Why is fundamental pace key to progress in running?

Before we talk about the basic look, let's first go back a long way in time.

We exist because our very distant ancestors developed the ability as hunters to run long distances. This allowed them to hunt in packs animals that were faster than them over short distances but less endurance than humans over very long distances.

The scientific community of evolutionary biologists, paleoanthropologists, and neuroscientists agree that our bodies and brains evolved to run long distances so that we could, thousands of years ago, slowly or patiently hunt animals.

Suffice to say that we are genetically programmed to run (which was originally absolutely necessary for our survival).

What is extraordinary is that even if a human being has never really run in his life or has stopped running for a long period, his body is programmed to adapt to a progressive training load and to change, transform. It will strengthen, tone up, and refine itself as the training progresses. Be careful, however, to train very gradually and to always recover well to avoid injury.

Now to return to the basic pace, it is therefore the one that we can maintain for hours (while refueling and hydrating regularly).

 

Why is it important and what is it used for?

In running, as in any other endurance sport, the fundamental pace is a bit like the base or the foundation on which we can build our training and measure our progress.

It is also the pace at which we should run most often: between 70 and 80% of our weekly training schedule.

For what ?

Because basic endurance is a pace that contributes greatly not to increasing the amount of oxygen we breathe in when we run, but to improving the way we use this oxygen. Basic endurance strengthens the heart. Strengthening your heart means making it adapt to the effort by increasing the blood flow it can process with each beat. The more you progress, the more your heart becomes muscular and the less it will need to 'force' to deliver the same amount of oxygenated blood to the whole body and in particular to the muscles, which will be able to produce more energy thanks to the aerobic system. Running at a slow pace also means developing your network of blood capillaries inside your muscles to make them more efficient.

How is the basic pace calculated and how long should you run at this pace?

There are two distinct methods for calculating your basic pace, a pace that you can maintain over a long period.

The first method is to calculate it from your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR). In general, your fundamental pace should be between 65 and 75% of your MHR. If a runner has an MHR of, for example, 200 (to make the calculations easier), your fundamental pace is when your heart rate is between 130 and 150 beats per minute.

The second method is to calculate our Maximum Aerobic Speed ​​or VO2max, that is, the running pace at which we reach our maximum oxygen consumption. In this second case, our fundamental pace should be between 60 and 65% of your VMA. For example, if a runner has a VMA of 15 km/h, his fundamental pace should be between 9 and 9.8 km/h.

It is recommended during training to run between 70 and 80% of the time at basic pace. If you run for example 4 hours per week and you have a VMA of 15km/h as in the example above, this means that you should run at a pace a little lower than 10 km/h for about 3 hours out of a total of 4 hours per week.

One thing is almost certain, you will have a lot of trouble following this advice and running at this basic pace about three-quarters of the time during your training. Why? Because as runners, we are often driven by a great motivation to progress, to improve our time on reference distances like the 10K, the half or the marathon. And running relatively slowly for a long time seems not only counterintuitive but also counterproductive when it is in fact the opposite that is true. Running too often and for too long at sustained paces risks leading us straight to injury or fatigue and not to optimizing performance.

So, resist the call of speed and run about three-quarters of the time in training at your basic pace (even if it feels slow and easy to maintain). You have plenty of time during your interval sessions to push yourself and provide intense efforts during demanding sessions that are not easy to achieve.

In conclusion, and it is the case to say it, it is both fundamental and very beneficial to run at fundamental pace about three-quarters of the time during your training. It is one of the keys to being able to strengthen yourself, to progress, to avoid injuries and especially to last and enjoy the benefits and pleasure of running for as long as possible.