Effort & Ease in Running
Last week’s theme was “Effort & Ease” and it got me thinking about the ways in which I bring effort and ease into my running. As someone who has been running consistently for nearly ten years, I’ve had a lot of time to experiment with different approaches. In this blog I’ll be sharing my personal top five tools and techniques for more effortless and easeful running.
Note: These are in no particular order and this is what has worked for me. Maybe something will work for you and maybe it won’t. In either case, the invitation is to give one of these tools and techniques a try.
Self-Talk
This connects to this week’s theme (everything is connected!): How are you talking to yourself before, during, and after a run? Are you talking to yourself in a way that supports you or are you talking to yourself in a way that is making things harder for you?
In my opinion, running is 90% mental and 10% physical. What I mean by this is that the act of running is only a small part of what you are actually doing. How much energy is going toward thoughts that are helping you feel like your strongest runner self? How much is going toward thoughts that are focused on how hard the effort is, how much longer you have, etc…? It sometimes becomes a matter of decision fatigue on the run where the brain is working harder than the body because the brain is trying to convince the body to keep going (“one more set” and “one more mile” are great examples).
On your next run, pay attention to the thoughts you have about the run and the things you say to yourself. Then, reflect on how those thoughts are impacting your experience of the run. Finally, make a choice to keep the thoughts on a loop or change them up. The difference between “This is hard” and “Just try” is huge.
Body Scan
A body scan is a great way to see where you are holding tension in the body and can help bring awareness to mechanics and form. I do this at least once during each run. I usually start with my feet and work my way up to the top of my head. I like to think of this as a system check where I am checking in with each body part to determine how things are feeling and if everything is working. Oftentimes, my body scans reveal the areas where I’m being lazy: Push off the ground! Kick up the knees! Engage the core! Relax the shoulders! Smile!
Breath Awareness
Do you pay attention to how you breathe when you are running? In my experience, my breath becomes shallow when I’m tense and it deepens when I relax. By bringing awareness to the breath, you can get a peek into the effort of the run. Can you use your breath to bring more ease to effort? Can you get your inhales and exhales to match your cadence (“inhale-2-3-4; exhale 2-3-4”)? The breath is connected to how much oxygen your body takes in and it sends a message to your brain about your stress levels, which your brain then communicates to your body. If shallow breathing activates a stress response and deep breathing activates the relaxation response, what response do you want to try to activate on a run? So, on your next run, bring awareness to the breath, try to breathe a little deeper, and notice if there are any changes to your perceived effort.
Cadence Check
A big key to bringing effort and ease into running is figuring out how to stay present. Need to stop the brain from thinking? Count your steps! This focuses the mind on the present moment and is a helpful tool in deepening your intuition as a runner. Do you know how many steps you take in a mile? This is my go-to tool for when I am feeling particularly challenged in a workout (hi, speedwork!). if I focus on each step, then I am no longer focused on the next rep, set, or mile.
Smile
Oh, the power of a smile. We’ll thank Eluid Kipchoge for this one. I looked up videos of him racing and, sure enough, there was a smile on his face. The gist of it is this: smiling relaxes the face and sends a message to the brain to relax, which then sends a message to the body to relax. The smile may not start off as a true smile, but plastered on your face long enough, you’ll start to feel the joyful effects of the smile. And, if it’s not joyful, it will be silly effects as you realize the absurdity of smiling for no reason while running. This is the Olympian’s fake-it-until-you-make-it approach to bringing greater ease to the effort and, if it works for him, it's got to work for us. I smile when I’m in dire straights and what it does for me is this: I feel goofy as heck at first, but then I remember to not take running so seriously; if I am silly enough to try to smile, then I am reminded that running is meant to be fun.
Let me be clear: running is hard and it is hard work. These tools may not take away the hardness from running, but it may help with the perceived effort behind that hardness. The goal is to stay present and the tool is self-awareness.
I hope this blog helped. If you have any tools, techniques, or tricks for bring more ease into your running, I’d love to hear about them.
