I'm probably going to be trying to perfect this for the rest of my life: what I call the art of Zen Running. In truth, I did not fully grasp this method of running until quite recently (and still am so far from mastering it). When I run, I have always allowed myself to find what I call the empty zone, but I never understood why it was an important practice: to quiet my mind and still the continuous flow of thoughts in my head. I'll try and put into words what I attempt to experience when the miles get thick. This will by no means do justice to the practice of this method, so you'll have to settle for my attempt at an explanation.
I think that the more a person understands, befriends and accepts their pain, the better chance he/she has of making that pain benign. Let me explain. If you can allow yourself to mentally "slip away" from the very idea of running long distance whilst doing it, you will cease to do what some call "suffer". I prefer to not think of it as suffering, but simply "what we experience". I do not mean that you should avoid thinking about the long distance of a run, but rather change the way you perceive it. If you can "slip away", you cease to be anywhere other than where you are; in the middle of what you are doing (in this case, in the middle of the very stride you are taking). Your focus is no longer on the hard road ahead, and you begin to no longer view the way forward as difficult.
Look at it in the way of time. Say that the future does not exist. If it did, you'd be able to see it, be able to interact with it. If you focus on the future, you may find yourself beginning to fear the upcoming miles. This can lead you to mental, and eventual physical defeat.
In "reality", you can only see now. You can only do now. There is a reason you say "I am running. " That is what you are doing. You will never be doing "will-be-running". Make sense? Good! What is - that's what matters. I am not negating the fact that you will and must plan for the future with your choices. I am stating that, as a runner who is absorbing the very essence of his endurance, the future does not matter. Your only focus becomes the very moment.
Looking at it from the other direction: the past does not exist in any form other than in your memory. Draw from your experiences. Your experiences exist in your mind as tools to propel you mentally and emotionally. As runners, we convert those mental and emotional drives into physical drive. The past itself has nothing to do with propelling you in any way other than psychologically, emotionally, spiritually. Thus your will and mind propel you forward physically. This is just as the wake of a ship or the jet stream of a plane do not propel the vessel forward. The visions and actions of the pilot/navigator of the boat or plane propel it, not it's physical trail/past. Your only view point should be that of the here and now. Your feelings and drives, your visions and actions come out of the now, albeit inspired by your past. If your focus is the here and now, the miles will slip by in a sort of euphoric haze. Pure bliss.
This takes a lot of work and focus. No getting around that. This is purely a state of mind I find best to be in when the miles deepen and the challenges become greater. It's a form of meditation. I am not wanting to get too deep into philosophy and spirituality. We'll leave that for another time when I am in the mood and/or under the influence of some magical substance, like oxygen. Keep training consistently and constantly.
Always searching for a new Key Experience,
-J. Brewer
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