Slow Running
Since I wrote my book "Slow Running", my running has got slower.
Not surprising really, as I am now 60, and they say that no matter hard you train your running fitness is bound to decline from age 50 onwards. Since I no longer actually 'train', my personal experience doesn't serve as a robust test of this, but I use it as an excuse.
I am still running reasonably regularly. Two things keep me running: a wife who is fit and enjoys running, and 'leading' a Run England run group. The latter I started almost three years ago, and with a few exceptions we have met each Saturday since. The run group came about through my interest in running for fun rather than for fitness, and my training with Run England as a Run Leader focused my mind on the particular concept of Slow Running. I stole it, actually, from the trainer - but she only mentioned it in passing and I already had the idea. What she said was, that when she met a group of new runners she would set them the task of running a short distance - across a park, round a field, wherever - and she could almost guarantee that most would arrive back gasping, exhausted, bent over clutching their knees in a recovery position. That passing remark crystallized for me the central fault in many runners - the 'too far, too fast, too soon'. I realized that was the one special idea I had, in running - not to take it too seriously, to do it for fun, not to run too fast. It tied in with Run England's then focus on reducing the mass slaughter that is leisure running - to cut the ferociously high injury rate, the incredible percentage of new runners who drop out due to injury. So I made it a central theme when I set up the St Johns Run for Fun run group: whose one rule is that we run slow. Actually there are many sub-rules that serve that one super-rule. We talk as we run, because talking makes you breath, regulates your pace, and keeps your mind on something other than the running itself. We do stupid embarrassing running exercises, because one of the things that stops people running is embarrassment - at their clothing, the way people might see the way they run, at running too slow - so it is a good idea to get your embarrassment in early and get over it. We do exercises to help us to run slow, to not go too fast, to read what our bodies tell us, to adapt to how we feel. But most of all we go for coffee after a run.
It is interesting because none of us knew each other before I started the run group. Well, my wife Sarah and I knew each other but that sort of doesn't count. But now we do, and we all enjoy the Saturday morning coffee (sorry, the Saturday morning run..) and so we keep meeting for it. I sometimes think I learn more about my Run Group members through those coffees than I know about closer friends or family. Sometimes the coffee goes on for longer than the run, but that seems to be OK. And that keeps me running, as well as the run group.
And that is a different aspect to running - its social aspect. It doesn't suit every runner: The Nike adverts: "Just you, and the road"; the fashion for 'running in a bubble' (running with earphones); the single-minded focus that drives many runners to train rather than run - all admirable, all valuable in their way, but all missing one important point that is at least worth making. If you want to run for ever, it is good to make your running fun. And one way to make anything fun is to make it sociable.
This is not a new insight - any number of run leaders and running web sites will tell you that a Run Buddy can motivate you to go running - but it remains a good one. So Slow Running is good, but so is sociable running. Try it if you can.
Not surprising really, as I am now 60, and they say that no matter hard you train your running fitness is bound to decline from age 50 onwards. Since I no longer actually 'train', my personal experience doesn't serve as a robust test of this, but I use it as an excuse.
I am still running reasonably regularly. Two things keep me running: a wife who is fit and enjoys running, and 'leading' a Run England run group. The latter I started almost three years ago, and with a few exceptions we have met each Saturday since. The run group came about through my interest in running for fun rather than for fitness, and my training with Run England as a Run Leader focused my mind on the particular concept of Slow Running. I stole it, actually, from the trainer - but she only mentioned it in passing and I already had the idea. What she said was, that when she met a group of new runners she would set them the task of running a short distance - across a park, round a field, wherever - and she could almost guarantee that most would arrive back gasping, exhausted, bent over clutching their knees in a recovery position. That passing remark crystallized for me the central fault in many runners - the 'too far, too fast, too soon'. I realized that was the one special idea I had, in running - not to take it too seriously, to do it for fun, not to run too fast. It tied in with Run England's then focus on reducing the mass slaughter that is leisure running - to cut the ferociously high injury rate, the incredible percentage of new runners who drop out due to injury. So I made it a central theme when I set up the St Johns Run for Fun run group: whose one rule is that we run slow. Actually there are many sub-rules that serve that one super-rule. We talk as we run, because talking makes you breath, regulates your pace, and keeps your mind on something other than the running itself. We do stupid embarrassing running exercises, because one of the things that stops people running is embarrassment - at their clothing, the way people might see the way they run, at running too slow - so it is a good idea to get your embarrassment in early and get over it. We do exercises to help us to run slow, to not go too fast, to read what our bodies tell us, to adapt to how we feel. But most of all we go for coffee after a run.
It is interesting because none of us knew each other before I started the run group. Well, my wife Sarah and I knew each other but that sort of doesn't count. But now we do, and we all enjoy the Saturday morning coffee (sorry, the Saturday morning run..) and so we keep meeting for it. I sometimes think I learn more about my Run Group members through those coffees than I know about closer friends or family. Sometimes the coffee goes on for longer than the run, but that seems to be OK. And that keeps me running, as well as the run group.
And that is a different aspect to running - its social aspect. It doesn't suit every runner: The Nike adverts: "Just you, and the road"; the fashion for 'running in a bubble' (running with earphones); the single-minded focus that drives many runners to train rather than run - all admirable, all valuable in their way, but all missing one important point that is at least worth making. If you want to run for ever, it is good to make your running fun. And one way to make anything fun is to make it sociable.
This is not a new insight - any number of run leaders and running web sites will tell you that a Run Buddy can motivate you to go running - but it remains a good one. So Slow Running is good, but so is sociable running. Try it if you can.
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