If you’ve ever headed out for your run, without really thinking about how fast or slow you’re going to go, then you’re in good company, most runners do exactly that, especially when they’re starting out. You head out the door, you run at whatever pace feels natural that day, and you come home feeling like you’ve done the work. And honestly, that’s fine for a while. But if you want to get fitter, faster, or simply be able to run further comfortably, then understanding the different types of running pace is genuinely one of the most useful things you can do for your training.
The good news is that it’s not complicated. Lets look at the 4 most common running sessions that show up on almost every training plan regardless of goal distance or pace, Easy, steady, tempo and Long Slow Run. Each of these have a place to play in developing your running and it is useful to understand what each session means in terms of running pace.
Easy Running: The Pace You Are Probably Not Doing Enough Of
Let’s start with the one that most runners underestimate, ignore, or feel guilty about because it doesn’t feel hard enough, the easy run. An easy run is exactly what it sounds like: a pace where you can hold a full conversation without gasping for air between every other word, where your breathing is controlled and relaxed, and where you finish the session feeling like you’ve worked, but are not completely wiped out.
In terms of effort, you’re looking at somewhere around 60–70% of your maximum heart rate, which for most people translates to a pace that feels almost embarrassingly slow, particularly if you’re used to pushing yourself every time you go out.
But surprisingly, easy runs are where a huge amount of your aerobic development actually happens. These runs build your cardiovascular base, strengthen the muscles, tendons and ligaments that keep you moving injury-free, and teach your body to become more efficient at using fat as a fuel source. They’re the foundation that every other type of training sits on top of, and without them, you’re essentially trying to build a house on sand.
In a typical training week, easy runs should make up the bulk of your mileage, somewhere between 60 and 80% of your total weekly running, depending on who you ask and what plan you’re following. If you’re running four times a week, that’s at least two or three of those sessions done at easy effort. It sounds like a lot of slow running, and it is, but that’s the point.
Steady Running: The Comfortable Middle Ground
A steady run sits just above easy effort, at roughly 70–80% of your maximum heart rate, and it’s the kind of running pace where conversation is still possible. It’s comfortable but purposeful, the sort of pace that feels sustainable for a decent stretch of time without totally wiping you out.
A steady running pace helps bridge the gap between your easy aerobic base and the harder, more intense work that tempo running demands, and it’s brilliant for building general endurance without putting too much stress on the body. Think of it as the workhorse pace, not flashy, not entirely brutal, but reliably effective when used consistently.
In a weekly training plan, one steady run per week works well for most runners, often sitting in the mid-week slot as something that feels a little more purposeful than a pure easy jog without tipping over into full-on hard effort. For runners who are newer to structured training, steady running can also act as a gentler introduction to running at a controlled, intentional pace before jumping into tempo work.
Tempo Running: Where Things Start to Get Uncomfortable
Now we’re moving. Tempo running, sometimes called threshold running, is the running pace that sits right at the edge of what your body can comfortably sustain, a pace that’s hard but controlled, where you’re working at around 80–90% of your maximum heart rate and conversation has essentially become a series of short, clipped responses rather than flowing sentences.
The purpose of tempo running is to push up your lactate threshold, which is the point at which lactic acid starts accumulating in your muscles faster than your body can clear it. The higher that threshold, the faster you can run before your muscles start to protest, which is why tempo work is so valuable for anyone wanting to improve their race times or simply hold a faster pace for longer.
A classic tempo run might be a 20–40 minute effort at this controlled hard pace, or it might be structured as intervals, 200m -1k repeats at tempo effort with short recovery jogs in between, which gives you the same physiological benefit with a little more breathing room built in.
In a training week, one tempo session is plenty for the majority of runners, and it’s worth treating it with some respect because it’s the session that’s most likely to leave you tired if you overdo it or run it too hard. The golden rule with tempo running is that it should feel comfortably hard, if you’re dying halfway through, you’ve gone out too fast.
The Long Slow Run: The One You Should Never Skip
Ask any experienced runner what the single most important session in their training week is, and the vast majority will point to the long run without a moment’s hesitation. It’s the cornerstone of almost every training plan, from beginner programmes to marathon schedules designed for sub-three-hour athletes, and for good reason. The long slow run, and the slow part is important, is done at an easy, conversational pace, slightly slower than your easy run effort. The whole point is time on your feet rather than speed, and it’s the session where you train your body to cope with sustained effort, build muscular endurance, top up your glycogen stores, and mentally prepare yourself for the demands of running longer distances.
