Running Light

If you are a runner (or train any other sport) you will know how tantalising and difficult it is to achieve a Personal Best (PB). Sometimes months go by and it seems impossible to get even close to your previous PB. I was talking to my good friend Lisa Dobrin recently about her running. Lisa runs regularly, is a yoga practitioner and has done several marathons in. She knows how to train, but for a long while PB’s were unobtainable. 

Recently she’s switched her focus from effort or technique and started focusing on running light. She’s been ignoring pace and other measures of effort, and focussing on light footfalls, feeling light, buoyant posture and mental lightness. Lisa said it’s been a fun experiment and out of the blue she’s hit several  significant PB’s like stripping 19 seconds off her best ever 1km pace. If you are a runner, you’ll know how epic that is. 

Most interesting to me, Lisa described it as almost effortless. It got me thinking about what results we might achieve in any area of life by focusing on ‘running light’, shedding unnecessary load or effort. How could you apply that concept to your life, relationships, leadership and work? And if you are a runner looking for a different way to train for a while, it could be worth a dabble.