Last evolution phase?

I know, it has been forever since I posted but better late than never, right.  Well, I am in the last phase of the 10 yr. running cycle I've referred to constantly being years 8-10 (a runner friend of mine refers to this as the "smooth it out" phase when the body makes some final last tweaks as you truly become an efficient runner).  I've been running injury free for the last 5 years but now I can feel my body take the next step to become even a more efficient and productive runner and my body feels absolutely amazing.

To this point, I was tested again and long and behold my foot strike has changed slightly from slight under-pronation to a neutral foot strike.  Of course, with a neutral foot strike you still pronate but the fine line between pronating and under-pronating is an important and critical distinction.  So what has changed?  It's simple and I know what it is.  It's "Relaxation," plain and simple.  I run completely relaxed and that has resulted in the slight change in foot strike.  In fact, there's hardly any wear and tear on the soles of my shoes in the spots that would indicate under or over-pronation . . . the wear and tear is that of a neutral foot striker.

I'm not sure how I arrived here but within the past 3-4 months, I've been thinking more about being relaxed, regardless of the pace, whether warm-up or race pace.  I've also been thinking about Fred Rohe and his writing "The Zen of Running" and how he preaches about always being relaxed and never running with stress or pushing too hard.  For me, it's about comfortably hard running but also being totally relaxed and if I need to push too hard which, by the way, results in a dramatic increase in impact forces, I find that relaxed mode and I run as hard as I can provided I'm relaxed . . . anything faster that results in me not being relaxed is something I don't do anymore . . . if I feel the impact forces are too high, my arms are tight, breathing not controlled, etc., then I re-focused and find that relaxed rhythm and stay in that zone.  By the way, the more relaxed, the faster I run comfortably, however, there's a limit how fast you can run relaxed . . . if I have to push off harder then that's the zone I do not enter anymore.  As a result, I feel tremendous and every muscle and tendon feels great (for example, I can squeeze and pinch both achilles tendons with no pain or discomfort whatsoever . . . that's what I'm talking about).

I'm all about Running Relaxed.

Happy trails.

Me