You can run longer at a slower pace, but this will only improve your endurance. One advantage that it provides is that you will improve your cardiovascular endurance, which will minimise your rate of deceleration. However, if you want to run fast over a longer distance, you need to improve your stamina, which is your speed endurance.
When is it better to run longer at a slower pace?
If you plan to run a long distance and you want to get your body used to running the distance or for that duration of time, it is good to run slower. You will usually need to conduct this training as a part of your foundation training.
As your body becomes more conditioned to running longer distances, you can introduce training regimes that will allow you to run longer at a faster pace. This will require you to do stamina training.
How can you improve your stamina?
You can accomplish this through interval training, tempo running and fartlek training. We’ve previously posted about stamina training that you can do.
