 Alright, so most people, when they head out to run for a run, they typically end up running more or less the same pace all the time. What's an easy run? What's a hard run? Well, all the runs are kind of medium intensity kind of thing. That's what a lot of people do. And today I want to explain to you why multi-paced training, meaning training at different intensities at different times is a good idea. If we are to look at elite athletes, runners, from short distance to high distance, specifically speaking of maybe marathon runners or half marathon runners, we notice a pattern in terms of their training. And that is that most of their training, as in probably 80% of their training, is done at an easy intensity. And easy intensity, of course, can mean different things. But essentially, if we're talking about heart rate, we're talking about something like 65, even as low as 60% of max heart rate, up to about 75 or 80% of max heart rate. So it's a sort of an intensity where you can maintain a conversation easily. The talk test, right? Are you able to talk? Or are you breathing too intensely to be able to talk? As long as you're able to talk, you're in that easy zone. The benefits of the easy zone are plentiful. You're getting a lot of different adaptions. We're not going to get into all the different adaptions today, but things are happening in your muscles. Things are happening with your heart, your cardiovascular system. Things are going on. And you're out there running. You're taking it easy, though. That, depending on how much you run total, but that should probably sort of be most of your training. Most of your running should be easy. And most people don't know what easy is. They head out for an easy run and they end up running way too hard. And that's one of the benefits of having a heart rate monitor. Not because people think, oh, you have a heart monitor because you're running hard on the track, et cetera. Yeah, they're good for that. But they're also good for your average runner just heading out for an easy run to be able to look at the watch and be like, oh, I'm working too hard now. I need to back off. I want to keep in this type of intensity range. Now, that's your easy running. And that should form the basis, the foundation of your training, and should be most of your time spent doing that. Just time on legs, just easy aerobic time. If you only did that, though, if you only did easy runs, sure, you would build up a lot of tolerance in your legs for a lot of distance. LSD, they call it long, slow distance. You would be able to tolerate a lot of distance. And you might, if you have a really high volume of training, say you train like 10 hours per week or even 20 at this low intensity, oh, you're going to get a lot of gains for sure. Even just at an easy intensity, you're going to have a lot of great adaptions in terms of running. But you're not going to reach your potential. To reach your potential, you also need some higher intensity training, higher speed training. And as we move into higher intensity training, there's really three different levels. There's your lactate threshold type of intensity pace. There's your VO2 max intensity pace. And then there's your, you know, your speed training. You're almost sprinting. And there are different benefits to all of them. And they should form a very small part of your overall training. Yet they are important. If we are to listen to Jack Daniels, the running coach, he says that your lactate threshold type training should form about 10% or no more than 10% of your total weekly distance. So if you're running 50 kilometers a week, you can run five kilometers of lactate threshold training in a single session. VO2 max training, he says 8%. Only 8% of your total weekly distance should be VO2 max training. And last but not least, he says about 5% of your weekly training should be speed training in a single session. But then again, different people have different tolerances to how many sessions they can do per week. And if you have a lactate threshold session, a VO2 max session, a speed session, and a long run, that's probably too much for a week. But it depends on your fitness. So generally speaking, your lactate threshold is about, you know, 85% up to 90% of your max heart rate. You're working hard. You're working hard, but you can maintain it for a while. VO2 max, that's your max aerobic capacity. That's like 800 meter reps at the track, right? Maybe 1000 meter reps, 1200 meter reps for some people. Maybe as low as 400 meter reps for other people. It depends again on your capacity and your total weekly training distance. But VO2 max is your max aerobic capacity and it's hard. It's really painful. It's hard. And you'll do intervals of maybe, you know, two to five minutes and then you'll have a break and then you do it again. All of these higher intensities are usually best done as an interval session where you have work and then rest and work and rest. Whereas the easy intensity is all about just being out there for a long time. You don't have to do breaks or anything like that. And your long runs, of course, you're out there for a long time at an easy intensity. It's a continuous effort. And last but not least, so the VO2 max is a tough, tough effort. Corresponds to about maybe 95 to 100% of your max heart rate. Now, last but not least, there's a speed training. Max heart rate is not important because you're essentially not going long enough to build up to a max heart rate. It's just a short burst. It could be as little as 100 meters, you know, 10 seconds. Well, if you run 100 meters in 10 seconds, you're in the world, you're very high level. So it's not 10 seconds, but more like maybe, you know, 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, maybe even up to a minute could be considered that speed component. We're talking mile race pace. The fastest speed you could maintain for a mile. And the benefits of that, just quickly, the benefits of that speed training is leg speed, leg strength, running economy, working on your muscular system and activating those fast switch muscle fibers, et cetera. And the VO2 max training is mostly focused on your aerobic system and your heart and your stroke volume and these kind of things and the options in the cells as well. And then there's the lactate threshold training, which is about improving your lactate threshold, your ability to tolerate lactate, so to speak, and run at a high intensity without accumulating too much lactate. And then the easy intensity running is just sort of the bread and butter, so to speak, of your training. It's the groundwork. It's the hours and hours and hours of conditioning, aerobic conditioning. So let's sum it up. We've got four different types of training. There's easy, lactate threshold, VO2 max, and speed. We could also call them aerobic conditioning and aerobic conditioning, aerobic capacity and anaerobic capacity. Those are the four types of speeds and intensities you want to include in your training. And by working hard on some days, having a workout, and really easy on other days, you're maintaining that hard, easy principle and you're able to recover well between workouts and really hit it hard when it counts. Rather than running at an moderate intensity all the time and ending up not training hard enough for those high-end adaptions, yet training too hard to be able to fully recover and maintain a large volume of training. So having that easy, hard balance and, you know, getting those different paces in over the course of a training cycle is really key if you want to maximize your potential. Of course, you've got to be careful when you're introducing new type of training. You know, introduce it slowly over time, get used to it. And if you're interested in my advice, you could always contact me. You could just go to our Facebook page at the Loan Trail on Facebook and you can send me a message there and you can ask me a question or maybe we could set up a coaching session via Skype. I'd be happy to help you out, you know, and even building a training plan for you if you're interested in incorporating some of these higher paces into your training. They're certainly worth it. Thanks for watching. Subscribe if you haven't done so already. I hope you like these videos. I'll see you around in the next one.