Easy Interval Training: Faster Running Without the Strain

Intervals that don’t hurt

Most runners think of intervals as the session that leaves you bent over with your hands on your knees. Easy interval training turns that idea around. You still run short, faster repetitions with recovery jogs in between, but every rep is run relaxed and well within yourself. You finish the session feeling you could have done plenty more.

The idea is simple. Running faster than your easy pace, little and often, teaches your body to move efficiently at quicker speeds. Because no single session is hard, you can repeat it more often and keep piling up that faster running week after week. Over time, the pace you can hold comfortably creeps up without you forcing it.

This article covers what the method is, how a session is structured, why you’d use it, who is behind it, and the pros and cons, so you can decide whether it belongs in your training.

What is easy interval training?

Easy interval training, often called the Easy Interval Method, is a way of training built around short repetitions run at a controlled, comfortable effort, with short jogging recoveries. Three rules set it apart from standard interval training:

• The reps are relaxed, not hard. You run faster than your easy pace, but you never strain. Your breathing stays under control and your form stays smooth.
• The recoveries are jogged, not walked or stood. The recovery jog is steady enough to keep you moving, but slow enough that you’re ready for the next rep.
• You progress by doing more, not by pushing harder. Over the weeks you add reps or lengthen them. Pace improvements are meant to happen on their own as you get fitter, not because you chase them.

A useful way to put it: a standard interval session asks “how fast can I run these reps?”, while an easy interval session asks “how much faster running can I do while staying relaxed?”

How a session is structured

Effort

Effort is the part most runners get wrong, so start there. On a 0–10 scale of rating of perceived exertion (RPE), easy interval reps should feel around 5 or 6. You should be able to speak a short sentence at the end of each rep.

For most runners, that lands somewhere between half marathon and 10K race effort, and never faster than 10K pace in the early weeks. If you finish a rep breathing hard or your form starts to tighten, slow down for the next one.

The recovery jog should be a genuine easy jog. Your heart rate should drop back toward zone 2 before you start the next rep. If it doesn’t, either the reps are too fast or the recovery is too short.

Rep length and recovery

The classic format is short reps with recoveries roughly equal in length or slightly shorter:

Always run 10–15 minutes of easy running first and 5–10 minutes afterward.

Sample progression

Here’s how a runner new to the method might build up over eight weeks, running one easy interval session a week:

Notice that the pace column is missing. That’s deliberate. Run each session at the same relaxed effort, and let the watch tell you afterward whether the pace has moved. In most runners it does, gradually, over several weeks.

Experienced runners who use the method heavily often run easy intervals two or three times a week, in place of some of their steady runs. Build up to that slowly, and see the cons below before you do.

Where it fits in your week

Easy intervals feel easy, but the reps are faster than an easy run. Easy running on this site means heart rate zones 1 and 2 only, and by the end of a set of easy interval reps your heart rate will usually have reached zone 3. That makes an easy interval session a middle-bucket session (zones 3–4) in your weekly count, not an easy run.

In practice:

• Count it as one of your hard sessions for the week, even though it won’t leave you tired.
• Keep your other easy runs fully in zones 1 and 2. Easy intervals don’t give you permission to drift into zone 3 on easy days.
• Keep at least one easy day or rest day between it and any harder session such as threshold intervals.

Why easy runs should feel easy explains how to balance easy, middle and hard sessions across your week, and understanding heart rate zones shows how to set your zones.

Why would you do it?

More faster running, less fatigue

The main reason is volume at speed. A hard interval session might give you 15–20 minutes of fast running and then cost you two days of recovery. Easy intervals give you a similar amount of faster running for much less fatigue, so you can repeat it sooner and accumulate more of it over a training block.

There’s a physiological reason short reps feel easier than continuous running at the same pace. Early research on intermittent exercise found that with short work periods and short rests, people could do a large amount of work at a high power output while keeping blood lactate low, partly because the muscles’ own oxygen stores top themselves up during each rest.¹ Breaking faster running into short pieces keeps the strain low.