One of the biggest misconceptions about the long slow run is that it’s only relevant for runners chasing longer distances, half marathons, marathons, or ultras, and that if a 5K is your thing, you can skip it entirely. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. The long slow run is just as beneficial for a 5K runner as it is for an ultramarathoner, because the premise is exactly the same regardless of what distance you’re training for: go a little further than you’ve gone before, at a comfortable pace where your breathing never feels out of control and you could chat easily to whoever is running alongside you. As a general rule, you’re looking at extending your long run by no more than 10% each week, which keeps the progression steady without putting too much strain on the body before it’s ready. Beyond the physical benefits, there’s something almost meditative about the long run, it’s the session where you genuinely get to explore, settle into a rhythm, and let your mind wander without the pressure of hitting a specific pace or nailing a set of intervals. It’s often the run that reminds you why you started running in the first place.
For most runners, one long run per week is standard, typically done at the weekend when time allows, and the length will vary depending on what you’re training for.
How These Paces Feel Differently Depending on Where You Are in Your Running Journey
One of the most important things to understand about your running pace is that they’re not fixed speeds, they’re relative to you, your current fitness level, and where you are in your running journey, which means that the whole framework of easy, steady, tempo and long slow running looks and feels completely different depending on whether you’ve been running for six weeks or six years.
For beginner runners, this is actually one of the most reassuring things you can hear, because the honest truth is that when you’re just starting out, almost all running feels hard, and that’s not a sign that you’re doing it wrong or that you’re not cut out for it, it’s simply where you are right now, and it won’t stay that way for long. When experienced runners talk about their easy pace feeling genuinely comfortable and conversational, beginners often find that even a slow jog pushes their heart rate up and leaves them breathing harder than they’d like. That doesn’t mean they’re running at tempo effort, it means their aerobic system is still developing, and their body is adapting to the new demands being placed on it. For beginners, the effort levels still apply even if the paces don’t look the same on paper, so the goal is always to find the effort that matches the description rather than chasing a specific number on your watch.
As fitness improves over weeks and months, something interesting starts to happen, the running pace that once felt like a hard effort begins to feel manageable, then comfortable, and eventually easy, which means your easy pace gradually gets faster without you ever consciously trying to speed it up. This is one of the clearest signs that your training is working, and it’s one of the most satisfying feelings in running. What once felt like a tempo effort becomes your steady run, your steady run becomes your new easy, and suddenly you have access to a genuine range of paces that each feel meaningfully different from one another.
This is where experienced runners have a significant advantage when it comes to structured training, they have a wide enough range of paces available to them that the different types of sessions feel genuinely distinct. An experienced runner can step out the door and feel a clear, tangible difference between their easy run, their steady run and their tempo effort, which makes it much easier to execute each session at the right intensity and get the full benefit from each type of training.
For beginners, that spread is naturally much narrower at first, which is one of the reasons why the early weeks of a training plan can feel a little monotonous, everything sort of blurs together at a similar effort level because the body simply hasn’t built the fitness required to operate across a wide range of intensities yet. The advice here is to be patient with that process and resist the urge to force the different paces before your fitness is ready to support them, because trying to hit tempo pace when your aerobic base is still in its early stages is a reliable route to burnout, injury, or both.
The most important shift in mindset for any runner, beginner or otherwise, is to stop thinking about pace as a number and start thinking about it as a feeling, because your GPS watch can tell you how fast you’re going but it can’t tell you whether that speed is easy or hard for your body on that particular day. Fatigue, stress, heat, humidity, and a dozen other factors affect how a given pace feels, and experienced runners learn over time to use perceived effort as their primary guide rather than obsessing over the numbers. Beginners who learn this lesson early tend to progress faster and stay healthier than those who spend their early months chained to a target pace that doesn’t account for how their body is actually responding.
The bottom line is that the framework of easy, steady, tempo and long slow running pace is just as relevant and just as valuable for a runner who’s completing their third-ever 5K as it is for someone preparing for their fifth marathon, it just looks different in practice, and that’s exactly how it should be.
Putting It All Together
A well-structured training week for most runners will look something like this: 1-3 easy runs forming the backbone of the week, one steady run or tempo run for purposeful aerobic work, and one long slow run to build the endurance that underpins everything else. That’s 3 or 5 sessions, each one serving a specific purpose, and each one making the others more effective.
The temptation for a lot of runners especially motivated, driven ones, and we see this a lot, is to make every run feel hard because hard feels productive. But the runners who improve consistently over time are almost always the ones who understand running pace, run easy when the plan says easy, push when the plan says push, and trust the process enough to let each type of session do its job.
If this has got you thinking about how you’re structuring your own training and whether you’re really getting the most out of every run, we’re here to help. At Achieve Running Club, we build training plans for all levels and distances, designed around the running paces that actually move the needle for your fitness, whether that’s easy miles to build your base, tempo sessions to push your threshold, or a long slow run to develop the endurance you need on race day. You tell us what your goal is, whether that’s increasing distance, improving your running pace, or simply maintaining the fitness you’ve worked hard to build, how many days a week you can train, and we’ll take care of the rest. Our coaches are on hand for any running-related questions along the way, so whatever your level and wherever you are in your journey, you’re never doing it alone.
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