Coach Joe English

You are a runner. You define yourself as a runner. It’s your sport, your thing. Everyone at the office notes that you scramble out the front door in a pair of shorts and running shoes at lunch, even when its raining. They talk about the fact that you’re one of those “fit” people, perhaps with a bit of jealously in their tone.

You think about your races and are probably asked often, “so what’s your next one” and you’re only too eager to answer the question. In fact, if you get you started, you’ll talk about running all day. Your avatar on Second Life is probably wearing running shoes and your Facebook page might be tattooed with a “I do 26.2″ on it. While you’re not addicted to running, it certainly defines you in some way.

Yet, let’s put this in perspective. For all the talking, thinking, planning and day-dreaming you do about running, how much of your day is actually spent running? For the vast majority of you, you probably devote about one hour per day or less to actually running. Sure, you do long runs on the weekends that take longer than an hour and you have rest days or cross-training days too where you won’t run at all. So on-balance it probably comes out to about an hour a day.

An hour a day.

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