What Should High School Distance Runners Do on Easy Days?

“Easy days” are for running.

They aren’t rest days, cross-training days, or days to play a game instead of running. Easy days are an important part of the training cycle and should be treated with just as much importance as workouts and long runs.

Of course, there are always exceptions—injury, illness, family emergencies, and other circumstances. But under normal conditions, easy days shouldn't be viewed as optional training.

So what should actually happen on an easy day?

Easy Days Have Two Main Purposes

For me, there are two big things we're trying to accomplish:

1. Continue building the aerobic system.
2. Recover enough to be ready for the next hard effort.

Those two things have to work together.

An easy run needs to provide enough training to continue developing the athlete, but it shouldn't be so difficult that it compromises the next workout, long run, or race.

There are other benefits as well.

Easy runs can be great bonding sessions for a team. Having teammates to run with makes training more enjoyable and can help athletes stay consistent.

But that doesn't mean everyone on the team should run together for the entire run.

Everyone Shouldn't Run the Same Pace

One of the challenges of coaching a large high school team is that athletes have very different ability levels and training backgrounds.

Everyone shouldn't be expected to run the same pace.

Athletes should run at a pace appropriate for their current fitness and where they are in their training.

I am not typically very strict about exact easy-run pace, although that can depend on how motivated and experienced the group is.

I have general guidelines for approximately where each athlete's pace should be on easy mileage days, but there is room for adjustment.

If an athlete is particularly sore or tired, the run may be a little slower.

If they're feeling especially good, it might be a little faster.

The important thing is making sure athletes aren't consistently turning easy days into hard days. Eventually, that is going to catch up with them.

How Many Miles Should an Easy Day Be?

The amount of mileage I give an athlete on an easy day depends on where that run falls within the training week and what we have coming up.

Once an athlete has built up their mileage, I generally don't assign less than 4 miles or more than 8 miles for an easy day.

For example:

Day before a meet: 4 miles plus strides.

Higher-mileage, non-race week: It might be 8 miles.

Between two particularly hard training sessions: It might be 4–6 miles for the group.

The easy day isn't planned in isolation. It needs to fit into the overall training week.

Easy Days Are Also Good Days for Strength Work

Easy days can also provide an opportunity to incorporate some of the other things we want distance runners to work on.

One example is a short pre-run strength session.

I like adding these on easy days because we usually have more time and aren't trying to prepare athletes for a hard workout immediately afterward.

I typically use about 10–15 minutes of bodyweight strengthening. Nothing too challenging. The running is still the most important part of the session.

Post-Run HIIT Can Be Useful

Another option I've used is a short post-run HIIT session.

This can provide an additional aerobic stimulus without adding more running mileage. When we use it, I typically have athletes begin within about a minute of finishing their run.

As with strength work, this shouldn't become the main event. It's something that can complement the running when appropriate.

Finish the Practice

I also like athletes to finish with some static stretching as part of our normal post-run routine.

Easy days are also great opportunities for athlete education.

If there is something I want to discuss with the team—nutrition, hydration, iron, sleep, recovery, or another training topic—this is often the best day to do it.

I'll usually have those conversations before the run. Easy-day practices tend to be shorter than workout or long-run days, so we have more time available.

Easy Doesn't Mean Unimportant

I think this is the biggest lesson young runners need to understand.

An easy day isn't a day off.

It isn't wasted training.

And it doesn't need to become another workout to be valuable.

Easy days allow athletes to continue accumulating aerobic training while preparing their bodies for the harder efforts ahead.

The goal isn't to make every run impressive.

The goal is to put together weeks, months, and eventually years of consistent training.

Easy days are a big part of making that possible.