The Kenyan Shuffle: Why the Best Runners in the World Still Run Easy

Today's #TheWerk post is brought to you by Coach Jason Lentzke (@jlentzke). A former pro triathlete from Milwaukee, WI, Jason now lives in Scottsdale, AZ where he now runs Toro Performance, a thriving endurance sports coaching practice. Understanding that athletes' time is their most precious commodity, Jason centers his coaching practice on helping clients integrate training into their already busy lives.

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I know I harp on this point a lot, but this is a perfect example of something endurance athletes consistently misunderstand: the purpose of easy running.

Recently, John Korir ran 2:01 and won the Boston Marathon. Shortly afterward, a training run surfaced showing him jogging along at roughly 9:14 per mile.

Let that sink in.

This is an athlete capable of running marathon pace in the 4:40s per mile, yet he is perfectly comfortable spending portions of his training running nearly twice that pace.

Why?

Because he understands something many athletes do not: easy running is not wasted running.

In fact, easy running is often what makes the hard running possible.

I call it the Kenyan shuffle.

It’s relaxed. Unhurried. Almost deceptively slow. To the untrained eye, it can look inefficient or even unnecessary. But beneath the surface, it serves several critical purposes.

First, it allows the aerobic system to continue developing without accumulating unnecessary fatigue. Second, it promotes durability and consistency by reducing orthopedic and metabolic stress. Third, it creates the space needed to execute quality sessions at the highest level.

Under the guidance of legendary NAU coach Ron Mann, Korir reportedly runs around 150 miles per week. That kind of volume is only sustainable because so much of it is done easily. The easy days are not a break from training—they are part of the training.

Too often, athletes drift into what I call the "gray zone." Their easy runs become just hard enough to create fatigue, but not hard enough to stimulate meaningful adaptation. The result is predictable: recovery suffers, quality workouts decline, and progress stalls.

The purpose of an easy run is not to prove fitness. It is to absorb training, facilitate recovery, and prepare the body for the next opportunity to perform.

Leave your ego at home. Keep the effort low. Let the stride relax. If the pace feels almost too easy, you're probably doing it right.

The best runners in the world aren't running easy because they have to.

They're running easy because they understand that consistency compounds.

Train easy so you can train hard.

Train smart so you can race fast.

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As a coach, Jason works with triathletes, cyclists, runners, and endurance athletes of all skill levels. Jason has guided beginners to their first IRONMAN finish line, professional triathletes to the podium, cyclists (criterium, road, MTB and gravel), marathoners, ultra runners and every skill level in between. As a life-long student of endurance sport, Jason shares a passion and commitment to excellence... be that with his athletes or in his life as a husband (Coralie) and father (Juliette and Olivier). For more information on Toro Performance, please contact Jason at jlentzke@me.com or give him a follow on Instagram at @jlentzke.