Zen – Grass – Running

Zen: self-realization through meditation. “Try the meditation of the trail, just walk along looking at the trail at your feet and don’t look about and just fall into a trance as the ground zips by." – Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums.

Grass: Tall trees will break if forced, but the grass blade will bend and survive. - Buddhist proverb.

Running: Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees, we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain. ― Christopher McDougall, Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.

Zen-Grass-Running is the way I describe how I run in order to slip as soon as possible into my personal, zen-like running "sweet spot", which I can maintain for hours, leaving me as rejuvenated and refreshed after 10km as I am after 20.

Zen-Grass-Running is best achieved at a physiologically optimal 180bpm cadence, using a low-impact forefoot "glide" and in minimal shoes or barefoot. Heartrate is maintained at an unstressed 75-80%. There is no strained breathing - Zen-Grass-Running is carried out at a tempo which permits breathing in through the nose, out through the mouth. In Zen-Grass-Running there is no competition, and there are no records - there is only being and doing.

Having trained Tenshinkan karate for about 5 years, I began to understand some its principles: to counter an attack like the grass counters wind by bending. I have transferred the same principles to my running, by countering the effects of distance and strain to the body by running as efficiently as possible, using "natural running" techniques.

After-run stretching comprises a Karate kata such as Heian Nidan, carried out in slow-motion (count ichi - ni - san - chi - go between each movement), or Tai-Chi. Kata are fomalised movements of attack, defense and evasion, in which every positioning of the body focuses on the current state as well as the coming state. As such, slow Kata are excellent to train balance, fluidity and awareness (key elements of Zen-Grass-Running) while stretching all the muscle groups both dynamically as well as statically.

Finally, there are no rules in Zen-Grass-Running - the above merely outline my experiences. This blog is my record of my own personal journey into Zen-Grass-Running. If you already are a runner I hope you find something useful in it. If you are beginning running, I hope you find the open road as inspirational as I do!