Running philosophy: easy, light, smooth and fast

I have been reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall and am greatly enjoying the book. I am about half-way through so don’t send me any big reveal comments. I just finished the heavy chapters about the Leadville 100 and the Tarhumara influences and of course the author has finally met Caballo Blanco. The Caballo’s philosophy he imparts on the author when they went for a first run together really stuck with me: focus on making it easy, once it’s easy focus on being light, then smooth then you will be fast. He notes, that if easy is all you get–then that is pretty good.

This stuck with me the way some of the early lessons in Chi Running have as well–running should be a practice not an end within itself that pulls you into the immediate of now. Now, I can’t deny my mind wanders when I run–I think its when my thoughts are most lucid and creative–the thoughts spawn when I begin to realize how all things are connected and how I am flowing through it during a long run, a small ripple on the tide of the universe.

The glue in all the disparate parts is doing a thing to simply do the thing–be it running, cycling, swimming, working, writing–do it don’t think about where you want to be or how it is a stepping stone or else you miss what you were doing. It’s late and I am rambling, bottom line–enjoy it and don’t worry about where you think you need to be with your endeavor just focus on the current on the moment.