I agree that zone 2 has psychological benefits

The question revolves around volume. When I was running 3.55 for 1500ms and 1.55 for 800ms as a 17 year old, I didn't need to have a huge volume of training, despite longer distances always being my natural strength, so I understand where Scullion was coming from, because he's talking about development as a young athlete. My long run was a 10 mile run at 5-5.30 mile pace. I did quite a lot of hill and speed work, and we also incorporated bounding. For a younger athlete, these things are more important, as you're building the physiological patterns and networks that will lead to great running efficiency. But if I'd ever transitioned into a professional athlete, I would have increased my volume by at least two times the amount, while trying to retain as much quality work as my body could handle. The only way that would have been possible would have been to run a lot of easy miles, hence zone 2. But a lot of runners don't need to do all that low intensity mileage, because they don't do the elite-level quality workouts that require more recovery and gentle aerobic work during the week. Think of Jacob Ingebritsen having two threshold sessions in one day. His body is very tired after that and needs to recover, granted he recovers faster than you and I, so he goes out and runs really easy for a day or two afterwards. That's the place of zone two in simple terms. When you're working at an elite level, you won't drift from zone 1 and 2 into higher zones, because you will be feeling every bit of effort across the week so intensely, and you'll be glad for an easy run, believe me. For an older athlete who is tryingto get into the sport, I would encourage zone two and zone three running, which is basically easy to moderate, to build the structures required for running without injuring yourself, and then short (10 seconds max) hill sprints (long jog recoveries) and 200m reps at a controlled, fast cruise, rather than a sprint, to build the CNS and speed endurance. And a gentle increase of volume as your structures adapt. Young athletes get away with a lot more, as they're basically made of rubber.

Seriously, Oli Patricik is the Oracle. Everything he says is explained so articulately well, while at the same time being simple and clear enough for dumb people like me to understand. The knowledge!

We love a cold open!

If you cant run in Zone 2 you either have issues with pace control or you're not adequately aerobically adapted. Instead of gauging the success of a session by how hard you've worked gauge it by how honest you've been in embracing the process.

I’m so glad to hear that Stephen praised the Saucony Endorphin Elite 2, as they are my go to marathon shoe, maybe I’ll stop buying all the other branded super shoes looking to better them. I don’t have the same sizing issues as you though, Brooks, Adidas, Nike, ASICS and Saucony are all at 9.5UK

Great episode boys

As a new runner I find zone really rewarding. as I've got fitter, going up zones has definitely felt easier because I've trained loads in the lower zones.

Great show! For the shoe sizing discrepancy, go off of the EUR size, as they are quite accurate.

Surely it’s all about load and how much load an individual can handle.
An elite runner saying “I ran hard every day and I was fine” is anecdotal evidence, it doesn’t mean that everyone can do the same.
It’s how Roger Banister trained to break the 4-minute mile. He did it. But nowadays there are children doing it with structured training.

3:43 I've heard him talk of lactic acid rising in another episode. But it's lactate, isn't it??

You can build the mitochondrial benefits of zone 2 by staying in zone 2, i.e. walk-run in an untrained athlete. But if you goal is to run faster,  you don't get the other benefits and efficiency gains. Scully's point is you need to run faster to get those - increased neuromuscular efficiency, stronger muscles, stronger tendons, ligaments, bones etc.

Great Episode lads, Definitely going to give this Norwegian Protocol this week, only 16 minutes of hell 😂😅

Oh god.. not another zone 2 video!?

Thought that was Chris Hoy for a sec.

At last.... I thought I was physically inept as I can never run in zone 2... simply walking out the door and ime in Z2... cycling however even when ime above average effort ime still only 130 - 140bpm .
If i could run in Z2 would be incredibly boring

Running in zone 1-2 is a skill, running in heart rate zone 120 is a skill that you need to actually practice to be able to do. (It’s just jogging 😂)

japanese shoe measurements are in cm use that

"We would feel the same exertion from running a flat out 5K as Mo Farah".

Farah takes 13 minutes to run 5K flat out - I would argue, that you guys would feel the same exertion if you ran a flat out 13 minute race, not a 5k race (18 minutes) but your distance would just be shorter.

And then think about someone just starting out running, running the 5K at a flat out in 1 hour, sure they prolly hurt a lot, for being beginners and not being used to such stress, but at that time they are using much more of their aerobic system and have much less lactate accumulation and muscle trauma from the run compared to someone tapping into their anaerobic system for 13 minutes straight.

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