If you open your Runna plan, you’ll see easy runs a lot.

They show up between your intervals, after your long runs, sometimes on a random Wednesday with nothing more than an overall distance to cover. No structure. No pace pressure. Just “conversational pace.”

And that is very intentional.

An easy run is relaxed, comfortable running at a controlled pace. It is not about chasing splits. It is about building time on your feet and strengthening your aerobic base.

They might not look super exciting in your calendar, but they are the glue that holds your entire training plan together.

The purpose of an easy run is to build your aerobic base.

Your aerobic base is your body’s ability to use oxygen efficiently to create energy over sustained periods. The stronger this system is, the longer you can run, the better you recover, and the more prepared you are for harder efforts like tempo runs and intervals.

Most distance performance is aerobic. Even when you are racing fast, your aerobic system is doing the heavy lifting.

Easy runs improve:

You don't always feel this happening. That is kind of the point! Easy runs are quiet builders. They do their work in the background.

A lot of runners wonder why easy runs are important if they want to get faster.

The answer is consistency.

You can't stack hard sessions on top of each other forever. Something has to allow your body to absorb the work. Easy runs are that space. They let you keep moving forward without pushing your system over the edge.

In this way, sticking to your easy runs can actually act as a big step toward getting faster. You can read more on that here!

In structured training, they are what allow the hard days to stay hard and the long days to stay strong.

If you rush your easy runs, everything starts to blur into moderate effort. That is where progress stalls and fatigue builds.

When runners respect their easy pace, they often find their quality sessions improve. They feel fresher. More controlled. More capable of actually hitting the target when it matters.

Easy run pace should feel genuinely easy. Comfortable time on feet.

The simplest test is conversational pace. If you can hold a full conversation without gasping, you are likely in the right range. If you can only manage a few words at a time, you are probably running too hard.

This is not about being overly cautious. It is about staying in the aerobic zone where your body is building endurance efficiently.

We explain conversational pace in more detail in our dedicated guide, but the short version is this. If you could chat to a friend the whole way round, you are doing it right.

Many easy runs will fall in Zone 2.

Zone 2 running typically means working at around 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate. It's a steady effort where your body relies heavily on oxygen to produce energy.

Training in Zone 2 helps:

That said, heart rate is not perfect! Stress, sleep, caffeine, heat, and hydration all influence it. Some days your usual easy pace will push your heart rate higher than expected.

That is why effort and breathing cues matter just as much as heart rate data.

On the Rate of Perceived Effort scale, easy runs usually sit around 3 to 4 out of 10.

It should feel controlled. Relaxed. Sustainable.

You should finish feeling like you could have kept going.

If your easy runs regularly feel like a 6 or 7 out of 10, you are probably turning them into something else. That might feel productive in the moment, but over time it chips away at your ability to recover and improve.

You can read more about how RPE works in our full guide to RPE.

This is the part that makes these runs special.

Easy runs are often where running feels most natural. No pace pressure. No looming interval. Just you and your personal rhythm.

For some runners, it is a way to unwind after work. For others, it is a quiet lunch run where your mind drifts and resets. There is something grounding about settling into your own cadence and letting the miles tick by without overthinking them.

You start to tune into your breathing. Your steps one by one. The way your body feels when it is not being pushed.

Perhaps even more than fitness, those miles build familiarity and confidence.

If you're following a Runna training plan, you will notice easy runs appear often. That's not a mistake!

They're intentionally placed between harder sessions to help you recover and keep your overall training load balanced. The volume and frequency are adjusted based on:

There's no-one-size fits all structure. Easy runs are tailored to support your bigger goal.

They may not grab attention in your plan, but they're the steady thread connecting everything together. When you look back after a training cycle, it is often those relaxed, consistent miles that made the biggest difference.