Easy, Light, Smooth, and Fast

This morning didn’t start off well. My knee didn’t feel 100% as I walked home from McCombs’ business library. I contemplated not running today. My feeling was maybe rest would do me good. Then, after about thirty minutes of icing my bum knee, I decided that I should give running a shot. I would run a mile and see how it felt.

I was ready to bail after about 200-yds. My knee hadn’t made any progress from the day before.

Then I remembered something from Born to Run:

Easy, Light, Smooth, and Fast.

In the book, Micah True, a gringo who lives amongst the Tarahumara, explains how to run in the following excerpt:

“Think Easy, Light, Smooth, and Fast. You start with easy, because if that’s all you get, that’s not so bad. Then work on light. Make it effortless, like you don’t give a shit how high that hill is or how far you’ve got to go. When you’ve practice that for so long that you forget you’re practicing, you work on making it smoooooth. You won’t have to worry about the last one – you get those three, and you’ll be fast.”

Until today, I hadn’t taken Micah’s advice about taking it easy. I’ve honestly been pounding the pavement trying to get ready for this marathon. Well, at the 200-yard mark today, I decided to take Micah’s advice. I told myself to throttle down and find a rhythm that doesn’t hurt your knee. After about 400 yards, I found that rhythm. It was a much less violent running style than I had been employing. If I tried to push the pace, my knee would give me a quick jolt as a reminder to take it easy.

The run was the most enjoyable I have had since this quest has started. All the tension that is usually is in my body vanquished. By running at the pace my knee dictated, nearly all the pain in my knee dissipated. I ended up running 6.71 miles. I felt like I could have run double that distance.

The incredible part of this experience came at the end of my run. Naturally, I figured my time would be slower because I had made a conscious effort to take it easy. I hypothesized that I probably was running at an 8.15-8.30 min/mile pace. Then I checked my Nike+iPod workout summary…

6.71 miles – 51 min – 7.38 min/mile pace

That is within seconds of my fastest pace for a run over 5-miles.

Maybe there is some credence to Micah’s advice. If you focus on easy, light, smooth then fast will come. Count me as a believer.

“He who loves his body more than dominion over the empire can be given custody of the empire.” – Lao Tzu