Zen and the Art of Running: The path to making peace with your pace by Larry Shapiro (2009).
Want to add a little Zen to your running? This book might just be for you. The focus isn’t on running form or improving your results, though it does include some elements of this. The focus instead is on maximising the joy that is running through training the mind. It’s about being in the moment and being acutely aware of the world around.
I started my own journey into mindfulness a number of years ago now. I was finding things tough – my stress levels were through the roof, my sleep was poor, I was well and truly a miserable git. The route I took was through Buddhist practice (though I’m not a Buddhist, more agnostic). What appealed is that for me, it brought a much larger tradition and philosophical approach to the practice of mindfulness.
This is why I was excited to read this book. I read it first a number of years ago when I first started running. And it is a book I keep coming back to.
What more can I learn? About myself, about running, and about mindfulness and finding The Middle Path? You see, I’m really familiar with how my thoughts affect my running and life in general. I can’t speak for others but I know that getting stuck in those negative ‘thought loops’ is not a nice place to be, and when it’s on a run, it results in a ‘bad run’.
This book is good for runners. It’s particularly good for those of us who:
- have the occasional motivational issue – I’m tired; the weather is awful etc.
- can find it tough finding the time – finding balance with everything else going on in life
- have difficulty enjoying the routes on offer – busy roads and streets
- looking for greater fulfilment from running
- seeking a training programme that fits – what will work best for me to ensure good performance while remaining free of injury
- want to enjoy racing – what, enjoy racing?
- have been slowed by ageing or injuries – no comment….
There’s a fair amount of finding The Middle Path. Applying this to training is finding the balance between when to push and when to go slow; that for some, 30-40 miles can lead to a good marathon outcome, for others, they thrive when doing much more. It’s applying The Middle Path to your own experience and finding the right balance in what works for you.
So how does this work? Let’s say it’s shitty weather outside. It’s cold and raining heavily. You’ve got a run scheduled. You look out the window, your shoulders slump at the thought of it. You hate the rain, and the cold, but you live in the UK. This is an opportunity to make clear your thoughts and emotions – towards running, towards the cold, and towards the rain – and recognise them as thoughts. OK, so getting a little deep here …
Having done this stuff for a while (though I still have so much to learn), I now know that some of my most memorable runs have been in torrential downpours. On one such run, I was running down a footpath along a busy road after work. I was tired and it was cold. A car sped by and a wave of water came my way. I was drenched pretty much on the entirety of my left side. Now I could’ve shouted, I could’ve got angry. Instead, I chose a different response. I laughed. I was already wet from the rain, what’s a little more water? And I still remember that moment and that run – it was years ago now!
And this approach is much more about just running. It’s the lessons that can be learned and applied to life more generally. While I still can be a miserable git, and those nasty thought loops can still get in the way, practices such as those set out in Zen and the Art of Running, have helped to shape my experiences, for the better, as a runner.
So if you’re interested in bringing more to your running, and how you think about your running, this might just be the book for you.
Happy reading!