After all, anyone can put on foot in front of the other…
It’s not just a function of fitness
The first hurdle I have to clear when explaining what I do for people, is explaining that my line of work is not ‘personal training’. While some of my programming will put you in a gym or have you doing ‘sets and reps’ on the track so much of the work I do is far outside the general understanding of ‘coach’ or ‘trainer’. If my only job was to build an athletes fitness to the highest level, we would all train completely differently.
At the root of it, running is a skill based exercise. You can take some of the most well rounded, fit, muscular men and women and put them on a track and watch them break down in a matter of 1,000m. Distance running requires something more, a mixture of grit and grace coupled with aerobic and muscular ability all pulled together into a very coordinated dance over 5,000m, 10,000m, or a marathon. Watching the best athletes in the world run requires an eye for this graceful dance.
Honing a Skill | External Performance Analysis
As a budding runner, I was enlightened to the need of honing my technical skills early on. Through both my running coach and the Good Form Running program I was able to learn how to run. I am empathic when people say ‘I can’t because it makes my knees hurt’ but I am of the mindset that anyone can hone the skill of running and learn how to run pain free. Yes, of course there are a multitude of people who can’t run because of x, y, or z but by majority most people could be good to average runners if they took the time to learn how to run properly.
Taking time to analyze your personal form and cleaning up discrepancies is so important. Performing an external performance analysis is key and can be done with the help of someone who not only has a keen eye (part 1) but also has knowledge on how to correct your form (part 2). When you start to break it down you understand so much more about knee drive, heel return, pull phase, mid-stance, and how you should be running. Running pain free is really just as simple as understanding how bodies work mechanically and teaching your body the proper patterns and habits.
Closed v. Open Skill
Running by majority takes place in a relatively closed environment and the skills required in road running rarely engage many muscles in the transverse plane. As we start to enter the realm of open skill we start to see that trail running and the more dynamic side of running in ball sports, the need to move in multiple planes is key to success. Yet few of us practice running as a skill as we begin to drive towards faster times, bigger and more daunting race requirements (climbing or technical terrain). You can see that to accomplish the task takes a basic amount of understanding and skill, to prove proficiency and mastery it requires relentless and tiresome practice. Like a potter on the wheel, every athlete starts as a piece of clay, how you choose to mold and manipulate yourself is how you define the end product. Some of us are happy as dog bowls, some of us want to be a beautiful vase. Both have value, both possess skill to make - the biggest factor is time. The vase took thousands of hours and practice to make, the dog bowl is a challenge for a beginner. The success isn’t in making the most beautiful object, the success is putting the clay on the wheel. Everything after is art.
Spectators Sport
So can we then call running a spectators sport? Why don’t we see the 10,000m races as part of the Sunday sports lineup? Ignore the absolutely inarticulate and incoherent rule change from IAAF to eliminate the 5,000m and 10,000m races and beyond from Diamond League and more publicized events - RIP to Distance Running. Running can and should be consumed as a spectators sport. Go and watch an olympic level 10,000m race on the track and watch the tactics, attacks, and strategy. Watch the carnage unfold as they bury themselves into an ever deepening pit of lactate, or sit back off the pack and make a late move as the biggest egos lay siege off the front. Then go and watch your local 10km from the sidelines. While you won’t see the same tactics and strategy - what you will see is humanity. The runners at the front possess the skills and abilities necessary to run quickly and will find themselves racing others who have committed to the same regiment of training and honing. Take your time to watch, watch the ones all the way at the back and you’ll see that running isn’t all about competition. It’s so often about what it gives back to you. Learning a new skill, honing that skill, and then taking it to a race on any given weekend will give you a sense of personal satisfaction and pride that both the first finisher and last finisher know all too well.
Running is a skill. A skill to be honed to your liking. With guidance, perseverance, and commitment anybody can be a runner. Everybody at some point in their lives should be a runner, just to experience what it feels like.