I have developed a little bit of a running habit over the years. There is a particular type of run that has emerged as a clear favorite for me: The easy one.
This is not about a lack of effort. Rather, I would like to think that it is a sign of taking it seriously.
Some years ago, I read a helpful book on running training and practice. There is one particular line in the book that has stayed with me.
Run lots, not too much, mostly easy.
The Happy Runner, by David Roche and Megan Roche, MD
Simple and memorable, I have found this to be compelling guidance, for how to approach running practice generally.
Obviously, I am no running coach, nor an exercise physiologist. I do like running though. Spending the time gives occasion to get the experience and to think about the nature of it.
What does it mean for the run to be easy? This is a clearly subjective, so it is about your experience of that run. How much struggle or stress do you experience, how hard do you have to work. You can measure this by tracking physiological signals, such as heart rate, core body temperature, et cetera.
Additionally, I think your emotional experience of it is telling as well. The “what it is like” does matter and can be a useful proxy for whether it is easy to you or not.
This does not necessarily mean, the run should be especially slow. Nor does it mean, the run should be short.
An easy run should be easy.
This affects different periods of time surrounding the activity.
- With a busy life and many competing demands, sometimes just getting out of the door can be challenging. Consciously referring to it as “an easy run” takes away some of the perceived weight. I want to resist complicating something that is meant to be easy.
- While you are running, it should involve a little struggle, but not too much. Your heart rate should be low to low-moderate, only perhaps occasionally pushing higher. It should feel good. Put in effort, but do not strain. Should you find yourself in the fortunate position of having extra time on your hands, you might spontaneously decide to just keep running for an extra hour or so. If you happen to be running with someone, you are relaxed enough to comfortably carry on a conversation without slowing down or getting out of breath.
- Afterwards you might find yourself simply relaxed or even energized and just ready to carry on with your day. That is as it should be. With an easy run you would not drive yourself to exhaustion or over the brink of injury. Typically, I feel great after an easy run and recovery is straightforward.
Inevitably it is at times not what it is intended to be. This leads to a simple and very useful line of questioning.
When the run feels too hard, then the obvious question is: How can you make it easy? Or, what needs to be true, for this to be easy? There are things that can be helpful right then, such as to slow down or take a walking break, delayer (when it is too warm) or add a layer (when it is too cold), refuel, and so forth.
Sometimes the answer is really for next time, such as when you think about what you need to pay attention to that evening, if you want to have an easy run the next morning.
Of course, perhaps that run is going really well. So the question might be rather whether you could push harder now and still have an easy run. Maybe you can increase speed here or on that next hill, see what that does to your heart rate.
Each session is an opportunity to experiment and adjust, based on how things are going. Over time, an interesting thing happens: Easy changes.
Your sense of ease during running will naturally fluctuate from day to day due to many factors – the length and quality of your sleep the night before, your diet or how that one last meal is sitting, the weather, your general stress level, and so forth. The ups and downs of life.
But zooming out a bit and considering the month to month or quarter to quarter, you become stronger. Where in the beginning you could run easy for a couple miles, you might now find that you can make ten miles or more feel easy. You built a stronger base, mentally and physically.
That is difficult to notice from one run to the next, but becomes obvious, when you review after a few hundred miles. Small benefits compounded.
Your perspective changes, when you find yourself doing things with ease that were clearly outside your reach months earlier.
I suspect this translates beyond running to many areas, where you care about acquiring, maintaining or strengthening a habit or skill.
It is also important to acknowledge that progress happens over time. Whatever distance it is that you need to travel, it takes time. Solving a small challenge might take a little time, harder problems require more. The more ambitious the distance between problem and solution, the more time will be needed.
Engaging with an activity at a level that allows you to keep at it for the session and for many future ones offers you the opportunity to practice giving that activity attention for that time. That by itself has value, because that is something you have to be able to do a lot, if you want to travel far.
Easy runs are easy.
They do add up.
And change.
Simple.
🙂
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