One thing less – Running
I've written On Running before, detailing some of the lessons I've learned over my fifteen or so years of being a runner. As part of a bigger life project of reviewing what's important to me, I've made one change.
I stopped tracking my runs and stopped wearing a fitness device entirely.
I never took to organized runs; I've only taken part in a couple of races. The first was a marathon that started my running journey. A friend and I decided to sign up, without any previous running experience, as a form of motivation. After three months of training, I did the race and did objectively well, but found the whole thing rather dull. I loved all the training runs but didn't care one way or another about the race itself. The next was ten years later, a half marathon trail run in the middle of Canadian winter. I worked from home and had my first child a few months prior, and wanted something external to force me out of the house in the middle of subzero conditions. Apart from that, I ran against myself, against my last distance or time, but primarily because I loved running.
My watch and the accompanying software were my running coach. Many of them now have programs to help you run a 5k, 10k, or half marathon that give you a weekly plan. They can also help you run to a specific heart rate zone, as described in my previous article. The zone system is a good mental model, and can be mapped to precise heart rates, but can just as easily be approximated with the speaking test.
- Z1 Rest – Can hold a full conversation
- Z2 Recovery – Still hold a full conversation
- Z3 Tempo – Incomplete sentences
- Z4 Threshold – Odd word or two
- Z5 Anaerobic – Talking is hard
As for the training plan, most of them boil down to a few rules of thumb.
- Don't ramp up distance too fast — 10% per week is usually a good target.
- Vary up the types of runs you do; running the same 5 or 10km loop every day is unlikely to provide great improvement. Instead, aim to have a long run day, a fast run day, a hill day, and some nice slow recovery runs in between, depending on how many days a week you are able to run.
- Aim to run for at least 30 minutes. It's ok for this to be very slow to start. If you've never run or haven't run in a while, you'll want to put in a couple of weeks of Z2–Z3 runs before doing the other types. When you first start, Z2 may be only a fraction faster than walking, and that's ok.
Your recovery runs should be in Z2–Z3, your long run comfortably in Z3, your hill run in Z4, and your fast runs between Z4–Z5. If you are running alone and don't have anyone to converse with, here's something I thought up on my run this morning that you can say to yourself:
How much trail could a trail runner run if a trail runner could run trail?
He would run, he would, as much as he could, and run as much trail as a trail runner would, if a trail runner could run trail.
You don't need fancy shoes, you don't need an expensive watch, or anything much to run. You also don't need to pay to let some tech company harvest your data. Socrates' quote about an unexamined life didn't have surveillance capitalism in mind, rather that we should reflect on our lives to understand what is really important. After doing so I've decided I enjoy running far more with one thing less.
So that's how I run now.
Wear some comfortable clothes; personally, I always under-dress, as I know I'll heat up during the run, and it's better to be cold at the start than boiling midway. Some basic shoes without any fancy padding.
And I always choose a trail over a road, always.