2 October 2026

Easy running is running slow enough to hold a conversation while you go. You breathe steadily, your legs feel under control and you could keep going for a while. If you can chat in full sentences, you are running easy. That is the whole idea, and it is why the pace fits so naturally on a club run, where the talking is half the reason people show up.

What easy running actually means

You may have seen this pace called zone 2 on running apps and watches. The label matters less than the test: can you speak in full sentences out loud while you run? If yes, you are running easy. If you can only manage a few words at a time, you are working harder than easy.

Easy running feels slower than most people expect, especially newer runners. It is common to feel like you are barely moving. That feeling is not a sign you are doing it wrong. It is usually a sign the pace is right.

Three paces, one test

You do not need a heart rate monitor or a pace chart to tell your paces apart. What you can say out loud tells you almost everything.

A club run is mostly the first row. The chat does not just make the run nicer. It keeps the pace honest, because nobody can sprint and hold a conversation at the same time.

Why it suits a social club run

A social club run is not a race. It is a group of people moving at a pace where nobody is left behind and nobody is gasping. Easy running is what makes that possible.

It also removes the biggest worry most people bring to their first run: the fear of being too slow. When the group pace is a conversational one, mixed abilities fit together. Some people walk parts of it, and that is completely fine. Walkers are welcome at every Hills Run Club run.

If that worry is the thing holding you back, we have written about it directly in do you need to be fast to join a run club? The short answer is no, and easy running is the reason why.

Why it is having a moment

Two things have pushed easy running into the mainstream. The first is the run club boom: more people are running together, and running together naturally slows the pace down to a conversational one. The second is that coaching trend reviews, including running trend coverage from Sport Coaching, have put easy, conversational pace running front and centre alongside that boom, naming it as a mainstream approach rather than a niche technique.

The appeal is not complicated. Easy running is the pace you can hold for the longest, which makes it the pace where conversation happens. And when running is something you do with other people, the run that lets you talk is the run you come back to.

How to practise easy running

Easy running takes a little practise because it feels slower than it should. These habits help:

• Use the chat test. Talk out loud at points during the run. Full sentences means easy. Short phrases means steady. A word or two means hard.
• Start slower than feels useful. The first kilometre of an easy run should feel almost too slow. If you finish feeling like you could do the whole thing again comfortably, you nailed it.
• Let hills slow you down. Walking up a hill during an easy run is not cheating. It keeps the effort easy, which is the whole goal.
• Run with someone chatty. Nothing keeps a pace honest like a good conversation.
• Judge the run by how you feel afterwards. An easy run should leave you feeling better than it found you, not flattened.

If you like a number to check against afterwards, a simple running app will show you how the pace drifted around while the effort stayed steady. We rounded up the best running apps for beginners if you want one to try.

Easy running at Hills Run Club

Every run at Hills Run Club is run at whatever pace suits you, and easy is always a valid choice. The Thursday Morning Run happens every Thursday at Glenhaven Oval, 78 Glenhaven Road, Glenhaven: meet at 5:45am for a 6:00am start, with coffee and a sweet treat afterwards. You can run 2.5 km or 5 km, whichever suits on the day, and one lap is a full run in itself.

The Tuesday Night Run happens every second Tuesday at Castle Hill Showground, Castle Hill, under the lights. Meet at 6:45pm for a 7:00pm start. Enter via Doran Drive, the entrance closest to the metro, take the first left and follow the road to the lit oval. The group meets at the large shed, with plenty of parking around it. Distances are 3 km or 6 km, one or two laps, and one lap is a full run.

Running with the club is free. Members make a free HRC+ account and register for each run there, and every run is registered in HRC+. You can see what is coming up, including the HRC Night Run x Sydney Thunder on 6 October, at our runs page.