Harder isn’t always better

Interval research supports the idea that how much quality work you accumulate matters as much as how hard each rep is. In one well-known study of recreational athletes, a session of 4 × 8 minutes at a somewhat lower intensity improved performance more than 4 × 4 minutes run as hard as possible.² That study didn’t test easy intervals directly, but it fits the method’s core idea: more time at a controlled, sub-maximal effort can beat less time at a maximal one.

Better efficiency at faster speeds

Easy running alone doesn’t teach your body to run faster. Regular, relaxed running at quicker paces gives your stride, cadence and coordination practice at those speeds, without the form breakdown you get when you’re tired. Many runners find easy intervals a gentler bridge between strides and full interval sessions.

It’s mentally easier

Hard sessions are something many runners dread, skip or cut short. A session you know won’t hurt is far easier to start, and far easier to repeat every week. That consistency is where most of the benefit comes from.

Who is behind the method?

The Easy Interval Method is most closely linked to Klaas Lok, a Dutch running coach. He spent years coaching runners this way and described his approach in detail on a popular online running forum, starting around 2019. The discussion grew into one of the longest threads on the site, and that’s how the method spread internationally among recreational and masters runners.

His central message is that you don’t need to suffer to get faster. Run your intervals relaxed, run them often, keep adding volume, and the speed will follow.

It’s worth being clear about the evidence. There are no controlled studies of the Easy Interval Method itself. Its support comes from coaching experience and runners’ own reports, plus the more general research on intermittent exercise and training intensity covered above. That doesn’t make it wrong, but treat specific claims about it as coaching opinion, not established science.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Low fatigue. You recover quickly, so it rarely disrupts the rest of your week.
• Builds speed gradually. You get regular practice at faster paces without racing your workouts.
• Lower risk of overdoing it. With effort capped at relaxed, there’s less temptation to turn every session into a time trial.
• Easy to start and stick with. It works for runners who dislike hard sessions or have been put off intervals before.
• Flexible. Time-based reps work on roads, trails or a treadmill with no track or measured route.
• Good for runners with limited time. A 45-minute session gives you both aerobic running and faster work.

Cons

• “Easy” can be misleading. The effort feels comfortable, but the reps are faster than easy running and push your heart rate into zone 3. Count it as a middle session, not an easy run, or your week ends up with more middle-bucket running than you planned.
• It can creep into hard running. As the reps feel good, it’s tempting to run each one a little faster. Without discipline, easy intervals become ordinary interval sessions run too often.
• No direct research. Unlike threshold or high-intensity interval training, the method itself hasn’t been tested in trials.
• It doesn’t replace race-specific work. It won’t fully prepare you for the sustained effort of a 5K or 10K race, or the long, steady demands of a marathon. You still need sessions at race pace as the race gets closer.
• Too many fast miles too soon. Running easy intervals several times a week adds up to a lot of faster running. Increase it gradually, as you would your weekly mileage. See building weekly mileage safely.
• Not for complete beginners. If you’ve been running for only a few months, build your aerobic base with easy running first. The aerobic base guide shows how.

Should you try it?

Easy intervals suit you if you’ve been running consistently for a few months, you want to get faster, and either hard sessions wear you out or you tend to skip them. They also work well in the base and early build phases of a training block, before race-specific sessions take over.

Start with one session a week of 8 × 1 minute at a relaxed effort with 1-minute jog recoveries. Count it as one of your middle sessions for the week, keep your other easy runs in zones 1 and 2, and add reps before you add pace.

This article is general information, not medical or coaching advice.

References

1. Åstrand I, Åstrand PO, Christensen EH, Hedman R. Intermittent muscular work. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica, 1960. doi.org
2. Seiler S, Jøranson K, Olesen BV, Hetlelid KJ. Adaptations to aerobic interval training: interactive effects of exercise intensity and total work duration. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 2013. doi.org