Day 17, 348 To Go

January 17, 2013

Easy.  Light.  Smooth.  Fast.

Those of you who have read Born to Run will remember the above mantra.  I have attempted to make it my own, but only with limited success.  Let me explain a bit...

It is a simple phrase, but accomplishing this is not simple at all.  The idea is that when you run, you need to think of these four things and if you can put them into action, your running form will be perfect and you can run forever!  Ok, not forever, but you can run distances that you never thought you could run.  The key is to work on the first word first: Easy.

What this means, is that your running form should be feel free and easy.  Your body should not be tight.  You should feel loose.  Your jaw should not be clamped shut and your shoulders should be relaxed (if you find yourself hunching up your shoulders, just smile and it will loosen up your shoulders right away).  You need to keep your body, and your mind, free and easy. 

This is the first step, and Easy is not easy!  But, you can't move onto Light until you have mastered Easy. 

Let's talk Light.  Light refers to your footsteps.  If you have ever heard a professional runner, let's say a Kenyan, run by you, you will just hear a light "tap...tap...tap...tap" as they go by.  Sure, it will be a fast "taptaptaptap" but it will certainly not be "CLOMP...CLOMP...CLOMP...CLOMP!!"  When you run correctly, your feet should come down and land right under your body and they should touch the ground for only a fraction of a second.  They should "paw" the ground (think like animal...not an elephant though...more like a cat).

This step is very important in running short or long. If you are clomping around and you can hear your footsteps loudly, think about how heavy you are landing on your feet.  As it is, you are putting a lot of impact on your joints, so if you are landing very heavy, you are putting even more impact on your joints.  And normally, if you land heavy, you are either landing on your heel (never a good idea) or you just do not have any control, and control is important.  That is why the goal is to land your foot directly under your body because that means that as soon as you land, you are already moving forward and taking the weight off of your joints.  It probably also means you are landing on your mid or forefoot which gives you all the extra flex that is in your foot.  It is like a shock absorber.

So, if you master this, you will be Easy & Light.  You are halfway to perfect running form. Next, is Smooth.

Smooth means that your motions are graceful and fluid, like water.  No herky, jerky movements, but instead, the grace of a ballerina.  Once you have mastered the Easy and Light, you will already have gained some control over your body.  Smooth is the next step that allows you to gracefully plant your foot under your body and to "paw" your leg behind you with a strong kick.  If you are smooth, your head will not bounce up and down like you are on a horse, but instead, your head should rise and fall smoothly like you are floating on water.

Once you have mastered Easy & Light & Smooth you have Fast!

If you can control your body and be Easy, Light and Smooth, and you are able to maintain these over a period of time, you will be FAST!  Fast is just a byproduct of perfect form (along with genetics, practice, time and dedication!)

So, where am I, you ask?  <sigh>

I have mastered Easy for most of my runs.  If the run is a long one, Easy gets hard.  So, I suppose I haven't MASTERED it yet, but I feel comfortable with Easy.  Running every day has given me an opportunity to work on Light as well, and I can run Easy & Light for a period of time, but not all of the time.

Today, I ran Easy, Light & Smooth for about 2 minutes.  So for a couple of minutes, I felt like I was floating through the air!

I know I am a loooong way from mastering this and that is ok.  At times, I can be fast even without Easy, Light and Smooth, but at what cost?  Probably an injury.  I will not give up though, so I WILL master it eventually.  You should give it a shot too!

Here are my numbers for today:

Time: 15:00

Distance: 1.68 miles

Pace: 8:55/m

Max Pace: 7:03/m

Calories: 217

Avg HR: 128

Max HR: 151

The high max HR was gained while I was listening to some Motley Crue.  I think the song was called "She's Sticky" or something like that.  And yeah, it is about what you think it is!

Run for life!!