The Strength Running Podcast · Jason Fitzgerald

Pacing Strategy, Zone 2, Easy Runs, & More with Running Explained's Elisabeth Scott

·1 hr 9 min·4 clips

Elizabeth Scott says pace calculators can be a guide, not God, for marathon training.

Jason Fitzgerald opens the show with Elizabeth Scott, a certified running coach and the host of the Running Explained podcast. The conversation focuses on pacing strategy and the place of easy running in real training. A major thread is the way runners use pace calculators to predict performance. Elizabeth pushes back on the idea that those calculators tell the whole story. She explains that they often assume equivalent fitness across distances. She also points out that a 5K and a marathon do not ask the same thing of a runner. The difference is not just fitness. It is also about whether a runner can handle the training needed to reach longer-distance potential. That becomes a bigger issue when runners take a projected marathon pace and build every workout around it. Jason and Elizabeth walk through the trap of training everything at goal pace. They make the case that this can turn the whole cycle into too much work. The episode keeps returning to effort as a better guide when pace numbers start to look overly certain. That matters most for runners trying to estimate marathon ability from shorter races. The discussion does not dismiss calculators outright. It treats them as rough tools that still need judgment. Elizabeth keeps bringing the conversation back to training as it really happens, where the same number on paper can mean something different in practice. The result is a practical warning against overfitting a plan to a prediction. It also gives runners permission to think more flexibly about easy days. The exchange stays accessible rather than academic. Jason frames the topic like a coach trying to help another runner avoid a common mistake. Elizabeth answers in the same spirit, with enough technical depth to be useful but not so much that the point gets buried. The episode closes on a collegial note that fits the show’s habit of turning training questions into a clear coaching conversation.

As heard by us

A reminder that pace charts are tools, not the plan.

Elizabeth Scott and Jason Fitzgerald spend this conversation on a simple but stubborn running question: how much should pace matter before it starts doing the thinking for you?

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Why you'd press play

For when your pace calculator is bossing your marathon training.

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