According to Strava data, to get faster over a marathon you should slow down and run less – Runner’s World (UK)

According to new data from Strava, who looked into the patterns of its 44 million users worldwide, to train for a marathon you should slow down and spend time not running.

Strava found that for marathon runners who ran the same race two years in a row, people who got faster did fewer training runs at their marathon pace when training for the second year’s race. Runners who improved were also more likely to have increased their time doing non-running activities compared to the previous year.

For example, Strava found that marathoners with finishing times under four hours only did 25% of their training runs at marathon pace, whereas in previous years, these runners had done 43% of their runs at marathon pace.

What about runners who aren’t doing marathons?

The data also found that when it comes to staying motivated, high-frequency, low intensity exercise helped people form lasting exercise habits and stay active, especially when people varied their activity types.

Data from Strava shows that regular activity habits are associated with staying active over longer periods of time. In fact, athletes who pursue two different sport types per week have twice as many active weeks over the course of a year as single-sport athletes.

They also found that those who publicly set goals or join a challenge are more likely to keep moving. Those who run in groups are also likely to run for 10% longer and go 21% faster than they would on their own.

To help encourage their users, Strava have developed their new multi-sport challenge, named The Escape Plan. To complete the four-week challenge you need to be active at least five days a week, for at least 15 minutes each time.

Strava’s CEO James Quarles said, “Staying motivated is the largest and oldest barrier in health and wellness. People are busier than ever and screen time is eclipsing moving time. The Escape Plan Challenge is designed to inspire people to put their phones down, declare a simple goal and create better habits.”