Running Fast and Free

As I make may way through two books on running I'm becoming aware of a tension that would seem to be approaching the properly dialectical.  I have a self-imposed rule that I can read up to three books at once, as long as there is no more than one memoir, one book of technique, and one work of fiction being read (by me) simultaneously.  This allows me to relax and enjoy thinking about running in a laid-back, worry-free, way with the memoir; and then to rapidly switch to something more practical when I want to push myself a little bit, and actually get outside to follow up on the training plans.  Fiction is always allowed, and it doesn't have to be a work of fiction about running per se.  But sometimes it is (see my last post about Shriver's book The Motion of the Body Through Space).



With that said, I'm doing a double-read right now, moving between Askwith's Running Free and Goater and Melvin's The Art of Running Faster.  (I'm also currently sidelined with shin splints, and am therefore switching, as I do when injured, to a reading 'mode' where I read more as I run less).  I've established a kind of back and forth rhythm of reading these two books, dipping into Askwith for a chapter on slow running, for example, and then reading about how to run faster with the Goater & Melvin.  There's clearly a tension here, but what's interesting is that Askwith's chapter on slow running ends with a meditation on running fast, and how we can tend to do so naturally when we aren't really thinking about it, and are focused on something else.



Of course, Askwith is 'running naked', because he runs without a watch, and therefore his sense of speed is very much relative.  But senses of speed always are. And this point comes out very strongly in the Goater/Melvin book.  They note how natural techniques for running faster need to be if they are to become successful drivers of more efficient, smart, and supple (fast) running. One cannot overthink one's stride, the footstrike, or the arms, lest one begins to overstride, or unnaturally alter one's gait; these things will result in injury.  Both books are at pains to demonstrate how their approaches and techniques will lead to less injury, properly applied.

As I make my way through these books, and as I continue with a very rigorous strengthening/rehab routine to re-balance my legs and ease dull throbbing in my shins, I will continue to think through how I want to gradually get back up to speed. I know that it will involve a variety of surfaces, paces, and workouts, including both speed intervals (i.e. fartlek) and hills, and that the majority of the miles will be easy/moderate.  The lesson I've learned is that it's a thrill to run fast (and that fast is relative), but not when one runs smack into a wall of injury.  That is the antithesis of the free runner. To run free is to run free of injury, and it is, with Askwith, to run the most number of miles possible with a sense of joy and well-being, summer or winter, and whatever the weather.