WHY ARE RUNNERS CONCERNED WITH WHAT TO DRINK, WHAT SHOES TO WEAR, BUT NOT HOW TO RUN?

Isn't it an interesting question?

The list of runners' concerns could be easily extended, but the concern of "how to run" still would not be there. If I start teaching somebody how to drive a car from a perspective of what he is supposed to drink, which shoes he is supposed to wear and so on, but not from the point of view of technique and skill of driving a car, I wouldn't last too long as a teacher in this field, have no doubt about it.

But guess, how many people have a luxury of being a coach in running without ever paying attention to running technique? The answer is: a lot. Why it this happening? Because runners just don't care how they run, but they do care what they drink!!! They are concerned with how much mileage they run, and how tired they get, what shoes they should wear to run with more cushioning and stability, etc.

Coming back to the same question, it is interesting to look at these priorities in terms of their senselessness. We consider as our priority things which are secondary to something else, but this "something" is sometimes not "visible", illusive and even deceptive. Of course, I myself don't think so, because what could be more visible than beautiful, harmonical movement! There is only one obstacle here - you need to see it to understand what I am talking about.

Yes, not all beautiful things are "visible", even if they are always there, such as a beautiful sunset or sunrise, but in order to appreciate it, your eyes should be not only open, but also able to see it.

In comparison to this elusive beauty of movement, shoes and drinks are very tangible and in your face. They have material density, which technique doesn't have. Therefore our mind is much more inclined to accept this as our most important reality and put it on the top of our priority list. Our existing environment is very conducive to such attitude and helps you perceive the "importance" of these material things.

It is also easy to appeal to our primary needs - food, clothes, shelter, because they are so obvious and self-explanatory. Technique, on the contrary, is very elusive and not so obvious in comparison to that, it requires much more mental and emotional efforts from us to bring it to reality and achieve any benefits with it at the beginning.

So in the absence of clarity of importance of technique, it is easy to slide into something more tangible, obvious and appealing, which also doesn't require any deep understanding or perfection, any deliberate attention or action, and seems to make our run simpler. The question is only, "Is it really so?"

Why not to start thinking that the skill of doing (technique) is the real way of making our run simpler, more harmonious and beautiful and only after that start thinking about how much and what to drink, which shoes to wear and how long to run.

Dr. Romanov