Welcome to the Effortless Running Group

The following is an outline of the ideas behind the Balingup Effortless Running Group.

Let's play a quick word association game.

What's the first thought - image - set of associations - feelings - that come into your mind when I mention "going for a run"?

In my experience there are three kinds of reactions.

The majority of people think that running = pain. The image that comes is of a hot, sweaty, red-faced person gasping for air. The feelings are not a good clean healthy tiredness, but of exhaustion and pain:  aching shoulders, lower back, knees and feet, with perhaps some chafing or blisters as an extra wound (with salt already rubbed in).

Running is not fun, but he or she does it occasionally, in bursts, because they feel guilty about not being fit enough or healthy enough and decide to do something about it.

A smaller, but still reasonable, number of people think that running is a test and they like tests because they succeed at them and they like the rewards. They plug their iPod's in and run fast. Their vision is of themselves running through pain and feeling satisfied afterwards. They have conquered the inner beast of laziness and sloth and feel and look good. Running itself is not fun, but being a good runner is fun - just like being good enough at anything to have a big ego is fun - until you get injured, or realise that perhaps you're expected to be more than just fit or fast or strong or skinny.

The third group is small. It's made up of a few people who tend to actually enjoy running.

it's easy to see just how much people's beliefs shape their experience.

All three groups are talking about "running" - but they are talking about different things. So writing about running and working with people who are interested in running involves sorting out the words and the ideas each person carries to the page or the trail. It is actually quite tricky to get someone to recognise their own conception of what running is. But once someone does see that there are other ways of imagining running it can be relatively easy to get them to experience something different. From experiencing, watching and then facilitating that experience for others, it's easy to see just how much people's beliefs shape their experience.

Why would anyone step out on a run if their basic belief was that "running = pain"?

"Motivation" is the magic pill that helps us do something we don't want to do.

But lots of people do, for all sorts of reasons - all extrinsic to the act of getting out and running. That's why there's so much written and spoken about motivation. Motivation is the magic pill that helps us do something we don't want to do. For the first group it's guilt, for the second it's ego. [If you doubt the connection with ego, think of phrases like "Pain is temporary. Glory is forever" which are a fixture in parts of the Australian athlete's psyche. There's no doubt that the pain is to be endured so that one can enjoy the ego-stroking glory of success and all the adulation and praise - not least from oneself - that goes with it.]

But what are the side effects of this magic pill? There's a tremendous amount of physical and psychological tension that builds up behind this idea. The idea that it is "my" job to make "me" do something that "I" don't want to do, that "I" find painful and distressing is a pathway to an unhealthy relationship with oneself.

So my first aim is to rid people of the ideas that they have about running and their relationship to it. If they can get to a place where they have no rigid definitions or expectations, but have instead what the Zen masters call "beginner's mind" that would be great. It is probably not possible, but I ask people to get as close as they can. The state of beginner's mind is one of emptiness and curiosity, a state where the word "running" is yet to be defined, and will be created and given meaning only with each new step. And all they know to start with is that running is meant to be enjoyable.

The other ideas are gone. In its place is the possibility of discovering that those ideas were completely wrong and it was the ideas that were preventing them from running beautifully and with joy.

And once you are there you've opened up the possibility of being in a space largely beyond "motivation". It's play, it's discovery, it's exploration, it's friendships: to go to these places requires very little or no motivation. When aren't you in the mood to play and explore with friends? Sometimes, but not often.

So if you find yourself in one of the first two groups above, I'd like you to chuck out your definition of running now. Forget it. Let go of it. You'll be a better runner for it.

Once you have done that, I'd like to welcome you to the Effortless Running Group.

Effortless Running has many different names: natural running, chi running, Zen running, mindful running, mind-body running, running by feel, the list goes on. Often associated with barefoot and minimalist shoe running, these are all trying, in one way or another, to get to a place where running feels really good.

Some of the ways named above are quite strict and prescriptive: “Hips here, arms like this, foot like that, shorter stride.” There are some benefits to this approach, especially in the short term at the beginning of your transition to being an effortless runner. Sometimes you do need someone to show you a different way to run so that you can begin to become aware of the ways you have been fighting your natural movement, which is free, light, balanced and gentle. Not running gently puts strain on joints and systems, causing you to get sore, puffed, injured and frustrated. It has an emotional content that you fight against in order to get fitter. You do indeed get fitter and stronger, but if the imbalances aren’t corrected then you are simply stretching an elastic band tighter and tighter and at some point it will snap.

if the imbalances aren’t corrected then you are simply stretching an elastic band tighter and tighter and at some point it will snap.

In order to run your best, and move well in all facets of your life, you need to both move towards balance and become “tuned in” to when you are and are not balanced and light, flowing and free. Like a musician, you first need to be able to hear the music to then be able to play it. Like being able to hear a note that is in tune, you need to be able to hear your body as it moves.

This is where I think the ideas behind Effortless Running are a step along from running methods that just give you a new set of rules to apply to your running. With strictly prescriptive running methods, you may have better form and have a better training schedule and run at the right pace or heart rate to achieve your goals, but the key relationship hasn’t changed: you are still applying rules to yourself rather than listening and developing a healthy relationship with your body, with the way it moves and feels and how you respond to it.

Effortless Running is based in observation and cultivation. Given some support to develop your insight, you observe more carefully and intently. You cultivate your awareness. You cultivate a deeper relationship with yourself, the trails, and the people you run with. Your running becomes more compassionate and spontaneous. You observe this. You become aware of this. You cultivate it, and your running becomes smoother, lighter, gentler, more efficient and more effective – both at getting you from A to B but also at giving you enjoyment.

Effortless Running, then, is about learning to run in harmony with the moods and needs of your body at each moment.

Effortless Running, then, is about learning to run in harmony with the moods and needs of your body at each moment. Effortless Running is about healing the mind-body split and building a mind-body relationship - which ends up extending into relationships with others, the environment and with time.

But it is also centred in simple daily practices of awareness, connectedness, compassion and spontaneity.

And while it’s not the goal, one of the outcomes will be that you will run further and faster than you thought possible.

Next: Effortless Running isn't easy, and being mindful isn't the same as being chilled out. 

And: Hand games to get body sense going.