The Soft Run

Running doesn't have to be hard

Hey, it's your pal, Seth Werkheiser. And this is The Soft Run.

You've heard of hard runs. You know what a hard run looks like. You've seen people run hard and they’re sweating, and their face is grimacing and they're making weird sounds. That's not the soft run. The soft run is what most of your runs should look like.

Most of my runs are soft runs, and that is just jogging along at a nice pace where your heart doesn't feel like it's jumping out of your chest. It's a soft run. When you're out of breath, when your heart is beating too heavy, you're going a little fast. So you slow down and you notice some birds and the creek bubbling.

And if that's too fast, if you're thinking “this sucks, this hurts,” then you just walk and walking's nice. Walking allows you time to notice a chipmunk or to stop and say hello to a pupper. Take some photos of the clouds. That's the soft run.

“Running rewards consistency” is something I see a lot of runner folk say on the social media channels. You can't get better at running if you're hurt and usually you get hurt from overdoing it when you're out there running hard. When you're a newbie runner and you're like, “I'm going to do Hill repeats because I've seen a YouTube video talking about how that's going to make me faster.” That's not what you need to be doing .

As a good friend of mine told me over burritos in New York city a long time ago when I started running (hello, Brandi), she told me just worry about time on your feet because your body has to get used to running. Running's hard, running puts jolts of force into your ankles, and your foot bones, and your knees, and your hips.

Not to mention from the waist up, you got to have your back and core muscles engaged to keep you upright. You gotta keep your shoulders back, because you don't want to hunch over, which inhibits your ability to consume oxygen apparently.

There's a lot of factors, so slow down, take it easy. It's a soft run.

In the meantime, tell your friends.