Head-down running

   I wrote a blog post in "Neanderings" fairly recently entitled "Head-down walking". It described my habit of only being concerned with the five feet directly ahead of me as I walked.
   My feeling on this was that it enabled me to be a little more contemplative as I was walking and not that concerned with what was going on around me.
   I have discovered that I run pretty well the same way. I'm not sure if I should be surprised about this or not, it kind of seems to make sense when you think about it. I do tend to look farther on ahead than five feet, simply because i am travelling at a higher rate of speed. Even at that I find I'm all of the sudden on top of people I really should have seen a lot sooner. No "tramplings" so far though!

Some one running with her head down

   There's a slightly different dynamic at work with head-down running, I find. One of the advantages of this style is that you tend to surprise yourself when you get there. You're not constantly looking way off in the distance and thinking to yourself how much pain you're going to have to go through before you get there. You just plug along, maybe looking at the leaves or the sidewalk cracks, thinking about life and then, before you know it, you're there. I guess it's a way of focusing on smaller parts of a run rather than the whole thing. This seems to work better for me.
   Unfortunately, it seems to go against what seems to be the prescribed way for running. Most experts will tell you to run with your head up, it promotes better posture and breathing as you run.
   I have tried running this way for short periods and find it just as disorienting as walking with your head up. I suspect that I am not a lost cause, though, and will likely flirt with paying a little less attention to that five feet just in front of me and maybe more to where I'm actually headed.