Running efficiency comes down to how much energy your body burns to maintain a given pace. Two runners with identical fitness levels can perform very differently if one wastes less energy per stride. The good news: running economy is highly trainable, and improvements of even a few percent translate directly into faster times or easier long runs.
What Running Economy Actually Measures
Running economy describes how much oxygen your body needs to hold a specific speed. It’s measured as milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per kilometer. A runner with better economy uses less oxygen at the same pace, meaning they have more in reserve before hitting their limit. Think of it like fuel efficiency in a car: two engines can have the same horsepower, but the more efficient one goes farther on a tank of gas.
This matters because VO2 max (your aerobic ceiling) gets most of the attention, but economy determines how much of that ceiling you actually use at race pace. Elite runners often separate themselves not by having the highest VO2 max but by burning the least fuel at speed.
Reduce Wasted Vertical Movement
Every time you bounce upward instead of moving forward, you’re spending energy that doesn’t make you faster. This vertical bounce, called vertical oscillation, ideally falls between 5 and 10 centimeters. Going above that range means you’re essentially jumping with each stride, loading your joints harder and increasing your oxygen demand. Interestingly, going below 5 cm is also problematic, because it eliminates the brief flight phase that makes running mechanically distinct from shuffling.
Many GPS watches now measure vertical oscillation in real time. If yours shows numbers consistently above 10 cm, focus on running “over the ground” rather than “off the ground.” A useful cue is to imagine a low ceiling just above your head. You can also practice on a slight downhill, which naturally encourages forward momentum over vertical lift.
Fix Your Foot Strike Position
Where your foot lands relative to your body matters more than whether you heel-strike or forefoot-strike. When your foot contacts the ground well ahead of your center of mass, it acts like a brake. This is overstriding, and it increases ground reaction impact forces significantly while forcing your muscles to work harder to re-accelerate your body with every step.
Research shows a clear inverse relationship between step rate and the horizontal distance between your center of mass and your heel at initial contact. In plain terms, taking slightly shorter, quicker steps naturally pulls your foot strike closer to underneath your hips. You don’t need to consciously change how your foot lands. Instead, focus on a gentle increase in cadence (steps per minute) of about 5 to 10 percent above your current rate. Most recreational runners land somewhere around 160 to 170 steps per minute, and nudging that upward tends to reduce overstriding without forcing an unnatural gait.
Build Strength Without Bulk
Strength training is one of the most reliable ways to improve running economy, yet many runners skip it entirely. The goal isn’t to build visible muscle. It’s to increase the force your muscles and tendons can handle per stride, so each push-off requires a smaller percentage of your maximum effort.
A practical approach uses two tiers. Start with lighter loads in the range of 12 to 20 repetitions to build stabilization endurance, particularly in the hips, glutes, and ankles. These are the joints that wobble and leak energy during fatigue. After four to six weeks, shift toward heavier loads for 8 to 12 repetitions across two to four sets. Squats, deadlifts, step-ups, and single-leg calf raises are staples. The heavier phase is where economy gains become measurable, because your tendons adapt to store and return more elastic energy.
Use Your Tendons Like Springs
Your legs work like pogo sticks when you run. During the loading phase of each stride, your tendons (especially the Achilles) stretch and store elastic energy, then snap back during push-off to help propel you forward. Runners with stiffer, more responsive tendons get more free energy from this spring mechanism and spend less metabolic energy to maintain speed.
Plyometric training, which includes exercises like bounding, box jumps, and drop jumps, specifically trains this elastic recoil. A meta-analysis published in 2024 confirmed that plyometric training produces measurable improvements in running economy, particularly at moderate speeds of 12 km/h (about 8:00 per mile) and below. Two sessions per week of 15 to 20 minutes, added after an easy run, is enough for most recreational and intermediate runners. Start conservatively: 3 sets of 6 to 8 box jumps or single-leg hops is plenty in the first few weeks.
Run More (Consistently)
There’s no shortcut around this one. Accumulated mileage over months and years is one of the strongest predictors of running economy. Each mile teaches your neuromuscular system to recruit fewer muscle fibers for the same pace, fine-tune coordination between opposing muscle groups, and optimize the timing of tendon loading. These adaptations happen slowly and compound over time, which is why veteran runners often have superior economy compared to younger, fitter athletes.
This doesn’t mean you need to double your mileage overnight. A gradual increase of about 10 percent per week, with periodic recovery weeks, lets your body adapt without injury. The key is consistency across months, not heroic weeks followed by burnout. Running five days a week at moderate volume typically develops economy faster than three high-intensity days with long gaps between them.
Choose the Right Shoes
Modern carbon-plated racing shoes provide a genuine, measurable boost to running economy. A 2025 meta-analysis pooling data across multiple studies found that these shoes lower metabolic demand by approximately 2.75% on average, with individual responses ranging from about 1% to 4.5%. That translates to roughly 1 to 2 minutes over a marathon for a mid-pack runner.
The benefit comes not just from the carbon plate but from the combination of lightweight, energy-returning foam and the plate’s lever effect on the ankle joint. These shoes work best at faster paces and on flat surfaces. For daily training, a lighter, well-fitted shoe with decent cushioning is more important than plate technology. Save the carbon-plated models for races and hard workouts, both for performance and because they wear out quickly.
Breathe Through Your Nose at Easy Paces
Breathing strategy has a smaller but real effect on efficiency. Recent research comparing nasal and oral breathing during exercise found that at submaximal effort (easy to moderate running), nasal breathing meets the body’s metabolic demands just as well as mouth breathing. Oxygen consumption and heart rate were nearly identical between the two methods at moderate intensity. Mouth-only breathing, on the other hand, led to excessive ventilation at lower intensities, essentially over-breathing relative to what the body actually needed.
The practical takeaway: on easy runs, try breathing through your nose or using a nose-in, mouth-out pattern. This naturally regulates your breathing rate and can prevent the shallow, rapid chest breathing that wastes energy. At harder efforts and near your peak, nasal breathing alone becomes a bottleneck, so let your mouth do its job during intervals and races.
Putting It Together
Running economy responds to multiple inputs at once, which means small improvements in several areas can add up to a noticeable change in performance. A reasonable 12-week plan might look like this: gradually add weekly mileage, incorporate two strength sessions per week (progressing from lighter to heavier loads over the first month), add one short plyometric session, and spend a few runs per week practicing a slightly higher cadence. Monitor vertical oscillation if you have a watch that tracks it, and consider carbon-plated shoes for your next goal race.
Most runners notice the subjective shift before they see it in race times. The same pace feels easier. You finish long runs with more left in the tank. Your breathing stays controlled deeper into a workout. These are all signs that your body is burning less fuel per mile, which is exactly what better running economy looks like from the inside.