I Love LSD!

Long Slow Distance!!! and not the psychedelic drug Lysergic acid dyethylamide. Yeah, I had to look that up. LSD is the best way to train injury free. It's worked well for Ed Whitlock, now in his early seventies, and running really well.

Normal distance running training is difficult. Even Haile Gebrselassie, on retirement after not being able to complete the 2010 New York Marathon said the phrase hard training a number of times. Paul Tergat, a marathon legend also talks about the extremely dedicated hard work they do to prepare for endurance runs. And there's nothing wrong with hard, tough training. Except, at a certain point in time, when your body can no longer take it, when you're weary of the hard training and recovery from injury takes longer, then most distance athletes stop. Not slow down, they stop. Training ends, competition ends, and life slows down.

But for those of us that have chosen running as a lifestyle and not as a career with an end-date, then running is something that you do comfortably and enjoyably, like eating, strolling, enjoying time off and relaxing.

And those benefits come with LSD!

Long

Get outside, spend some time. Quality time. Have time, don't be in a rush. Like the clock above, the hands have been stripped off. You're not watching the clock because you have all the time in the world. Nothing is rushing you back. You've dedicated at least an hour, better two, to be outside with yourself.

Slow

Take your time. Don't exert yourself. Well, don't over-exert yourself. It's breezy and calm. You move easily and slowly, carefully and consciously putting one foot in front of the other. Feeling and remembering each step, to slow yourself even further. Imagine yourself slowing down, like the six million dollar man, in slow motion. You're barely breathing because it's so simple and slow. You feel weightless.

Distance

Go far. Don't worry about how far you are away. Long mileage. 10 K is for beginners, you tell yourself. You're used to chewing up the road. You're invincible. Your slow gait, your upright poise, step after step after step, moving purposely forward, further away, time slows down to a stop and everything around you stops moving, but you're surging ahead. You're not calculating the distance, but well aware of how far you've travelled. You know how far away you are and keep moving further. Life is motion and motion means moving ahead. Moving further and further away. Don't stop till you have to when you're completely spent. The tank is empty but not painfully so. Run far.