here’s what it boils down to:

Easy means easy. Conversation pace. If you can’t chat, you’re going too hard.
Respect rest. Walk. Jog. Recover properly between reps.
Warm up right. Dynamic stretches, a slow build, then stride-outs.
Quality > quantity. Fewer reps done well beats more reps done half-baked.

This is the boring stuff no one brags about on Strava. But it’s the difference between stagnant kilometres and real progress.

The Takeaway

Most runners botch this simple detail — pacing the “slow” moments. They think faster is always better. It isn’t.

Train smart. Slow when you should. Recover like it matters. Warm up with intent.

Do that, and when it’s time to really push? You’ll be faster than ever.

Now let me throw it back at you:

👉 Are you guilty of running your “easy” days too hard? Drop your answer in the comments below.

Yours in running and life,
Daniel Lucchini

Most Runners Botch This Simple Detail — And It’s Costing Them Speed