On a recent run of Founder Running Club München, one of the runners mentioned that running slower than 6:30 pace actually felt harder for her than running much faster, around 5:15–5:30. At first, that sounded surprising — shouldn’t slower always be easier?
But then, in my own training run today, I noticed something similar. At around 5:30 pace, my stride suddenly felt smoother, springier, more efficient. The movement seemed to click into place. Whenever I try to dial back to slower than that, it feels clunky and awkward, as if I’m shuffling instead of running.
The “Efficient Gear” We All Have
Every runner has a pace where the biomechanics just work. Cadence feels natural, stride length balances out, tendons and muscles recycle energy instead of fighting against the ground. That’s the efficient gear — the pace where running feels like it flows.
The catch: our aerobic engine often can’t support that gear for a full marathon. It may feel smooth for 5 or 10 kilometers, but try to hold it for 42 and the body eventually runs out of fuel. That’s when many runners hit the wall.
Why Slow Running Feels So Awkward
Here’s the paradox: to one day run a marathon in your smooth gear, you first have to spend months training in a less efficient one.
Running slower than feels natural — the dreaded “clunky shuffle” — is exactly where the aerobic adaptations happen:
- More mitochondria in your muscle cells
- Improved fat metabolism (so you don’t burn through glycogen too fast)
- Lower heart rate at all paces
It may feel wrong, but it builds the base you need.
The Long Game
For elite runners, their easy pace is still inside their efficient gear. Kipchoge jogging at 3:45/km looks smooth because his body is trained to handle 2:50/km for the marathon.
For the rest of us, those gears don’t line up yet — but they can. With consistent base training and higher mileage, the aerobic engine eventually catches up. That’s when your smooth stride at 5:30 isn’t just a 10k rhythm anymore — it becomes a marathon rhythm.
And when that happens, performance can jump by 15–20 minutes or more, not because your form changed, but because your engine finally matches your mechanics.
My Takeaway
Today’s run made something clear to me:
- Slower can feel harder.
- Faster can feel smoother.
- The key is not to chase smoothness too early, but to train the engine until smoothness and endurance overlap.
For my Lisbon marathon, that means holding back closer to 5:55–6:00/km, even if 5:30 feels easier mechanically. The long-term goal is to build enough base that one day, 5:30 is my marathon pace.
Closing Thought
If you’ve ever felt awkward running “too slow,” you’re not broken. You’re probably just discovering your efficient gear. The art of marathon training is learning to live below it long enough that, eventually, it becomes your superpower.