Why I Run

By -
I can't speak for anyone else, but at a certain point the experience of running surpassed in value, and by a pretty wide margin, my desire to make sense out of it.

I don't know why I run. I don't know why I race. I don't know why I compete. I don't need to know. Because running means more to me than curiosity. It goes deeper than knowledge. I run. I compete. I move on down the line. I'm a runner.

For us runners, the question of “why” is pretty moot. Not because it may not be interesting, or important, from a certain point of view, but because we’ve left the question of the meaning of running behind. After all the questions have been asked, and all the answers given, in spite of the disagreement on essences, physiology, rationales, training strategies, trail running, road racing, i-pod wearing, mid-foot striking, turnover cadences, arm carriages, Jack Daniels, Arthur Lydiard, 20 miles a week or 100, 5k or the 50k, whether it's really the Miles of Trials or the Trial of Miles, after all the words have been spoken and keyboards have been pounded, meanings given and ideologies subverted... After all this, we runners bend down and tighten the laces, open the door, brace for the cold and are renewed: another godawful, glorious, and meaningless 8 miler.

Comments

  3. Visit running messaging boards on the internet and you will find people debating endlessly about everything BESIDES the actual, physical act of running - diet, mileage, shoes, pronation, watches. it dawned on me that that is turning experiential running and cathartic, almost spiritual endeavor into a scientific equation. I don't know about other runners, but one of the reasons I run is because I want to stay young. In my view, at least, to stay young, to be a child, is to live for experience, feeling, spirit -- in the case of running, effort, struggle, and the subsequent release and reward. I have a feeling that if people just RAN -- everything else aside -- that all of these other problems would alleviate...

    ReplyDelete

  4. damn, anonymous. You just hit my spot with that comment.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dull Training Post

By -
The last 9 months I've learned a lot about how to run high mileage--its benefits and its drawbacks. You could describe the last three years of my training life as one of trying to figure out how to run 100 plus miles per week.

It seems easy, right--you just go out the door and average 14 miles a day.

But the problem of course is that training only works if you are well-trained enough to absorb it. Although I've been running on and off for 20 (gulp!) years, these last 3 years were really my first attempt to push the envelope of the volume of miles that I've run. Even in college, I would never run much more than 65 miles per week for an extended period.

So, over the last three years, more often than not, I've run too much too quickly, and in the wrong ways. This is the primary reason that it took me so long to improve on my first real marathon attempt. I would have moments where the miles would really work well for me, and I would do things in training that I never could ha…
Read more

What Is an Easy Run?

By -
Image
What is an easy run?

Well, most basically, it's a run that's easy to accomplish. It's the backbone of training. It's the run that makes every other run possible.

For some runners, this is all that needs to be said. But for a lot of other runners, especially new runners or runners who are entering a new stage of fitness, the concept of "easy" can be somewhat elusive.

Heck, if you are really out of shape, there's no such thing as an easy run because nothing feels easy.

That said, I think there are a few things I can say about easy running that will help new runners and experienced runners alike, mostly because I think that most people -- believe it or not -- can do their easy running better.

The place to start when looking to understand what an easy run is and how it works in training is to think about what it's not.

An easy run is not a workout, which means that it's not a couple more things: it's not structured or planned or focused on a certa…
Read more

The Daily Run

By -
Image
Runners are generally creatures of habit. We have our standard loop, our daily schedule, and we stick to it more or less. Though they always sounds nice in theory, runners know that exploratory runs in new directions or in different cities are fundamentally disruptive to the training schedule. We prefer to know every inch of our path; it makes getting around it easier mentally. Our hardest workouts are done on the most uniform surface possible -- a 400m oval, which in its simplicity and uniform nature is a striking metaphor for the habitual nature of the runner's activity.

The deeper the runner gets into heavy training, the more essential habit becomes. When the body begins to resist the miles, when the legs feel heavy, or the brain fogs from fatigue, the easiest thing to do is what one did yesterday -- hit the standard loop. We have run it so many times that it almost literally runs itself. We are responsible for a minute or two of effort, but once out the door and on the loop, t…
Read more